1 fitness fix Scarlett Johansson had to make to stay strong at 40

As we age, we all have to make adjustments to our fitness routines and adapt to limitations that simply weren’t there when we were younger.

This applies whether you’re a Regular Joe writer like me or a dang Marvel superhero like Scarlett Johansson.

Unlike their comic book counterparts, the actors playing these superpowered mutants can’t get badly injured in one panel and then be doing backflips and stuff in the next.

OK, maybe Tom Holland (who plays Spider-Man) can pull it off at age 26, but for actors approaching 40 like Johansson (she’s 38), you need to approach your fitness with at least a modicum of caution.

So I was interested to come across a podcast interview Johansson did this week in which she discussed the ways her workouts have shifted during her tenure as Black Widow.

Like me, at some point, she crossed a threshold where she needed to start shifting from heavy weights to body weight in order to stay off the injury reserve list and in the gym.

Leaving heavy lifting behind

When I was younger, I tried desperately to add muscle to my tall, naturally lean frame, and I did so by doing fewer sets with heavier weights.

While I had middling results — it’s hard to fight genetics and the general lack of appetite needed to force down enough protein in a day to pack on pounds — at the very least I was able to push myself without getting hurt.

That all changed as I approached my 40s.

All of a sudden, if I’d tweak something, recovery times became irritatingly long.

And I was tweaking things a lot more often.

Finally, the culmination of too many high-impact sports like hockey and distance running, using too much weight at the gym, not taking time off when needed, not sleeping/recovering enough due to overuse of alcohol, and other factors I’m sure I’m probably forgetting caused a major crash.

A sports hernia, followed by bulging discs that caused a major Multiple Sclerosis scare, followed by actually slipping one of those discs twice in a span of about 4 months finally forced me to blow everything up and start again at Square 1.

As the sports hernia discomfort lifted and the numbness and pain associated with my disc problems faded, I rebuilt my fitness routine in a way I thought would allow me to keep fit, build strength, and stay healthy.

For me, that meant focusing on just 4 exercises:

• Stair climber for legs and cardio
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Chin-ups

That’s it. As I build endurance on those, I add more reps.

For Johansson, it was a different kind of core and bodyweight exercise.

The big shift

Here’s what Johansson told the podcast:

“I did weightlifting for a long time, that was my thing. I liked lifting heavy and low reps. Everybody has their own thing, and I liked that.

“But I got to an age when — I was actually training on Black Widow — you know, I think it’s hard to lift heavy weights at a certain point.

“You just … your body reacts in a different way. The recovery, it’s tough.

“And so I started doing pilates to try to give myself a break from some of the heavy weightlifting and I just fell in love with it.

“And now I do that mostly. Most regularly.”

She went on to say that when she’s filming a movie, she does pilates 5 days a week, and she’ll dial it back to 3–4 times per week when she’s off the set.

I absolutely loved this, too.

When asked by the host what her health and wellness “hacks” were, she responded:

“There are no hacks to health and wellness. I don’t know what they are.

“I, honestly, I think for me personally, doing physical exercise as many times a week as I can keeps me mentally sane, and that goes a long way.”

Finding the exact balance for what kinds of physical exercise to focus on as we age is a constant work in progress.

For example, last week I wrote about some recent changes that 73-year-old Bruce Springsteen made to his approach after years of doing legendary gym workouts.

He told country music star Tim McGraw in this video:

“I don’t do that much (exercise) right now. I lift a little weight to stay toned, I may get on the treadmill and I’ll walk, I don’t run anymore.

“The biggest thing is diet, diet, diet.

“I don’t eat too much and I don’t eat bad food, except once in a while when I have some fun for myself.

“So I think anybody that’s trying to get in shape, exercise is always important of course, but diet is 90 percent of the game.”

Being that age, his focus is shifting more from hard exercise to diet. That said, Springsteen’s full-tilt shows are a good workout in and of themselves.

The point is, no matter how old you are, keep an open mind as you age, keep testing different things, and just keep learning until you find what works best for you.

Exercise really is one of those base activities — proper sleep is another one according to this other Marvel star — that improves every single other aspect of your life.

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