Who so ever does not know about this actress, Nathalie Emmanuel, from her roles in Fast and Furious 8, The Maze Runner and numerous episodes of The Game of Thrones, is seriously living under the rock. Her schedule is packed up so it makes everyone wonder how does she even find time to sneak in for workouts?
The actress who first started her career by starring in Hollyoaks is pretty up-tight about her health. So much so, that it is impossible to believe that she has two jobs! Her second job being a yoga instructor! Who would've imagined, right?
'I think it’s important for me to take an hour a day or whatever I can to work out,' she told us. 'I don’t always get to do it every day and I feel the effects when I don’t, but a varied fitness plan means I can do what I can and what I feel I want to.'
What wise words. However, she has much more to say when it comes to her personal fitness and health goals.
Her relationship with health: "I'm all about wellness."
"If you're lethargic and not taking care of yourself, your body has to work 10 times harder on long, busy days. So I decided it was important to maintain a certain level of health and fitness. I became a vegan about four years ago, and I try to stay away from processed foods. I love yoga, boxing, and running."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH9Ipcxjr8s
Her love for Yoga: "Yoga is my meditation."
"It's my favorite form of exercise because it isn't just physical. And I consider mental health to be part of my overall health."
Having a balance: "Deprivation is not an option."
"Good vegan chocolate has become a thing with me. The more you silence your cravings, the bigger they become, so I prefer to have a little bit and get on with my day."
Being body positive: "I'm done comparing myself with others."
"I used to think I didn't measure up to the women in ads, but I'm over the myth that we're supposed to look like them. Ultimately, your body is functional-it gets you from point A to point B."
I love my shape because...
"...it includes my feet, which enable me to do the sports and exercise that I do!"
A note to self: "I'd tell the younger me that I was just fine."
"I used to straighten my hair for auditions. But now I want to be remembered for my work, not the way I look.
Nathalie Emmanuel Workout Routine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0o0HGj9Pt8In an interview, Nathalie Emmanuel explained about her love and passion for yoga and how it has helped her in becoming more in sync with her body and mind. She says,
“One of the biggest lessons I learned from yoga is that your body doesn’t do the same thing every day and that’s totally fine. Whatever you could do yesterday, that’s great, well done, but you might not be able to do it today. You might not even be able to do it tomorrow. It’s about not judging yourself and allowing yourself to be wherever you’re at. That’s my favorite thing about yoga.”
And when she is not teaching or doing yoga, she likes to indulge herself in activities like boxing, running and swimming. She gives the credit to her confidence by her passion for fitness. She said,
“When you achieve goals in fitness, you teach yourself that you can do hard things, and if you can conquer that hard thing, you can do other hard things. Exercise, fitness, reaching goals, smashing personal bests—they give you confidence and that’s why I like doing them,”
Here's something Nathalie's personal trainer and Reebok UK ambassador, Tyrone Brennand has to say about her, “Nathalie is very open-minded and dedicated-she makes time for the workouts and has great potential.” He also added, “She also always puts 100% in every time we train, even if she’s tired from her work schedule.”
For Nathalie, commitment and consistency are important to reach her goals. That is the reason why the famous star prepares weeks in advance for her roles. Here are the exact workout plan and diet schedule that she follows to achieve the look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EEnQchTK0
Monday: Boxing Circuits
The celeb loves to work out first thing in the morning and she gets pretty excited about the first day of the week! She says, "I prefer to work out in the mornings – just get up and go. It’s funny considering how much I love my sleep! I find getting up hard sometimes, but once I’m there I’ll think: 'I’m glad I did that.' And then it’s out of the way."
She also adds swimming to her workout routine to maintain mobility and endurance: "I aim to swim at least twice a week, gradually building up the distance and intensity with each session. So for example, I began at a fairly moderate pace, but I now work in some much quicker swims. I’ve built up from several hundred meters to swimming at least 1K every session, too."
For her time in the gym, she follows a strict workout routine. "I follow a beginner's plan designed by Speedo's coach Annie Emmerson." On asking about her consistency in the gym, she says, "During a good week, when my schedule isn’t so busy, I’ll train five days a week, but at the minute I’m averaging about three or four days. It varies."
This is what she does on a Monday:
Warm-up is usually a 10 to 15 minutes run.
Boxing circuits. Hit the heavy bag for 4 minutes.
