Jessica Biel Opens Up About Viral TikTok and Fitness Routine
The internet can’t seem to keep Jessica Biel’s name out of its mouth. Thanks to the buzz around her white dress ensemble in “The Better Sister,” everyone and their mother is dying to know her workout routine. But last month, Biel took to TikTok to address the fact that her onscreen physique is “not maintainable.” The clip went viral — proof that society appreciates it when celebrities are transparent about their bodies.
I got to pull back the curtain even more when I sat down with Biel (virtually!) for a conversation in late July. And of course, we discussed the viral moment and what it meant to her. “I got to tell people the truth,” she tells me. “I don’t look like that all the time. And that was the point in that video . . . I was trying to maintain a particular shape and form for that one character, and then I can’t live like that all the time.”
“I worked really hard for that moment. That was not just like, ‘Oh look, I woke up [like that].'”
“I just wanted everybody to understand, OK, I’m proud of that moment,” Biel says. “I worked really hard for that moment. That was not just like, ‘Oh look, I woke up [like that].’ No, no, I was training for months for that show, for that shoot.”
As a wife, mother, and busy professional (Biel started a children’s medicine brand, KinderFarms, when she couldn’t find the OTC medicine options she wanted for her own kids), she too struggles to find the time to fit everything in — including her workouts.
These days, Biel isn’t training like she did for her role in “The Better Sister.” Her real routine? It’s all about feeling good in her body and finding balance. “Exercise and physical [movement] is really good for me mentally. That gets me out of my head and into my body. That helps a lot. But I’m also really trying to incorporate a nice meditation practice,” Biel says. In particular, meditations have helped her whenever she’s feeling “anxiety or panicky.” She’s even suffered from vertigo during really stressful moments, which is very scary, she says. In those moments, she’s worked to find “a grounding practice and getting out of my head . . . when things feel like you’re out of control.”
Biel likes to mix it up when it comes to her workout routine, weaving in strength training, cardio, and mobility work. “One day I’d like to do Pilates and then in the next opportunity I have, I would switch it up to a circuit training where I’m using full body, mobility, flexibility,” she says. Other times, she’s on the treadmill, hitting the assault bike, or working in some cardio. “For me, it’s like a mental thing and it feels great, and I like to switch it up,” she says.
The true mainstay in Biel’s fitness routine, though, is Pilates. “I love Pilates. . . . I’ve been doing Pilates for years,” she says. “That is something that I’m going to keep doing my entire life. It just works for me. I really think that’s an amazing addition to [my fitness routine].” But she also adds that she would never just do Pilates alone. She prefers to incorporate into a well-rounded routine (honestly, same).
For Biel, it all goes back to balance. “The reality for me is, I’m getting older, my body’s 43 years old . . . I’ve had some wear and tear at this point in my life,” she says. “And when I am flexible and I have mobility and I’m out of pain, that’s when I feel the strongest. When I feel like, ‘Oh, I can move with my kids. I can live my life and I’m not aching’ — that’s where I find I’m in a really, really good place.”
Mercey Livingston is a writer and editor with eight-plus years of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition for media outlets and brands including Well+Good, Shape, and Women’s Health. She was the fitness editor at Peloton and held editorial roles at Equinox, Shape, and Well+Good. Mercey is a NASM-certified personal trainer and women’s fitness specialist. She’s also a certified holistic health coach through the Institute For Integrative Nutrition, with an additional certification in hormone health.
