Leslie Mann hasn’t always been consistent with exercise. After having her daughters Maude and Iris, she admitted she hadn’t been prioritising exercise and ‘didn’t work much to look good’, but when Iris turned five she ‘decided that I wanted to start working more. And most importantly I started exercising.’
By 2015, the Spa Weekend star told Redbook: ‘I’m so inconsistent about exercise. I have periods where I’ll work out four times a week, then I’ll quit for months. I probably lean more toward those down periods.… You read about actors who wake up at 4am so they can get in a workout – that’s definitely not me. I’d much rather sleep!’
But fast forward to 2022, and exercise has become a big focus. ‘I try to exercise every day,’ she told New Beauty, adding that she also practices daily meditation, drinks a lot of water, and does the occasional ‘detox diet’.
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As for how she moves her body, she does something less typical: roller skating.
‘I became obsessed with roller-skating during the lockdown, actually during the election,’ she revealed to Parade. ‘The stress was so much. I roller-skated when I was younger, and then probably 20 years went by and I put them on again.
‘So I bought roller skates and then just obsessively started roller-skating. It was one of the only things that made me feel better. I was just trying to learn how to do something with my brain and my body connected, and it’s really hard. It’s harder now that I’m much, much older.’
We’re here for it. Yes, it might feel unnatural, and it’s a skill that requires practice, but it’s a form of movement to genuinely enjoy. For Mann, it’s not simply about getting fit – it’s something that makes her feel better both inside and out.
Her experience is a reminder that the best workout isn’t necessarily the hardest one, nor the one you see everyone else doing on your social media feeds – it’s the one you actually want to keep doing.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.