- 1 minute of technical punches
- 1 minute of combinations
- 1 minute of power punches
- 1 minute of straight arm punches
Full bodyweight circuit (do this for 2-3 rounds, swapping with the boxing circuit every four minutes).
- 1 minute of the squat press with dumbbells
- 1 minute of burpees
- 1 minute of slam balls
- 1 minute of jumping rope 2-3 rounds
Finish with ab work, such as sit-ups and leg raises, butterflies and scissors; then inversion work, handstand practice, crow and stretch work.
Tuesday: Upper Body
Warm-up and treadmill work for 15 minutes.
Upper body work (repeat this 3 times, resting for 20 seconds in between).
- 10-15 reps of press-ups (3 sets of 10-15 reps)
- 10-15 reps of commando press-ups on each arm
- 30 snap jumps
- Then plank work (repeat this 3 times, resting for 15 seconds in between)
- 30 seconds of straight arm plank
- 30 seconds of elbow planks
- 30 seconds of side planks
- 10 Burpees
Finish with a leg circuit (repeat twice).
- 20 squats
- 20 alternating lunges
Wednesday: Cardio
For her cardio session, she likes to mix it up. She says,
"Today is a 45-minute interval training session in the park, followed by boxing. It is a mixture of burpees, mountain climbers, skipping, sprints, some weights; the usual high-intensity stuff. I’m not going to pretend I love it – it’s horrible! But I train with my friend and amazing trainer, Jay Brown, who I love. And the boxing at the end of a killer session is my treat."
Her evenings are quite booked too.
"Later in the day, I squeeze in a swim.I've definitely got stronger in my arms since taking up boxing. Upper body strength is something I’ve always struggled with, but I can really feel a difference in my strength. It’s really helped me with my yoga."
Warm-up for 10 minutes on the Curve Runner.
Next, sprint for 10 rounds of 30-second sprints, 30-second jog. Finish with 5 minutes slow run cool down.
Then, run through inversion, handstands, forearm stand work, crow, headstands, working a lot of core and bodyweight variations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVF_xAkZy80&t=24s
Thursday: Yoga Flow
Nathalie is quite particular about her yoga routines and practices it for a full day.
"Yoga is a non-negotiable part of my week, wherever I am. It’s really important for my overall wellbeing; physical, emotional and mental. There’s a reason why they call it 'moving meditation'. It’s really good for my stress levels, particularly when my schedule is super busy and I’m travelling, so I take my yoga mat in my suitcase wherever I go."
But being a celebrity comes with a lot of problems and jet lag is one of it because they are constantly traveling."Jet lag is jet lag, and it gets me either way! But having a stretch and getting the blood flowing helps me with relaxation and sleep," she says.
She does Vinyasa yoga flow based upon dynamic, upper body strength, mixing up strength work with flexibility, opening up hips, shoulders, and hamstrings, as well as arm, leg, shoulder strength drills.
Friday: Legs and Upper Body
Warm-up on the stepper or on bike 10 minutes.
- Bodyweight squats alternating between normal and sumo squats, set of 60 reps.
- 10-15 leg press
- 15-20 walking lunges
- 20 seconds of frog jumps
- 10 assisted pull-ups; repeat from leg presses for 3 sets
Saturday: Cardio Circuits
Apparently, Nathalie loves to run. "I try to run at least once a week depending on if there is a gym near me. If there is, I’ll run 5K a few times during the week," she says.
She further adds, "I was once told that a good time for a 5K is about half an hour, as that’s around a 10-minute mile, so I head out and aim for that. The quickest I’ve ever run a 5K is 24 minutes, but I reckon I’m somewhere in between that and 30 minutes now." That's quite a goal, we must say.
Complete 3- 4 rounds of the below.
- 1-minute burpees and with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of jumping squats with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of mountain climbers with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of press-ups with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of press-ups from knees with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of crunches with 30 seconds of rest
- 1 minute of bicycles with 30 seconds of rest
Sunday: Rest!
She seems to be a yoga lover, considering she does it even on Sundays! "Even on rest days, I like to practice yoga. I’m a fan of vinyasa or ashtanga-based yoga, but I’ve dabbled in a lot of them."
However, this form of yoga helps her to relax, unlike the dynamic yoga which she otherwise performs. "I have a slow practice every evening to help me wind down before bed. This is Yin (yoga) as it’s not as dynamic so calms rather than energizes before sleep."
