From prolonged lifespan to decreased risk of osteoporosis, the physical benefits of exercise are well documented. But the wealth of good it does for the mind cannot be ignored, either, with research showing that activity is associated with improved mood and depression symptoms.
On World Mental Health Day, WH rounds up 11 of its favourite leading ladies who rely on movement to manage a myriad of mental hurdles. Using it to cope with anxiety and stress, improve sleep, or feel more in control of their lives and boost their confidence, to name a few, these A-listers prove that fitness is about way more than just reaching an aesthetic goal. Plus, they share some of their favourite ways to sweat it out, and their workout schedules, too.
1.Adele
The ‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer, 36, has been very vocal about using fitness to help her manage her mental health. ‘It was because of my anxiety. Working out, I would just feel better,’ she tells British Vogue.
‘The gym was key’, according to American Vogue. ‘It became my time. I realised that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight. I thought, “If I can make my body physically strong, and I can feel that and see that, then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong.”‘
In British Vogue, Adele is more specific about her (high) workout frequency: ‘I work out two or three times a day. So I do my weights in the morning, then I normally hike or I box in the afternoon, and then I do my cardio at night.’
However, she acknowledges that it was quite an unrealistic routine for the average person: ‘I was basically unemployed when I was doing it. And I do it with trainers. It’s not doable for a lot of people.’
2. Davina McCall
Indomitable WH cover star Davina, 56, is a true health and fitness aficionado, having released countless workout DVDs over the years and launching her own online platform, Own Your Goals, or ‘OYG’, in 2019.
As one of the UK’s most forceful menopause campaigners, she’s also played a prominent part in bringing the conversation around this life stage into the mainstream, underscoring both its physical and mental effects in her acclaimed documentary, Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and the Menopause.
‘I lost myself,’ she says of the ‘dark place’ she found herself in during her early to mid-forties when her symptoms began. Speaking in her second WH cover interview, she reveals: ‘Broken sleep and brain fog, emotional, a bit all over the place, and I was frightened.’
Fitness, already a way of life, therefore became even more crucial in her fifties than it did in her twenties and thirties. ‘It’s not just to get in the bikini. It’s to stay alive longer, and I really enjoy the way that it helps my head stay clear of negativity. It’s just a win-win in every sense.’
In a recent Instagram video where she commented on the BBC Panorama episode, The Menopause Industry Uncovered, she notes the importance of forming good habits, including fitness, to help her manage symptoms: ‘I wholly advocate lifestyle choices as being very important. Food, exercise, sleep, all of these things are really important’.
Speaking to Roman Kemp on Benenden Health x Channel 4, she continues, ‘Exercise is key. You always come out thinking, “I feel amazing”‘. She emphasises how important it is ‘to get into nature’ and stay active outdoors, even if that means being ‘outside in a city’ rather than the countryside.
As for her routine, she reveals her approach in her WH interview: ‘Four or five times a week is my preference, and I do try to do 45 to 60 minutes’, mapping out her schedule for the week ahead on a whiteboard. An evening session might be 20 minutes on a treadmill, followed by 20 minutes of strength or Pilates training’.
3. Jameela Jamil
Having recently launched the ‘Move for your Mind’ movement, activist and presenter Jameela puts on fitness events ‘ONLY focusing on the brain’. Featuring neurologists and inclusive trainers, it’s ‘dopamine’, ‘happy chemicals and good vibes only.’
‘Mental health is the biggest benefit of exercise, and you don’t have to wait six months for it to show; it’s immediate’, she elucidates.
Resenting that fitness has become a sometimes ‘alienating culture’, Jameela, 38, reminds the audience on an episode of Live with Kelly and Mark of its myriad benefits, including ‘all of the endorphins, the way that you sleep better, the way you feel more in control of your life. It’s so vital.’
Speaking to Yahoo earlier this year, she elaborates on getting ready for her role as Titania in the Marvel universe, which saw her exercising five days a week ‘to learn thing like better balance and more strength, agility and flexibility. It made me have this newfound respect for my body’. On Instagram, she confirms that ‘it changed my mental health’.
Even though she wouldn’t necessarily return to such an intense regime again, she acknowledges that it made her rely less on her medication, including sleeping aids, which she’d been taking since she was 11: ‘I personally came down on anti-anxiety pills. I also wasn’t taking sleeping pills anymore.’
