Wednesday Wellness: Just like Jessica

When you think of beautiful women in Hollywood, one girl that absolutely must come to mind is Jessica Biel. The spunky brunette has been gorgeous since her days on 7th Heaven, and has only gotten more so as time has gone on. That beauty however, has not come without a LOT of work, discipline, and dedication both to her diet, and to her intensive work out routine.

Jessica Biel’s Workout:

- Stretch: One of her favorite warm-ups is the walking lunge. How-to: With feet together, lunge first with right leg. Bring left foot alongside right. Lunge with left. Do 8-10 per leg.

- Cardio: Cardio is arguably the most important part of any workout.. After a ½-mile jog, she hits the track for two 200-meter, 150-meter and 100-meter sprints.

- Core: Jessica does hanging leg-raises to tone and flatten her tummy. How-to: Hanging from a high bar or rings, pull knees up slightly above waist. Do three sets of 15 repetitions.

- Plyometrics: For the record: I’ve done these, they flipping suck but they’re awesome as well. How-to: Jump from the bottom step of a flight of at least 20 stairs to the third. Keep going, skipping a stair each jump.

- Weight Training: Ms. Biel does a lot of light-weight work, with high repetitions. This allows for a toning rather than a building of muscle and combined with speed is also a decent cardio workout.

- For the waist: She does the Russian Twist. Sit down and lean back slightly. Hold a 5-lb. medicine ball and twist from side to side, 15 twists per side, three reps.

- For shoulders/biceps: Stand with knees slightly bent. Hold 10-lb. weights in each hand. Curl to chest. Rotate hands, palms face outward. Press overhead together. Do 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Jessica Biel’s Diet:

- “Clean foods”— those that aren’t processed—are on the menu Jason Walsh, Jessica’s trainer created. “She eats complex carbs at the beginning of the day,” he says, “and tapers off by the end.”

- Breakfast: 1 cup of oatmeal with handful of berries.

- Snack: 1 slice whole wheat toast, 1-1 ½ tbsp. of almond butter and sliced bananas on top.

- Lunch: Salad with 5-6 oz of chicken, vinaigrette dressing.

- Snack: A banana, apple or strawberries.

- Dinner: 6oz. of fish, plate full of veggies, 1/2 cup of low-glycemic basmati rice. Sweets A couple of pieces of dark chocolate.

The above information is from an interview Mr. Walsh did with People. However it is also important to note that Ms. Biel also lives an active lifestyle; she jogs, plays volleyball, all kinds of things that burn calories but are not directly a planned “work-out”. It should also be noted that on five different sites discussing this topic, five completely different routines and diets were good; I chose to use the above because out of the five websites I read it seemed the most realistic and healthy.

Also check out a video of Ms. Biel discussing the Blade 3 Workout (She looked ridiculously awesome in that movie): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tISVO9CcEBQ

Source for workout/diet information: http://www.fitsugar.com/117770