From her 75-lb. weight loss to having a baby via surrogate, Rebel Wilson has been open about her health journey. Now, the Pitch Perfect star is sitting down with Prevention to talk about the serious injury that led to her prioritizing her health, her go-to workouts, and the fitness products she swears by for crushing her goals.
Before we get into the catalyst for her wellness journey, we should point out that Wilson has been big on walking for a while—in fact, the Pitch Perfect star has previously credited the simple (and free!) exercise during her self-declared “year of health” in 2020.
Today, it’s still a major part of her daily fitness routine, she tells Prevention. “I like to do some kind of physical activity in the morning, whether it’s personal training—which I know not everybody can do—or my favorite thing is going for a walk outside,” she shares.
The actress says she aims to get in 60 minutes of walking every day. “I normally like doing it in the morning and just getting your body moving,” she says. “And I’ve been to a lot of fancy health retreats and stuff, and part of the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that literally just walking—it doesn’t even have to be fast-paced, it can be very mild and I’m not like the fastest walker—it’s just got so many health benefits.”
As it turns out, Wilson has multiple pairs of shoes she wears on her daily walks (“I have like 50 pairs of sneakers and they like, explode out of the closet,” she says), but there’s one go-to pair that she relies on for ultimate comfort: the Athletic Propulsion Labs Women’s TechLoom Bliss sneakers, which are the brand’s lightest shoe with a slip-on design, in the black and white color way. “I just got APLs because they’re so comfortable,” she says. “They seem like they’re like really popular. They’re just like really comfortable sneakers.” (Reviewers agree, too, raving that they’re “super lightweight” and “feel like walking on a cloud.”)
In addition to APL, Wilson says she also loves cross-training sneakers from Nike as they “feel really soft on your feet” and don’t tend to cause blisters. “I have really the world’s most sensitive, soft skin. I can get blisters really easily,” she says.
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Prior to discovering her love of walking and “overhauling” her fitness routine, however, Wilson suffered a concussion on the set of her movie Isn’t It Romantic when she slipped and fell on a grassy hill and briefly lost consciousness. But instead of resting up after her hospital evaluation, she chose to return to work—and went on to complete a 16-hour shoot day.
“I felt guilty or something, like I was letting people down,” she recalls, explaining that she thought the concussion was something she could just “walk off.” Consequently, she started experiencing symptoms like headaches, nausea, fatigue, and tension in her neck and shoulders that “lasted for like three days, quite intensely.”
It’s a decision she regrets to this day—and it’s why now, five years later, she’s teamed up with Abbott and the Brain Injury Association of America on a new campaign called Concussion Awareness Now, which aims to highlight the seriousness of concussions and the importance of seeking medical care after a head injury.
“Why I love this concussion campaign is because really the main message of it is, if something happens to your head, if you hit your head, get it checked out,” she says. “Because it’s about valuing yourself and valuing your body and your brain is such an important part of your body.”
As for how she’s valuing her body—and her brain—now, five years after her accident? Besides taking walks and exercising every day, Wilson says that she prioritizes her mental health by performing meditations with the “Calm” app, taking OLLY Goodbye Stress gummies on particularly overwhelming days, and relaxing in a bath using Dr. Teal’s Pure Epsom Salt Soak (specifically the “Relax and Relief” solution with eucalyptus and spearmint essential oils).
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“I find having a bath at night and submerging in water is kind of really helpful, and then you put like Epsom salts and stuff, it relaxes your muscles as well. So it’s a really nice natural way to relax,” she says.
Associate Commerce Editor at Prevention
Hannah Jeon is an Associate Commerce Editor at Prevention, where she covers expert-driven commerce content for all things health, beauty, and wellness. Previously the Editorial Assistant at Good Housekeeping, she earned her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and psychology from Johns Hopkins University. When she’s not on the hunt for all the best products online, you can often find her trying out new food spots in New York City or clicking away behind a camera.
MONDAY, May 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Some folks like to count their daily steps, while others prefer exercising for a certain amount of time during a day or a week.
Luckily, either approach boosts health, a new study finds.
Exercise targets based on either step count or minutes are equally associated with lower risks of premature death and heart disease, researchers report in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Given this, personal preferences probably are key when setting up an exercise plan, researchers said.
“For some, especially for younger individuals, exercise may involve activities like tennis, soccer, walking, or jogging, all of which can be easily tracked with steps,” said lead author Dr. Rikuta Hamaya, a researcher with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Preventive Medicine in Boston.
“However, for others, it may consist of bike rides or swimming, where monitoring the duration of exercise is simpler,” Hamaya added in a hospital news release.
Current U.S. exercise guidelines focus on minutes – at least 150 minutes weekly of moderate to vigorous physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity.
But smartwatches have made it easier than ever to track step counts, raising the question of whether steps would be better suited for setting exercise goals, researchers said.
“We recognized that existing physical activity guidelines focus primarily on activity duration and intensity but lack step-based recommendations,” Hamaya said.
“With more people using smartwatches to measure their steps and overall health, we saw the importance of ascertaining how step-based measurements compare to time-based targets in their association with health outcomes – is one better than the other?” Hamaya added.
For this new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 14,000 women participating in the national Women’s Health Study.
Between 2011 and 2015, participants 62 and older were asked to wear motion trackers for seven days in a row to record their physical activity, only removing the devices for sleep or water-related activities, researchers said.
On average, the participants engaged in an average of 62 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, and accumulated nearly 5,200 steps per day.
During an average follow-up of nine years, approximately 9% of participants died and 4% developed heart disease, results show.
The most active women had 30% to 40% lower risk of death or heart disease, regardless of whether minutes or steps were counted, researchers found.
Further, women whose physical activity levels fell within the top three-quarters outlived those in the bottom quarter by an average of 2.2 months based on minutes and 2.3 months based on steps.
The survival advantage persisted regardless of differences in body-mass index, researchers noted.
Either steps or minutes have advantages and disadvantages when it comes to tracking exercise goals, Hamaya said.
Step counts can differ significantly between a 20-year-old and an 80-year-old who walk for 30 minutes at moderate intensity, Hamaya noted.
On the other hand, steps are straightforward to measure and less subject to interpretation compared to time-based exercise intensity, researchers said.
Steps also capture the physical activity contained in everyday living, not just the time spent in exercise. That’s the type of activity most common among older folks, researchers said.
“That’s why it’s important for physical activity guidelines to offer multiple ways to reach goals,” Hamaya said. “Movement looks different for everyone, and nearly all forms of movement are beneficial to our health.”
More information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more on physical activity guidelines for Americans.
SOURCE: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, news release, May 20, 2024
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – If you’ve been following along with us and doing your back exercises, It might be time for some recovery.
On this week’s Your Fitness, Adam from Gainesville Health and Fitness shows us stretches to help take care of your shoulders.
RELATED: Gainesville Health and Fitness: Rowing Exercises
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BATON ROUGE – Starting June 1, teens ages 14-19 can work out for free at their home Planet Fitness locations.
By preregistering through PF’s Summer Pass program, teenagers can stay active throughout the summer with no additional fees.
The program will run through the end of August. Planet Fitness has run its summer program for four years.
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