A few weeks ago, I binged all of The Better Sister in two sittings. I had a few issues with the way they wrapped up two storylines, but overall, I thought it was great. It had all of the makings of a good summer binge: rich people behaving badly, an outcast family member, and soap opera-y courtroom drama. It was very Big Little Lies-coded. The series also featured Jessica Biel’s absolutely killer bod. There’s an scene early in the first episode where she’s wearing a white dress. She looks incredible, and when I saw her in that dress, my first thought was “Okay, Jessica, I see your game.”
I’m not the only person who noticed Jessica’s super-toned bod. Last week, she did a TikTok addressing how good she looked in that white dress. Her honest answer? That it took an insane amount of work and discipline, and unless you’re willing to live the “most rigid” lifestyle, it is “not maintainable.”
Jessica Biel’s viral white dress moment in The Better Sister — notable for her ultra-toned arms and back — is “not maintainable,” the actress shared.
In a bluntly honest TikTok on July 10, Biel, 43, replied to a fan who asked her to “drop the workout routine” she used to get ready for the Prime hit The Better Sister. “Everyone is talking…about the white dress,” she said of the backless, sleeveless Proenza Schouler dress. “and how do we stay strong as we get older.”
“Specifically, as women, how do we keep our back strong?” she said.
“I wanted to share that that peak shape in that show is not maintainable unless you are living the strictest and most rigid lifestyle with your nutrition and with your fitness, which I cannot do,” Biel said. “So I’m currently back on my plan to sort of get a little bit back toward that shape.”
She shared the specific exercises she does, which were taught to her by her “amazing, amazing” pilates and fitness “guru” Ashley Brown. Biel went on to illustrate each exercise and share how many reps to do of exercises like Romanian deadlifts (lifting dumbbells off the floor) and hamstring curls (done on the floor with a yoga ball).
She also shared that since she has to do these exercises while traveling, she doesn’t always have the right equipment, and has to substitute a barbell for dumbbell, or resistance bands for cables.
“I am just on the road, making up best I can do,” she said.
At the end of the video, breathless and visibly sweaty, she said, “I’m tired. My body’s not 20 years old anymore, you know? So I’m adjusting my workout to what I need to do.”
“You’ve got to build muscle,” she said at the end of the video, while in a full split. “That’s a key part of my particular routine. And a ton of flexibility.”
“I hope it wasn’t totally boring. Thanks for checking it out,” she said. “Let’s get older and stronger together.”
“I absolutely love that,” one commenter said about her sentiment. “That should be on a T shirt.”
Others praised her for being “honest and “real” about what it takes to stay fit as you get older. As one fan worded it: “Thanks for being a great advocate for women taking care of their bodies and staying strong.”
“I’m no expert but I want people to be healthy, safe, and strong,” Biel wrote in the caption. “Remember to warm up and cool down, and let me know what other workouts you’d like to see!”
Back in my day (aka the early-to-mid-2000s), female celebrities would claim that maintaining a slim, buff figure was due to discipline and good genes. Once in a while, we’d get a soundbite about how difficult it was or how hungry an actress would be, but overall, it always came down to the genetic lottery. It’s refreshing to hear Jessica give a variation on the discipline part of the message, which is that it’s not realistically maintainable, including for actresses who feel pressured to look a certain way for their job. She’s also super fortunate to have a personal trainer to help with her fitness routine.
I also appreciate that Jessica shared some of her workout moves with us. None of them were new to me. In fact, I just did that dumbbell hip-thrust move on Tuesday morning during a video workout. It was a nice confirmation that I’m incorporating weights the same way celebrities do. Speaking of doing the heavy lifting, Jessica isn’t emphasizing that a large part of health and fitness is diet. She mentions nutrition in passing, but that’s a huge driver right there. I’d love to hear her talk more about that.
📱| jessicabiel via ig: I’ve heard y’all are talking about the white dress 😏 I’m no expert but I want people to be healthy, safe, and strong. Remember to warm up and cool down, and let me know what other workouts you’d like to see! [..] pic.twitter.com/TQaiMZeyHZ
— JessicaBielPics (@JessicaBielPics) July 10, 2025
Jessica Biel reveals workout that gave her an ‘unattainable’ peach-shaped butt on ‘The Better Sister’ https://t.co/rRsvC1Ocd7 pic.twitter.com/pNg8IYMouA
— New York Post (@nypost) July 15, 2025
Photos credit: Marion Curtis/Starpix for Prime Video/INSTARimages, TheStewartOfNY/INSTARimages, IMAGO/mpi04/Avalon
She also trains with Ben Bruno (feel bad he didn’t get a shout out); I follow him on IG and he’s not gimmicky, focuses on form and moves that work multiple muscles and, best of all, he HATES burpees, lol. My former trainer (sadly he moved) did his college internship with the same guy who Ben Bruno received much of his training from and it’s just solid programming.
