Model Ashley Graham and actress Kristen Bell are super relatable and authentic. Recently, the two powerhouse women spoke with Elle about their relationships with fitness and they bonded over their mental health approach to fitness.
Graham and Bell spoke about how working out has been beneficial for their mental health during quarantine. Bell does daily live-stream workouts led by Los Angeles-based trainer Charlie Curtis and Graham teams up with her mom a few times a week for virtual workouts with her trainer Kira Stokes.
“I have such anxiety and depression ebbing and flowing that one way I balance it is by working out,” Bell shared. “Working out has been so important for my mental health and sanity,” Graham added.
The two women weren’t always big on the mental health benefits of working out. Bell told Elle that fitness was “never a priority” growing up and that “it was something that I had to learn to embrace because of my mental health.”
Graham said that her parents were athletes who played sports in college and that growing up, she was thrown into sports including basketball, soccer, volleyball, and softball. “We’ve just always moved our bodies and gotten sweaty and been active,” the model said. It wasn’t until she moved to New York City to model at 17-years-old and started getting criticized for her body that she realized working out made her feel good.