On top of that, she says movement in general ‘has stopped me from having so many arguments…[and] it’s massively reduced my nerves. I always walk before I have to give a speech or go to a dinner party I’m nervous about, because I’m quite socially anxious. Mostly…I just have a clearer head.’
4. Tess Daly
Strictly’s star presenter credits her fitness regime with helping her stay healthy in body and mind. ‘Mentally I find it really beneficial because when you’re working out, you’re completely in the moment, with no distractions, which in itself is a mindful exercise,’ she said in an interview with WH.
‘It’s how I feel after a workout that’s the main benefit. You can’t beat that endorphin high – it just makes me feel able to tackle the day better.’
‘We usually train in the morning to get her ready to take on her day with a winning mindset after smashing training,’ her PT Sam Shaw tells WH.
‘We focus on keeping Tess’ core, back, glutes and all muscles as strong a possible,’ he continues, noting that they concentrate on functional training that ‘gives her the energy for rushing around on set at Strictly as well as taking on everyday tasks at home.’
He shares a sample exercise schedule:
- Monday AM: Stretch, 15/20 mins run on treadmill
- Tuesday AM: Gym session, 60 mins
- Wednesday: Rest day
- Thursday AM: Gym session, 60 mins
- Friday AM: Yoga session
- Saturday AM: Run or yoga (depending on how her body feels)
- Sunday: Rest day
5. Michelle Keegan
WH darling cover girl and protagonist of Netflix’s Fool Me Once, 37, shared a few years ago with Daily Record that she suffered from anxiety, especially ‘over little things’, and felt like an ‘imposter’ in her career.
Fitness helps her to stay calm. ‘I use breathing techniques, or I go to the gym. That always helps me. I sweat it out and feel better and lighter,’ she said.
Elaborating on exercise’s benefits, she explains to WH: ‘When I’ve done some sort of workout or a walk, something active, is when I feel most confident. Not body-wise; more for my state of mind and my mental health. If I work out in the morning, it sets me up for the rest of the day and I feel like I’ve got more of a spring in my step.’
6. Alexandra Burke
The X Factor winner, 36, credits exercise with helping her process her mum’s death in 2017 and work through her anxiety.
Captioning an Instagram post a few years ago, she shares: ‘I get asked so many times why I work out so much… 💪🏾 Well, truth be told, it’s not about how it makes me look – it’s about how it makes me FEEL. I turned to fitness as a way of an escape in 2017 when my mum left.. it’s helped with my anxiety and I haven’t had a panic attack in what feels like a long time.. that’s a big win for me.
‘The best therapy for me has always been either writing in my diary or working out.
And of course long walks with my doggies… 🐾🐶’
As a Strictly 2017 finalist, she also says dance provided psychological relief. ‘When I was younger, [dance] always made me feel like the world was my oyster and I could accomplish anything – and that’s how I felt with Strictly’, she tells Hello.
‘I like to keep fit and feel good, so I know dancing – and exercise – does that for me, plus it helps with my mental health. I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, but if I know I am stressed I will go for a run.’
The pop star occasionally lets us catch a glimpse of her fitness routine:
This particular routine comprised:
Bicep curls x 10
Hammer curls x 10
Frontal raises x 10
Lateral raises x 8
Upright row x 8
Arnold press x 10
Chest press x 10
Repeat x 4 times!
7. Ellie Goulding
The ‘Starry Eyed’ singer, 37, has often struggled with various aspects of her mental health, which she elucidates upon when speaking to The New Zealand Herald. She nearly quit music after 10 years of touring left her with crippling anxiety: ‘I get such chronic anxiety…[that] has dictated quite a lot of my life and career, and I feel sad about that.’
After having her son, it became even more debilitating. ‘I struggled daily, nightly, hourly with a kind of panic I didn’t even know existed’.
At first, she found solace in exercise. ‘Running (for fitness) was such a good way to… honestly, I owe it to that to staying sort of relatively sane’.
However, her daily half-hour runs quickly turned into a crutch and then an addiction. Ellie reveals in her memoir, Fitter. Calmer. Stronger. A Mindful Approach to Exercise and Nutrition, that she ‘suddenly woke up’ and ‘change[d] course’.
Here are the shifts she made:
- Slowed down to the extent that I sometimes ‘did nothing’, which also included reading a book (which is of course ‘doing something’, but you get my point!).
