Nina Dobrev, the actress known for her roles in The Vampire Diaries and Love Hard, is admired for her enviable physique and commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Her approach to fitness is all about variety and consistency, incorporating a range of activities and mindful eating habits into her daily routine.
A Varied Exercise Regimen
For Nina Dobrev, variety is key to a good exercise routine, and she frequently switches things up-alternating between rowing, running, cycling, circuit workouts, stretching, and more-as a way to stay motivated and feel excited about exercising. A big part of that variety comes from Dobrev’s home gym, which she built up during the pandemic. Her current set-up features tons of different equipment, from weights, resistance bands, and a Mirror, to an indoor bike, treadmill, and rowing machine. Dobrev, who recently partnered with Affirm, a financial company that gives loans for products like exercise equipment, relies on an array of fitness tools to keep things fresh enough so she wants to get her heart pumping and muscles working.
Dobrev's "workout cocktail" includes yoga, running, weight training, boxing, and group classes, depending on the day. She emphasizes the importance of shocking the system by doing something different each day to see the most benefit.
The Importance of Stretching and Recovery
With all these exercise modalities challenging Dobrev’s muscles in different ways, recovery-in the form of stretching, in particular-becomes even more important. She makes it a point to set aside about one-fourth of her total exercise time for post-workout stretching. Usually, she’ll aim to exercise for about an hour, four to five times a week, with 45 minutes dedicated to her workout and 15 minutes for stretching afterward.
Dobrev always incorporates hip-opening stretches after running-well, after any of her workouts, actually. She also typically warms up with some stretching for about three minutes before her workouts “just to wake everything up,” in addition to the 15 minutes afterward. Her favorite hip opening exercise is the pigeon pose, which she does after any type of workout. “It's just the most effective [stretch] for me to really open up my hips,” she says. “It’s great for maintenance and keeping everything loose.”
Read also: The Journey of Nina Parker
Hip stretches (like the pigeon pose) are a good way to relieve discomfort, decrease tightness, and increase mobility in your hips, as SELF previously reported. And they are especially important for runners like Dobrev. Post-run stretching is a simple way to boost recovery, ease muscle tension, and make mobility gains, board-certified sports physical therapist Brian Schwabe, P.T., D.P.T., C.SC.S., previously told SELF. Schwabe added that the hips are a key area for runners to stretch (along with the thoracic spine and ankles), which is where the pigeon stretch comes in.
How to do the pigeon pose stretch:
- From a kneeling position, get into Downward Facing Dog and extend your right leg high behind you.
- Then bring your right leg underneath your body and place it in front of you with your shin parallel to the top of your mat. (The goal isn’t to create an L-shape with your right leg; your foot can be tucked as close to your hips as needed.)
- Extend your left leg long behind you and rest the top of your foot on the mat.
- Keep your right foot flexed and try to keep your pelvis neutral and your left hip as close to the mat as you can. If your hip lifts off the floor, bring your right foot a little closer to your body.
- You should feel a stretch in your right hip. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Switch sides and repeat.
To make sure your pelvis stays neutral, place a block or pillow underneath your externally rotated hip. You can also place a pillow or block underneath the knee on your straight leg to alleviate any pain.
Diet and Nutrition
Dobrev has discovered she has sensitivities to both gluten and dairy. She aims to have the size of her thumb in fat, the size of her palm in protein, and then unlimited veggies. Dobrev says she typically has one or two coffees to kick off the morning. “I do a shot of espresso and then I do a regular coffee, and I mix them together.
For breakfast, Dobrev says she typically eats eggs and gluten-free toast. “After the eggs and the toast, I’ll also do some steamed spinach, or I’ll like to do apple sausages…I’ll dip them into maple syrup,” she says. She also mentioned getting the Fresh Corn Grilled Salad, but with no corn.
Dobrev emphasizes the importance of healthy snacks, such as KIND bars, and stays nourished throughout the day. She enjoys Herbalife shakes, blending the powder with almond milk or banana for a dessert-like meal replacement.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
She tries to eat every two hours to keep her metabolism stable. "Mama needs some coffee. Some real strong, strong coffee,” Dobrev revealed in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
Staying Active On Set
Dobrev finds creative ways to stay active even when she's working long hours on set. She incorporates small bursts of exercise throughout the day, such as planking with friends during breaks or doing push-ups and sit-ups between set-ups. She also had a volleyball court built on the set of The Vampire Diaries so she and the crew could play during lunch breaks. She always has a volleyball or a Bosu balance ball in her car.
Mindset and Balance
Dobrev isn’t super rigid about her schedule. “Life gets in the way,” she says. When she was in Atlanta working 12 to 14 hours a day for a film project, which left her minimal time to exercise, she temporarily shifted her focus to just running and stretching. That meant running workouts built around treadmill intervals, typically alternating between 20 seconds of speed work and 10 seconds of rest for a total of about 20 rounds.
After leaving Vampire Diaries in 2015, Nina had something of an existential crisis. “I was like, ‘Why am I here? What am I doing? Is it making me happy? What can I do to make me happier?’” Worried that she might end up pigeonholed, Nina pivoted toward comedy. That is, she got as far away as she could from weepy high school heroines. At first, Nina didn’t get the reception she wanted from prospective bosses. “They were just like, ‘Oh, she was on a [teen] drama. She’s not funny.’” But with her trademark determination, Nina pushed forward, approaching the problem “like a math equation,” she says. She took Improv 101 classes: “I probably sucked. But I got better.” She pitched a sketch to Funny or Die. She even wrote a feature-length comedy.
Her reason for taking the Fam role fits squarely in with one of her core philosophies: If it seems terrifying, head straight for it. “The live-audience aspect scared me, so naturally, I had to do it,” Nina says.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide