Scarlett Johansson Reveals Why She "Fell In Love With" Pilates Over Heavy Lifting

Scarlett Johansson is one of the fittest actresses in the Marvel universe, yet she is known to have started working out only after being cast in the second installment of Iron Man. Popsugar reports that the Black Widow actress revealed she "had never been to a gym" during a new episode of Dear Media's The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast. She said that her role in Iron Man "changed my life in a lot of ways," but it also "changed my whole outlook on exercise."

While discussing her previous fitness regime with the podcast hosts, Lauryn Evarts and Michael Bosstick, she said, "I did weight lifting for a long time. That was my thing. I liked lifting heavy and low reps." Back in 2019, Johansson prepped for Avengers: Endgame with aggressive 6 a.m. workouts that included plyometrics, heavy strength training (including push-ups with weight plates on her back and 245-pound deadlifts), and intense cardio like sprinting and battle rope drills. But then she switched her routine with gentler exercises. 

Johansson took up Pilates while training for the Black Widow film. She said, "I got to an age when I was actually training on 'Black Widow,' and you know, I think it's hard to lift heavy weights at a certain point," Johansson said. "You just, your body reacts in a different way than it [did] — the recovery is 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."

Johansson mentioned that the high-intensity workouts were getting a little tough on her body with age. The Lucy actress also revealed that she trains five days a week if she's actively filming, and three or four days a week when she is not. She prefers working out early in the morning with her private trainer in hour-long Pilates sessions.

Johansson assured her fans and listeners that there are no secret celeb health tricks. "There are no hacks to health and wellness — at least not ones I knew", she joked. Her personal health tip is to keep the body moving often. "I think, for me personally, doing physical exercise as many times a week as I can do keeps me like mentally sane," she says. "And that goes a long way, 'cause I'm not getting as much sleep as I should be."

Speaking about indulging in appropriate diet and nutrition, Johansson said, "I eat too late. I love to have a glass of wine at the end of the day . . . I'm not gonna be able to stick to some crazy diet unless somebody's like making food for me. And that drives me crazy, too. I love to cook. I'm a very, like, casual person in that way."

Exercise is her go-to "me time" and a crucial part of self-care. "I think my go-to thing is that I try to do physical exercise whenever I can in the week because it helps my whole mental well-being." She also spoke about how rest is as important as exercise and how she works her rest schedule around her kids, Rose, 8, and Cosmo, 1: "I try to nap if I can, when the kids are napping, when my baby's napping, whenever."