She even explains why she likes to move a bit even when it is a rest day for her. She says, "When I don’t exercise for long periods of time I feel sluggish and lacking energy, so I workout to feel good and get the endorphins going in my body. It’s good for me personally to take time to do something that’s just for me."
For Sunday, she says, "Today I’ll either go for a run or swim again. I find that swimming is very gentle on your bones, and there’s been a definite improvement in my sleep since I took it up."
Sometimes she also likes to go a bit hardcore and when she is ready for it, this is what she does. She says, "My session today will total around 650M and includes 4 x 50M easy swim to warm up. The main set is a split of 8 x 25M moderate pace lengths, followed by 2 x 100M again at a moderate pace."
Well, voila! There you have all her secrets.
Nathalie Emmanuel Diet Plan and Nutrition
Nathalie Emmanuel has been crushing her nutrition goals and taking control of her health with her vegan lifestyle. She looks forward to plant-based foods and on veganism, she says,
"I was hanging out with my friend Mel Wells who’s just a fantastic goddess of a woman—we were hanging out in LA and she was starting out on her nutrition course and was dealing with women’s relationship with food and their bodies. She’d tell me about what she was learning; that coupled with my family’s own medical history, we’ve had lots of conditions in the family, made me want to take control over what I put in my body."
Shifting to veganism came as a challenge to her but little did she know, she would be soon hooked to the lifestyle. She explains,
“So I ate vegan for one week at first—I would have reassessed if it made me feel really ill, but it made me feel really good, so I carried on for another week, and then I felt even better.People kept coming up to me and telling me I looked glowy and my eyes looked really bright, so I kept going.”
She does not feel that being a vegan is tough; rather, she loves to cook vegan dishes for herself. “When I see my plate looking ridiculously colorful and it’s got loads of different food on it, it makes me so, so happy,” she said. She also explains how important it is for people to educate themselves before they follow the vegan concept. “You do have to learn a lot about where you can get the nutrients that you would normally be getting from animal products. I have an Instagram collections bookmark where I save nutrition stuff like that.”Her favorite vegan snack options are:
- Quinoa
- Greens
- Veggies
- Beans
For post-workout, she likes to refuel her body with a vegan protein shake. “I do like a protein shake – I’ll use a plant-based protein. Sometimes if I know I’m training in the morning, I’ll make something that’s packed with nutrients,” she said.She also likes to have quinoa after her workout. She said, "For a post-workout snack I usually go for something simple, like quinoa with some stir-fried greens, beans, and veggies."
Her protein smoothie includes:
- A banana
- A bit of almond milk
- A bit of coconut water
- A handful of spinach
- A bit of matcha powder
- Vegan protein powder
“All of that fun stuff. Add a bit of vegan protein powder and that would be my shake,” she explains. She further added, "Then when it comes to shakes, I’ll use a plant-based protein. If I know I’m training in the morning, I’ll make a shake in place of a meal. Usually, I’ll go for a banana, a bit of almond milk or coconut water, some spinach and a bit of matcha powder along with my protein."
Moreover, she tells, “So I decided it was important to maintain a certain level of health and fitness. I became a vegan about four years ago, and I try to stay away from processed foods.”
She also has a favorite vegan food which she likes to order every now and then. Her favorite vegan foods include pancakes and Jamaican “aki ‘no saltfish’ ” (which is without fish, of course!).
“If I can find pancakes that are vegan and gluten-free, as I have a gluten allergy, I will go in. I like topping them with strawberries, banana and maybe a bit of maple syrup, even a bit of vegan butter. But my favorite meal if I can be bothered to cook it, is rice and peas and aki ‘no saltfish’, I call it. I basically make the same Jamaican dish, sometimes I add greens like kalalalou or spinach, but without the saltfish. I’ll fry some plantain and steam some veg to go with it, too. I love it,” she said.
Her secret is looking after her body well and taking care of her health. She has definitely given her own health a priority over everything else. "I’ve definitely become much more health-conscious over the past few years. I’ve really looked at my diet and what I put in my body. Some of the stuff I would eat before I never would now! Other than being vegan, I’m not on a very strict plan."
Nathalie is very ardent about what goes into her body, but that does not mean that she deprives herself of the food she loves! For her, moderation is the key. Explaining her necessary evil, she says, "Good vegan chocolate has become a thing with me. The more you silence your cravings, the bigger they become, so I prefer to have a little bit and get on with my day."
Isn't that wise? Probably something everyone should follow too. And that takes us to an end about Nathalie Emmanuel's workout and diet schedule.