Jessica Alba Shares Her Favorite And Least Favorite Exercises

Judging from Alba’s gorgeous body, it’s obvious she loves to exercise. That’s why it’s surprising to hear that there are moves she’d rather not do if she had a choice.

“I hate doing one-legged squats with weights,” she told Byrdie. “I hate plyometrics. Any jumping or squatting… I want to die. It makes me feel nauseous. As for running, I feel like I have to work myself up to it—I have to train to get to a point where I can run. It’s not natural. I have to get fit enough to run!”

Of course, the Sin City actress has her favorites as well. She said, “I really like taking group classes, or I like to work out with friends. I like high-intensity workouts; I like moving around a lot. I don’t like a lot of repetition.”

She added that she does Spin classes, “depending on the teacher and the playlist.” And she’s a fan of hot yoga as long as the pace works for her. The star also likes to team hot yoga with light weights, “like a sculpting hot yoga class. I’ll always work out with a friend because it’s more fun,” she said.

During the pandemic lockdown in 2020, however, Alba had a realization about her fitness habits. She told Women’s Health, “I always thought, I need to sweat out my weight in water, I need to have muscle failure, I need to feel like I just ran a marathon—that’s how hard I needed to work out.”

But with gyms closed, she began to slow down. “I’ve learned to mix it up and not feel like a failure if I’m not, you know, killing myself.”

After switching up her routine during the lockdown, the Fantastic Four star began working out two to four times a week. She also discovered reformer Pilates and fell in love with it. “I feel every muscle in my core,” she said about her new go-to exercise. “I never even knew I had those things.”