- If I was feeling stressed, I would swap a run for a gentle yoga session.
- If I felt overwhelmed, I would go for a gentle jog in a park, focusing on breathing and keeping my pace slow.
- Only when I felt well rested, had eaten properly and felt like I had the necessary reserves of energy would I allow myself to go all out with a fast run or HIIT session.
8. Katie Piper
Speaking to WH, the author and broadcaster, 40, reveals that she runs three times a week, at 6 a.m. so she can get her kids ready for school.
She initially took it up as an emotional coping strategy: ‘I first started running due to loneliness,’ she says. ‘Living on my own in London, I started running in the evenings for something to do.’
However, she clarifies that it grew in importance during the pandemic: ‘Fast forward to lockdown, running became so important for my mental health – being able to get out, release stress and anxiety, I’ve just never stopped. It’s a big part of my life and I love it.’
In another WH interview, she discloses that running also gives her an opportunity to step back and get some perspective on task management, especially when it comes to her inbox. ‘When things are busy, I can be reactive – or make irrational decisions. But if I go for a run somewhere, I feel the benefits of the endorphin release. And, because I’ve had time to think in private, I’ll normally have a more measured response when I come back,’ she says.
In addition to running ‘a 5k’, she also likes ‘weight lifting with hand weights or dumbbells‘ ‘two or three times a week’ and ‘walking as a family’.
9. Ashley Park
In recent years, the Emily in Paris star and WH cover leading lady, 33, has modified her relationship with exercise. ‘Now, for me, working out is not about losing weight; it’s not about burning calories. Instead, I feel a difference when I’m stronger and more muscled,’ Ashley explains to WH.
She also feels better when she exercises first thing: ‘It changes the trajectory of my mental state because I’ve taken care of myself in some way.’ She favours Pilates, three times a week, for giving her that boost of clarity.
10. Khloe Kardashian
‘Working out is my therapy,’ Khloe says in a Snapchat Q&A shared by Page Six earlier this year. ‘For me, it’s the best way to cope with stress.’
She adds: ‘It keeps me focused. It keeps me strong physically and mentally.’ She favours full-body workouts involving Bosu balls, hanging knee raises, single-arm renegade rows with push-ups, seated shoulder presses, lat pulldowns and front squats.
11. Kimberley Walsh
Other than singing, the Girls Aloud alumna, 42, says that fitness is her go-to habit for her mental wellbeing, which she has more time to devote to now that her children are a bit older.
‘Exercise massively helps,’ she elaborates to Sustain Health. ‘If I can incorporate some kind of dance, I think it has a really positive effect on me.’ The endorphins of dance can be ‘quite uplifting – it’s definitely a good one for the mind’.
She also does weighted routines – ‘rather than full-on HIIT or cardio, I feel like I get that already from running around after the three boys’.
12. Nicola Coughlan
The Derry Girls and Bridgerton star, 37, openly reveals the low points in her life in The Express, to the point where she ‘couldn’t get out of bed’ and felt like she ‘failed at everything’. She divulges that, ‘I was so depressed, and it was so hard.’
Begrudgingly, she turns to fitness to cope, sharing in an interview with Wondermind: ‘I really hate to say it because I don’t want to ever do it, but exercise helps me a lot. I have the most wonderful personal trainer, and [even though] I always have to psych myself into going to the gym, I leave and I feel so much better. I feel mentally lighter, and it is so vital for me.’
13. Demi Lovato
The ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ hitmaker, 32, has been open about their history with eating disorders and using fitness to help ease their mental illness. ‘I work out personally because of the way it makes me feel and the release of serotonin,’ she tells Self magazine.
‘It’s important to take care of yourself physically but also mentally as well. I would say that if you struggle with depression, anxiety, or any other type of stressors in your life, a really great way to get rid of those is through physical exercise and fitness.’
Since then, they have also struggled with over-exercising, and now are learning to strike the right balance. According to Insider, ‘if it ever starts to feel like a punishment, then [I] don’t do it. If it ever starts to feel like it’s never enough, [I] check in with [myself].
‘Right now, I’m devoting one hour a day. I used to devote more time to that, sometimes it’s an hour and a half, but no more than that. I try to maintain a healthy relationship with it.’ In terms of activities of choice, she practises jiu-jitsu, boxing and Muay Thai.
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