When it comes to her workout routine, Jessica Biel seems to have an enviable mantra: Can’t stop, won’t stop.
The actor regularly inspires fans with videos of her intense sweat sessions and she exhibits laser focus while executing tricky moves like single-leg pistol squats.
It appears nothing can distract Biel from her fitness goals — not even her husband, Justin Timberlake, who has been known to bust a move to make her laugh while she’s working out.
Wondering where the star’s dedication to fitness comes from and how she stays red carpet ready? Here’s everything the 42-year-old has said about her workout routine and diet.
Yoga is a big part of her life
Yoga can help tone and strengthen your body, but it can also refresh your mind, and that’s one of the many reasons Biel was initially drawn to yoga in her twenties.
“I was searching for my identity as a person, and what defines me,” she told Women’s Health. “And yoga became a space where I can really touch back into myself and my spirituality.”
The star quickly found a sense of community while attending classes and she continues to practice yoga 20-30 minutes each day when she can.
“It’s become so much more than an exercise—more of a stress reliever and a life calmer,” she said. “It just helps me with everything that I have to do in my life.”
Of course, Biel also enjoys the physical benefits of yoga and told Elle it keeps her muscles “long and flexible.”
The actor has dabbled in several forms of yoga, including Ashtanga yoga, a practice that emphasizes synchronized breath and movement.
“You put in effort to learn and memorize all these movements, and then you can be in almost a completely meditative state when you’re going through the process, because you’re going at your own pace and the speed of your own breath,” she told Self in 2018. “It’s been a wonderful way to practice my at-home yoga.”
She loves working out with her husband and sons
Finding the motivation to go to the gym is a lot easier when you’re working out with someone else. Luckily for Biel, her husband is a ready and willing exercise partner.
“We’ll work with a trainer and just do different circuits and do different types of cardio training or sprinting, just different things depending on what we’re working on and goals we’re trying to hit at the time,” she told Self in 2018.
Biel told Women’s Health she adores exercising with her hubby, saying, it’s “so much more fun to do it with someone else.”
The couple’s two sons also get in on the action from time to time.
“We work out together a ton,” Biel told Women’s Health.
The actor’s trainer will teach her eldest son, Silas, a modified version of his parents’ routine and will have her youngest son, Phineas, stretch or walk on the treadmill.
“He’ll give Silas what he’s doing, Justin’s doing something, I’m doing something,” she said. “We’re all doing it together and it’s really fun.”
She avoids workout ruts by trying a variety of exercises
Yoga holds a special place in Biel’s heart, but she also enjoys switching things up and trying different workouts, including boxing, martial arts, snowboarding, hiking and more.
“I love working out with a trainer, doing circuit work and strengthening. I think the lengthening and internal breathing you get from yoga, (in addition to) strength training of weights and circuits and cardiovascular, to me that’s the perfect combination,” she told Women’s Health in 2018.
Her squat game is on point
Squats seem to be Biel’s workout superpower and the fitness buff has shown off her perfect form on several occasions.
In 2018, Biel tried her hand at single-leg pistol squats and totally nailed the tricky move.
The following year, Biel mastered the art of skater squats and her personal trainer Ben Bruno showed off her handiwork on Instagram as she performed six reps.
“This is just nuts. This isn’t something we did one time for the video either; this was her third set and I have her do these routinely. It’s really a wonder she hasn’t fired me yet,” he captioned the post.
She tailors her training based on her current goals
Biel certainly has go-to workouts that she loves, but she often switches up her training depending on the project she’s working on or a goal she wants to achieve.
For instance, the star walked a lot with a 30-pound backpack on an incline when she hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2010 to raise awareness about the global water crisis.
“I also tried to spend as much time in altitude as I possibly could, which was really key. Altitude really affects you in weird ways,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Before the 2024 Met Gala, Biel focused on arm moves such as tricep pushdowns and lat pull-downs so she could highlight certain features based on her outfit. Additionally, the star snuck in plenty of cardio, squats and lunges before the event.
“What I’m wearing will be all upper body-exposed, like arms, collarbone, shoulders, upper back, lats,” she told Women’s Health. “There’s an emphasis on just toning there.”
She doesn’t mind staying up late to work out
Biel prefers to work out in the morning to “get it out of the way,” she told Self. However, she’s not opposed to nighttime sweat sessions.
“I’ve definitely been known to be in the gym late night, even 10 or 11 p.m. Keep in mind, that is ‘late night’ for me these days,” she said.
When she’s working out at night, Biel usually opts for a circuit workout or yoga.
“Sometimes, you just gotta do it and fit it in when you can,” she said.
She sticks to ‘boring’ but effective fitness tricks
When it comes to fitness, there’s no such thing as a magic trick to whip us all into shape. But we can learn a thing or two from Biel’s simple, yet smart fitness habits.
“For me, getting enough sleep, drinking lots of water, having a healthy diet, and staying away from alcohol are musts. It’s so boring, I know, but doing those things really helps,” she told Elle in 2011.
Her perspective on fitness has evolved
With age comes wisdom, and Biel has shifted her mindset on fitness over time.
“When I was in my twenties, it was important to me how much I could bench press and how ripped my shoulders are, and all that stuff is less important to me now,” she told Women’s Health in 2024. “What’s important to me now is mobility. I don’t want to be living with pain.”
For this reason, the actor is a fan of Pilates since it helps gain strength and enhance joint health.
Her diet is all about ‘balance’
Too much of a good thing is never great, and Biel told the Los Angeles Times her diet mantra is all about “creating a balance.”
“I just try to eat really healthy. I mean, of course I have cheat-days and will go out and have, like, cookies and pizza. If I’m training maybe I up the protein intake…. I don’t do so much eating for training unless I’m really training for something specific,” she said in 2017.
Biel did acknowledge that she feels “better” when she avoids gluten, wheat and dairy.
“My digestion is better, I feel better, I have more energy,” she said.
The star also tries to load up on greens from her home garden and said she enjoys making salads with spinach, radishes and other healthy options.
“If I’m home for lunch, I run out to the garden and grab some leaves and throw together a quick salad, maybe throw some quinoa in there or something, or I like these veggie burgers that you can get from Whole Foods or Erewhon and you can grill it up and throw it on top with some nuts… and then some kind of snack during the day — maybe gluten-free pretzels with this really yummy almond cheese dip. It almost tastes like cream cheese, but no dairy,” she said.
She encourages her kids to eat healthy but isn’t unreasonable
Getting kids to eat their fruits and vegetables can be a struggle, but Biel is trying to lead by example.
“We all eat healthy — I mean, we try to. Silas (her oldest son) is a kid, so sometimes he doesn’t want to eat that broccoli or eat that spinach, so you go, ‘All right, pasta it is,’ or ‘French fries it is,’” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Biel and Timberlake try their best to encourage their kids to eat healthy foods, but they’re also not militant on the matter.
“We were talking about it yesterday and Justin said, ‘Do our kids need to eat more vegetables?’” she recently told Women’s Health. “I was like, ‘Yeah, but everybody kind of needs to eat more vegetables! Everyone in the whole world.’”
