Baywatch alumni and Master Minds host Brooke Burns genuinely loves working out so much, she keeps her routine going even on vacation. Burns, shared an impressive picture of herself wearing red leggings and a black tank top, flexing a chiseled bicep. “Still ripping’ it up on vacay! Body by @4ffit_well 💋😜#workhard #playhard #lovehard,” she captioned the post. Burns is 45 and in the best shape of her life—here’s what her ‘work hard, play hard’ routine looks like.
Burns considers working out the ultimate form of self-care. “I love getting outside in the morning,” she told Women’s Running. “It helps me start my day with a really healthy outlook and with a great endorphin rush. Selfishly, I love getting up and getting it done. I grew up in a fit family, and my parents set a really great example for me. I never thought, ‘Oh, I have to go work out.’ It was more of a lifestyle. I’m all about the idea of elongating my life by doing little things. If it’s a busy week, I’d rather carve out 10 or 15 minutes to exercise rather than wait for the timing to be perfect.”
Burns loves hiking, sprinting, and swimming. “I live in the city so, when it’s workout time, I seek out nature,” she told Healthy Living. “It’s one of the best things about living in Cali. You have the mountains and the ocean at your fingertips, even in the same day if you want! The weather is pretty much beautiful year round, so there are NO excuses not to get out there and make it happen. My favorite core workout? SUP! Aka, Stand Up Paddling. Some of my friends take the boards into big waves, but you can get a mean workout on one of these boards, even on a lake.”
Burns enjoys coffee and green smoothies for energy throughout the day. “I’m a coffee addict. I’ll have a hot latte in the morning, but then, when it reaches room temperature, I’ll pop it in the fridge and have the rest as iced coffee in the afternoon,” she told Women’s Running. “I’m a big smoothie girl. My go-to is a green smoothie with banana and almonds. I also eat a lot of oatmeal, especially when it gets cold outside. I like to get creative with my oatmeal by sneaking in a little vanilla and cinnamon and brown sugar, in moderation.”
Burns knows how important stretching is before workouts. “A big one we often forget… Stretch!” she told Healthy Living. “Sometimes you have to treat your body like a kid. You need to give it a heads up about what the plan is going to be. Like, “Hey body, you’re about to climb a mountain, so let’s warm up, prep those muscles and stretch it out.” You may need to motivate and encourage your body before you take on the challenge.”
Burns, who survived a near-fatal diving accident in 2005, is a strong believer in destiny. “Maybe that’s my way of accepting that maybe there is a plan already laid out for us in some way,” she told The Mercury News. “And it’s probably married to the choices you make along the way and where that leads you … I believe in something greater than flesh and bone. It’s always been something I’ve experienced, even as a child. There’s a bigger driving force and purpose to everything — or maybe that just means I’m a hopeless romantic. I’ve always felt — even in my tragedies — that I have walked in some kind of favor.”