Gabrielle Reece is not only a volleyball legend, but an inspirational leader, New York Times bestselling author, wife, and mother. The former professional beach volleyball player and Nike’s first female spokeswoman is the definition of athleticism. Though California born, Gabby was raised on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and didn’t take up volleyball until she moved to Florida when she was in the eleventh grade. Gabby won an athletic scholarship to Florida State University where she played two seasons before accepting offers from the modeling world.
Despite the allure of modeling, Gabby returned to the FSU campus and set two school volleyball records that still stand today. Together with her husband, Gabrielle Reece created Extreme Performance Training (XPT) based off of their daily lifestyle regimens, which has continued to inspire men, women, old and young, all alike, to lead a fit life. Gabrielle Reece, for the first time ever opens up about how she feels passionately about evoking a sense of self-motivation, towards fitness, in people of all ages and from all walks of life to become stronger and healthier, only in Women Fitness’ Winter Issue.
Namita Nayyar:
You joined volleyball when you were in the 11th grade, and soon set school records in both career solo blocks and total blocks. This led to you being named the Dodge National Athletics Awards’ “Most Inspiring Collegiate Athlete,” and Rolling Stone magazine’s “Wonder Women of the Year”. Tell us more about your spectacular journey and how it all began?
Gabrielle Reece:
I fell into volleyball when I moved from the Caribbean to Florida. I was 6’3 in the eleventh grade so that was a popular trait and I was fortunate enough to go to Florida State on a volleyball scholarship and that is where I had the opportunity to work with a great coach and get some attention.
If you ask me about this journey I had some really key people, coaches and friends that came around just at the right time and really changed the trajectory of my whole life and one of them being my coach in high school and the other being my college coach, Dr. Cecile Reynaud. But it was a strange time when I started playing volleyball, my freshman year at Florida State, . I then started modelling and combining the two for the duration of my college career, it was a little bit of a different path, but one that made a lot of sense for me.
I think sometimes when you know the difference, when you don’t have an opportunity and then you get an opportunity, you really learn to not take advantage of it and you also learn to cherish it and recognize it as an opportunity.
Namita Nayyar:
You are a professional volleyball player, best-selling author, host, sports announcer, fashion model and actress. How do you manage such a remarkable multi-dimensional lifestyle?
Gabrielle Reece:
I think that at the end of the day if we look at most women’s lives, they are living a multidimensional lifestyle: they’re working, they’re moms, they’re friends, they’re training, so even at their own levels, they are athletes.
So I don’t think I do anything different, I think that the platform I do it on might be a little bit different. But by the nuts and bolts on that, I think some of it is good fortune, like if you’ve got to model, it was something to do with genetics and timing. In sports, it took a great deal of work and dedication and I think the other stuff is just as a natural extension of things.
I’m really interested in writing I just applied the same discipline that I had in sports to everything else and it’s just having the ability to recognize what is the most important thing that needs attention right now and so instead of trying to do everything all at once I think I’ve gotten very good at focusing on the task at hand and that even means in my personal life like sometimes if I haven’t spent enough time with my children or my husband I recognize this and sort of put everything else aside.
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All Written Content Copyright © 2018 Women Fitness
Namita Nayyar:
Introduce us to a day in the life of “Gabrielle Reece”.
Gabrielle Reece:
A day in my life, usually starts with attending to my daughters. I have three, two at home, so attending to their basic set up for the day and then I go straight into training if I don’t have another work commitment. I even try to schedule all my work, shoots, meetings, etc, after twelve noon so I can get my training in. I find that if I don’t get my training in early it can fall by the wayside, based on day events.
Again it’s just about managing a lot of different hats in one day, sometimes it’s like I’m the mom or the wife and then you have to turn around and be this business person and not be emotional or take things personal. I try to the best of my ability to waste as little time as possible and stay really focused.
Another helpful thing that I do old fashioned is write everything down in my day books. This keeps me organized and lowers my stress.
Namita Nayyar:
What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine that you may like to share?
Gabrielle Reece:
For me I try to do workouts that I enjoy. Yes my workouts are challenging but I still enjoy doing them. So I would encourage people to find a few they like to do and stick with those.
