When Adele is in the gym, her anxiety fades. While the superstar says she’s only discovered that about three years ago, it sparked the beginning of a deeper inner journey to find happiness, and she has come a long way since. In an interview with Vogue, Adele spills all of the details on her fitness routine, how she manages her anxiety and the real reason why she lost weight.
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Per the article, Adele has been doing rigorous weightlifting and circuit-training sessions every day—twice a day if her anxiety is high—for three years and counting. Relying on trainer Gregg Miele—she said she’s spent more time with him in the past three years than anyone else in her life—to teach her the ropes, the singer-songwriter is a regular at Heart & Hustle gym in West Hollywood. Included in her routine: a warm-up on the elliptical, a set on every weight machine in the establishment and weighted squats.
“I realized that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight. I thought, If I can make my body physically strong, and I can feel that and see that, then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong.” The year before lockdown, Adele went through a divorce with her husband. “I was just going through the motions and I wasn’t happy,” she tells Vogue. “Neither of us did anything wrong. Neither of us hurt each other or anything like that.” Since then, she’s been on a journey to find true happiness.
And during that journey, she’s had to battle it out with her anxieties. “My therapist told me that I had to sit with my little seven-year-old self. Because she was left on her own. And I needed to go sit with her and really address how I felt when I was growing up. And issues with my dad. Which I’d been avoiding.” On her list of concerns: “Not being sure if someone who is supposed to love you loves you, and doesn’t prioritize you in any capacity when you’re little.” These struggles manifested themselves into her other relationships, too. “So my relationship with men in general, my entire life, has always been: “‘You’re going to hurt me, so I’ll hurt you first.‘”
During these tough years of facing her anxiety, she also relied on sound baths, meditation, therapy and time spent on her own. But, it took months of ups and downs: “I’d have a lovely night with my friends,” she says, “and then I’d wake up like a tsunami was coming for me. Pointing to a table in her backyard, she says, “I remember sitting out there with two of my friends and I was like ‘when will I stop feeling like this?’ And they were like, ‘In time.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but how much time?’ And one of them cried and was just like, ‘I don’t know. It’s gonna be a ride.’ And it was.”