Lap swimming would have the same results or am I wrong?
I wonder if he’s the author of the article I read years ago (when I was early in my weightlifting journey and still worried about getting “too bulky”). It was by Jessica’s trainer (at a time when being skinny was still seen as the goal) and he said women were constantly asking him for diet and fitness tips so they could look like her. He told them (basically) “Stop playing with those little 2 pound weights and build some real muscle. Jessica looks great because her skin is gorgeous and glowing and it’s draped over real muscle!” That helped me get over my worries and focus on getting really strong.
It’s good to see Jessica inspiring a new era of women’s fitness.
Ughh, I remember the famous women talking about they eat pizza every day and act like they don’t starve themselves. I am so happy they don’t sell that lie anymore. A few actresses also talked about not drinking water a day before doing swimsuit shoots for magazine covers. Honestly, as a teenager, I always thought there was something wrong with me that I didn’t have that straight stomach.
Every time I start to compare myself to an actress, I remember this quote from Kristin Bauer Von Straten:
“The other day I realized as long as I’m in this business, I’m going to be hungry. The camera really does add 10 pounds. I’m trying to stay under the weight I want to look like on TV.”
I couldn’t do it. I can go from hungry to hangry in under ten minutes.
One other comment:
HORMONES MATTER.
As someone whose body doesn’t like to produce testosterone, and who had a very stressful job that jacked with their cortisol, getting on T and getting out of the Fight or Flight zone has made losing weight/gaining muscle so much easier. I also start my day with a protein/ creatine/ collagen shake because I struggle to get enough protein, and you need protein to build muscle.
I’m never, ever going to look like Jessica Biel because I also like carbs more than I like most people, but balancing out my protein intake and getting my hormones right and my stress under control has just made it so much easier to make progress. Too bad it took me until my 40s to figure it out 🙂
I also like carbs more than I like most people.
There have been only two periods in my life when I didn’t struggle to lose weight. Both were immediately following the elimination of soul crushing stress and anxiety. I lost double digit poundage almost without effort both times.
⬆️ It’s so important to mention that about the camera adding weight. Actresses and models have to be 10 pounds under what would look great walking down the street. The camera also takes away 10 pounds of hair and make up! It’s a huge lift to be camera ready. Actors will train to be at peak for shoot days that feature their bodies, like the white dress scene, or a bikini or shirtless scene. It’s like a mountaineer going into the death zone – they stay at base camp with their training and food, and days/hours before the performance they drop water and eat to incredibly spartan requirements. Then they drop back down to a base camp maintenance. At least these days women in particular are learning how to do this through healthy plans versus just not eating.
I don’t think anyone should try to emulate this unless it really means a lot to you and you love fitness, or you like very Spartan eating. I love fitness and working out, but you don’t maintain camera readiness all the time.
Good for her being honest with women for a change.
I remember years ago, about three months or so after Mariah Carey had her twins, she appeared on the cover of People with a big smile and a flat, unlined tummy in a bikini. According to the article, Mariah supposedly gained over 70lbs in pregnancy, but we were supposed to believe that she lost it all, with nary a stretch mark, in less that two months, eating grilled chicken and walking everyday!?!
I likely wouldn’t have seen this cover except somebody had brought the magazine in as a “gift” for my fresh postpartum patient. My patient, upon reading this nonsense, began berating herself and comparing herself unfavorably to these lies. I promptly went onto the Internet and found a pre-pregnant picture of Carey’s belly button to show my patient that all was not what it seemed.
The whole thing made me so furious. Women have enough to deal with without some idiot diva telling them lies that actually hurt other women.
@henny penny that’s really cool that you did what you could to make your patient feel better. She was very lucky to have you. Most of my doctors never cared about how I felt.
She lied, she had a tummy tuck.
I appreciate her honesty! I have busted my ass for decades to try and look the same way I did when I was 20 and it gets harder and harder the older I get! You have to train more and more in the gym to get the same results. Diet plays such a huge role too, much more than your intensity in the gym. For men, in order to get those ripped abs you have to seriously restrict your caloric intake. I love me a cocktail and all the carbs, so as I approach my 40s I’m finally realizing that life is all about priorities, balance, and consistency. I used to feel like I needed to look like Captain America and Thor before I realized that Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth don’t ALWAYS look like that. I also don’t think most actors are honest about how many of them (at least the men actors) are on some kind of steroid cycle. Now I don’t want to look “hot” anymore, I want to be strong and healthy and well-prepared for the latter half of my life!
A large part of being thin is nutrition. I wouldn’t necessarily say that a large part of fitness and health is based on the same principles as thinness.