Gwyneth Paltrow says there’s ‘a lot less intensity’ in her workout routine than there used to be

Gwyneth Paltrow has spoken candidly about her weekly workout routine and how there’s “a lot less intensity” in it than there used to be.

During a Q&A session on her Instagram Story on Friday, a fan asked Paltrow how many days a week she does a workout. In response, she filmed herself walking through the headquarters of her wellness brand, Goop, while opening up on her fitness routine and how it’s changed over time.

“I do something six days a week, but with a lot less intensity than I used to,” she said. "Even just going for an hour walk, or like now, I’m walking around our giant Goop office. I usually take multiple spins around to stretch my legs.”

She emphasised that at least some exercise is an important part of her daily life, continuing: “I try something, a little something, every day.”

Elsewhere in the Q&A session, she opened up about how she cares for herself mentally, after a fan asked her how she gets “really comfortable in [her] own skin” and “loves” herself. In response, she shared that she frequently “talks” to herself, which she said that Belgian fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg taught her how to do.

“[She taught me] how to wake up in the morning and look at myself and be happy to see myself and say nice things to myself instead of terrible things to myself,” the Iron Man star explained.

Paltrow went on to share one of the biggest lessons she’s learned from the designer and how that advice is so valuable.

“She really taught me about the importance of becoming your own best friend,” she concluded. “And that really is how you relate to yourself and things you say to yourself.”

Paltrow founded her lifestyle brand, Goop, in 2008, and she has taken a step back from acting ever since. She also recently opened up about the inspiration behind her brand during another Instagram Q&A last month. In her Instagram Story in March, she detailed that she first got into wellness when her father, Bruce Paltrow – who died in 2002 – began his lengthy battle with throat cancer.

“It was actually because my father was diagnosed with cancer when I was about 25 years old and that started to catalyse my foray into understanding food, environmental toxins, food as medicine, alternative stuff like acupuncture,” she said. “So it started a long time ago, I don’t know, in the mid-’90s because of my dad.”

Since launching Goop, Paltrow has often spoken about her wellness routine, which previously sparked some backlash. She faced criticism last year for her “intermittent fasting” routine, which she said included coffee in the mornings, “bone broth” for lunch at 12pm, and vegetables or fish for dinner at 6pm. At the time, fans and dietitians claimed that the actor wasn’t eating enough sustainable food throughout the day and that she was promoting disordered eating habits.

She later addressed the backlash by explaining that she’s been eating a lot of “cooked vegetables, all kinds of proteins” and “healthy carbs” to lower inflammation, which was a post-Covid symptom she was experiencing. Paltrow emphasised that her routine is based on her own “medical results” and “extensive testing” that she’s done “over time”, so it wasn’t a diet that she was recommending to other people.

“This was a transparent conversation with me and my doctor. It’s not meant to be advice for anyone else. It really just works for me, and it’s been very powerful and very positive,” she explained in March 2023, before clarifying that she eats more than “bone broth and vegetables” and has many days of eating whatever she wants.