Gabrielle Reece in Workout Gear Shares Intense Strength Training Session 

Volleyball champion Gabrielle Reece shared a strength training session on Instagram, joking that it almost killed her. Reece, 54, posted a video of herself wearing a white one-piece jumpsuit, using machines for resistance training. “A part of my training today! It was literally a slow death. The entire training session isn't there, but I can guarantee you that Carolina Wendling, there was a clear objective of making me go to yoga today without being able to walk properly! And detail, today I wore a white jumpsuit because I thought, strength training, I won't sweat much anyway... I almost broke, I just didn't get broken because the jumpsuit passed the sweat test! If I died today? Of course, but there's no better feeling afterwards!” she captioned the post. Reece and husband Laird Hamilton are thriving in their 50s—here’s what her diet, workout, and wellness routine looks like.

1. HIIT and Weights

Gabrielle Reece/Instagram

Reece mixes up her workouts with high-intensity cardio and strength training. “I try to create a little bit of structure,” she told Parade. “Monday, Wednesday and Friday I typically will do some kind of HIIT, high intensity mixed bag of exercises that I change each time. It's about 60 minutes of work, a little bit less. I write the workouts, a mix of resistance, strength and dumbbells. I'm busy and I don't have a ton of time just to sit there and be like, ‘it's leg day.’ That doesn't exist. I’m not gonna spend three hours on legs. This is also about agility and functional movement.”

2. Healthy Whole Foods

Reece enjoys a whole foods diet with plenty of vegetables. “I eat foods as close to the source as possible and avoid processed foods,” she told Dirt-To-Dinner. “If you looked at most of my meals, I have a type of vegetable, good quality protein, maybe a sweet potato. Quinoa comes in and out. Rice is rare. Our family’s dinner plate is colorful with a variety of vegetables. Sometimes I eat popcorn with coconut oil. I manage my sugar intake. There are better kinds of sugar like coconut sugar. When I do eat sugar, I honor myself with it and don’t make it a habit. If I feel that I can eat whatever I want, then my impulses are minimized. I feel it out. I liken it to a rest day with training. The same is with food, I can occasionally splurge.”

3. Swimming Sessions

Gabrielle Reece/Instagram

Reece loves low-impact swimming sessions. “Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, I’m in the pool,” she told Parade. “My husband and I developed pool training. I couple that with heat, a sauna and ice tubs. And what I like about that training is it's a lot of ballistic movements but in a no-gravity environment. And so as an aging athlete, that environment helps me work really hard and be in performance. It’s something that is uber challenging but also nurturing at the same time.”

4. No Calorie Counting

Shutterstock

Reece never counts calories, instead focusing on what her body is telling her. “I eat and listen to my body,” she told Dirt-To-Dinner. “There are cycles when I am more hungry than other times and will eat more. I stay hydrated and eat healthy fat. If I don’t, I end up having different cravings that I have to manage. For instance, I will go to sugar if I am not doing those things. I focus on what I could eat right now that makes sense. I used to eat a lot of food when I was training all the time. But right now, my training isn’t as much so I eat when I am hungry. I might have a giant lunch and skip dinner, or a light lunch and a bigger dinner. It depends on my day. I do pre-decide, though. For instance, before we go out to dinner, I will decide not to eat the bread that gets passed around before dinner begins. That usually works for me.”

5. Family Hikes

Reece takes at least one day off a week to focus entirely on family fun. “I have kids and try to pick a day to just take it easy and be with them,” she told Parade. “And maybe go for a hike, but quite frankly, if I've put in six pretty good days, usually by Friday I'm feeling pretty tired. But I am flexible about my days off. Let’s say Wednesday shows up and I feel terrible. Maybe I haven't slept well or I am tired weirdly from some kind of rigorous training. I try to take off the day that I feel I really need it versus a scheduled day off. A lot of people will go, ‘Well, this is my day off,’ but they feel great or, ‘Today's training day and I feel terrible.’ So I try to tune into that.”