Jessica Alba in Workout Gear “Woke Up" and Worked Out
Sophia Aguilar Jessica Alba is showing fans just what it takes to get her strong, toned physique—and it looks pretty intense. Alba shared a video of herself wearing leggings and a white shirt, doing cardio exercises and weights with her long-time personal trainer Ramona Braganza at the gym. She also did some mat work wearing black leggings and a sports bra. "@ramonabraganza woke up and chose violence 💪🏽🫠," she captioned the post. "And this is why we don't workout together 😂," commented friend Lizzy Mathis. Here's how Alba is in the best shape of her life at 42.
Alba's Instagram video shows her doing cardio on a treadmill, and weight training with dumbbells and resistance bands. Cardio and weight training complement each other in many ways, experts say. "Cardio training improves endurance, oxygen utilization efficiency, and cardiac and respiratory function," sports medicine doctor Dr. Christopher McMullen tells UW Medicine. "Strength training increases muscle size and strength, enhances coordination, and is utilized for preventing and rehabilitating from injury."
Alba mixes up her workouts so she doesn't get bored. "To keep the workouts interesting for Jess, I mix up the strength training exercises in a variety of ways," Braganza told Harper's Bazaar. "Sometimes it's reps and others it's timings. We always have music on. Sometimes when the gym is absolutely not what Jessica wants, we will go outside and walk the hills near her home."
Alba no longer sees beauty as something solely for the male gaze. "Before becoming a mom, my femininity was defined by society's standards of what it means to be desirable to men," she told The Cut. "Now I understand what feeling powerful from a woman's point of view means. It has nothing to do with whether someone desires you, it's more about how connected you feel to yourself. You end up attracting people when you're confident and you feel good in your skin. And that's a by-product of being connected to your feminine energy."
Alba uses a massage gun to help recover from her strenuous workouts. "The most important thing to Jessica for recovery after workouts is to stretch and using her Theragun," Braganza told Harper's Bazaar. "Sore muscles will prevent good workouts the next day and she has learned how to take care of that through self-massage."
Alba is glad beauty standards are changing. "Millennial ideas of beauty are so unattainable in a way, and that comes from generations of us being brainwashed and feeling like we'll only be successful if we look perfect or desirable," she told The Cut. "Both of my daughters have a different outlook on what's beautiful. To them, it's almost off-putting if you try to look too good. It's more natural if you have a shiny nose or dark circles under your eyes, which they view as more real and cool."
