Ian Somerhalder’s Mirror Selfie Is More Mindful Than a Muscle Flex
43-year-old actor and entrepreneur, Ian Somerhalder, showed off his chiseled arms in his latest Instagram post.
“My trainer Jance Footit (aka @5ringsbarbell) wanted to see if the new arm routine and diet were working. I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll end up in a Thor movie but yes, it’s working!’”, he says.
Working indeed.
Somerhalder hasn’t always been healthy. He’s openly shared his struggles with his health. “From running so hard building my bourbon company Brothers Bond Bourbon, I’ve been so disconnected from my body,” he admits.
What changed? Somerhalder shares he’s starting to take better care of himself with “exercise and proper diet”. In his post, he divulges how he stays motivated, and what practices work best for him.
On Working Out
“Endorphins from exercise change the game,” Somerhalder says. A rush he gets from working with his long-time trainer @5ringsbarbell, a private strength and conditioning coach located in Georgia, where Somerhalder lived while shooting for the Vampire Diaries.
The actor has also taken to using Chris Hemsworth’s Centrfit app in addition to his workouts with Footit. Beyond helping him build an enviable set of bi’s and tri’s, Somerhalder claims what they’ve really done is “made it easy to get centered again.”
When he’s lacking inspiration, Somerhalder shares he turns to these “kick-ass” Instagram accounts to keep him going: @5ringsbarbell, @centrfit, @paulsklarxfit, @ulissesworld, and @jtm_fit.
On Mental and Physical Strength
Building physical strength isn’t the only thing the actor is working on. “I’ve made it my goal to get back to feeling strong and grounded,” he says.
For Somerhalder, that strength includes both mental and physical elements. To care for his mental health, he turns to “daily meditation” which he says changed his life.
On Diet
For his diet, Somerhalder starts at the root, “I’ve been working on a regenerative agriculture diet plan,” he says, which he notes has been difficult as regenerative farms are few and far between.
A difficulty the actor chooses to face head-on rather than shy away from. He grows his own food, sharing his fridge is chock-full of “a tremendous amount of beautiful, organic, regenerative vegetables.”
He also executive produced Kiss The Ground, a documentary about using regenerative agriculture as a solution to climate change. Accordingly, he has a lot of thoughts about the relationship between what we eat, and how we feel.
“When we have a greater connection to our physical self, what fuel we put into our bodies, and where that food comes from we then create a deeper connection with our soul and planet,” he says.
For Somerhalder, everything is interconnected. “Health is wealth,” he says, and “healthy happy people, make healthy happy decisions.”
