Jessica Pegula is heating up the tennis court in her workout gear. In a new social media post the professional athlete flaunts her fit figure in Adidas tennis year, getting ready for the WTA finals. “Finals mode: ON. 💪You got this, Jess! #adidastennis,” the Instagram photo was captioned. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
Jessica is a golfer. “grass szn prep 🌱,” she captioned a post from the golf course. A comprehensive review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that golf’s health benefits are extensive, including mind, body, and even lifespan. Benefits include improved longevity, decreased risk of developing heart disease or suffering a stroke, good mental health, and improved strength and balance.
After a serious match, Jessica devotes time to recovery, doing “some stuff with the physios,” including “some food, get a really good stretch, good massage or flush, whatever it is I need treatment on, and just have a relaxing night, decompress,” she said in an interview. According to the Mayo Clinic, studies support the many benefits of getting a regular rub down. These include stress reduction, lessening pain and muscle tightness, increased relaxation, and improved immunity.
Jessica does “A little bit,” of yoga. “I’m not like a Yogi, but I do have a lot of like yoga stuff that I incorporate into maybe my rehab or mobility or maybe my warmup,” she said. There is a laundry list of reasons to do yoga, explains Harvard Health. “Researchers found that people who practiced yoga for at least 30 minutes once a week for at least four years, gained less weight during middle adulthood,” they said. “People who were overweight actually lost weight. Overall, those who practiced yoga had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) compared with those who did not practice yoga. Researchers attributed this to mindfulness. Mindful eating can lead to a more positive relationship with food and eating.”
Pegula also spends a lot of time training at the gym. “I wanted to use that time to make gains in my fitness,” she told US Open about how she utilized lockdown for her body. “It’s so hard when we’re always playing, it’s like we’re always trying to just not get hurt and not get injured, to feel okay week in and week out. It’s hard to find a block of time to get stronger and build, other than the offseason. So I kind of saw it as an offseason. I worked out every day. There was nothing else to do, so I had to do something. I hate having the feeling of being out of shape and trying to get back into shape.”
Jessica spends most of her time on the tennis court. According to ACE Fitness it blends together cardio and aerobic exercise, as there is a lot of running around, and hand-eye coordination. “While tennis provides numerous health benefits—improved aerobic fitness and anaerobic endurance, muscular fitness (grip strength and endurance), flexibility, multiple skill parameters (balance, speed, agility and quickness), reactivity, and power—it also is psychologically demanding,” they say.