So Monday, Wednesday, Friday I do circuit training and then Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I do a pretty rigorous ballistic pool training with dumbbells and that’s great because it doesn’t further damage your joints and it’s a great environment to train in. Besides consistent exercise, there are two other really important focus’s for me. Good nutrition and sleep. Eating the right types of food is essential for how I feel, move, and look. I try to make sure I get at least 8 hours of restful sleep a night.
Namita Nayyar:
Do you take some special diet or have a strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Gabrielle Reece:
I just try to eat as much real food as possible and I know that’s oversimplified but I just trying to avoid processed foods, foods that break down to glucose, too much sugar, things like that I really try to be mindful of and so I would say that I eat a plant based whole foods diet, with condiments of high quality animal protein and really good healthy fats: coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil.
The other thing I have learnt is that I try not to combine too many carbohydrates with my healthy fats, so for example if I’m going to use olive oil or something, I try to use that on vegetables verses, even the whole raw butter, but not in conjunction with sweet potatoes, so where we get into trouble is I am a big advocate of healthy fats but my understanding is they’re better off with vegetables even though, obviously there’s a little carbohydrates as well but not quite as high.
So real whole foods, minimize the processed foods. I only eat pretty much when I’m hungry and until I’m full. I try not to overeat and I watch the sugar intake, I watch sugary drinks. I make sure that the food I eat I enjoy and it’s diverse, I try not to eat the same things over and over. We used to eat things when they were in season and be more diverse, that’s something that’s really important for a good diet.
Namita Nayyar:
You have glowing skin and gorgeous hair. Do you take some kind of skin treatment to keep it young and glowing and secondly what you do to your hair to make them look so stunning?
Gabrielle Reece:
My skin and my hair, I actually think, this is a reflection of my nutritional habits mostly. I don’t really drink alcohol, or smoke.
I think a life of exercising and playing sports has allowed me to fend off the elements and some of the skin problems you get in aging.
Hydration is also a key factor. I drink lots of water throughout my day. This is really simple information but it’s impactful. As far as the products I wear I try to use a chemical free sun block. I love Dr. Colbert, from the New York Dermatology group. His sun-block it’s chemical free and they put reflective particles in it. I also like Epicuren sun-block, they have a Bee Propolis sun-block, that’s quite good. I use a Radical moisturizer a Japanese clay bar to wash my face, it’s a soap but it doesn’t have any of the chemicals in it and you can find it on Amazon. Lastly, for my hair, the key for me is I have actually quite thin hair so when I’m doing pool training I will put a leave-in conditioner or oils, just to give it a break and if I’m not working, I don’t touch it with a blow dryer or anything like that but I just leave it as it is and try to spare my hair from the hot heat.
Namita Nayyar:
Nike tapped you to become the first female athlete to design a shoe, and, for six straight years (1993-99), you served as the company’s cross-training spokesperson. How did you feel about this great achievement and inspiring so many like you?
Gabrielle Reece:
I had the great fortune of having a relationship with Nike. I was in the right place at the right time.
All of the female athletes before me, the culture and everything, it created a ground for me to be able to be in the position to have my first signature shoe and be their first female athlete.
Hatfield was the designers of my shoe, he was the person who really was the main force behind brand Jordan. This relationship was similar to a team sport, you realize you’re more successful than you can ever be on your own, when you’re surrounded by really good people.
Wieden+Kennedy, the ad agency with Nike always did fun and creative things with me and then again, like I said, I had Tinker and so I felt really honored to have that opportunity with Nike, I love the brand and again they put their very best people all around me, so it made the opportunity to be successful and certainly more achievable.
Namita Nayyar:
Give us your Top 5 Health & Nutrition Tips to fight off obesity.
Gabrielle Reece:
I think obesity is such a broad term. I’m six three and I weigh hundred and almost 80 pounds, so this is what I believe is, first of all, you have to look at people’s genetics.
Secondly when being on any prescription medication makes it challenging to lose weight. Women going through menopause, being hormonally imbalanced can be challenging to maintain a healthy weight.
Studies say Americans drink twenty percent of their calories so clearly getting rid of all drinks including juices because they’re just loaded with sugar. Drinking sugar or consuming sugar without fiber goes straight to the liver so obviously this creates havoc on your system.
So for me I would avoid the sugary drinks, I would move on a regular basis, I would avoid processed foods and I know people are going to kill me but avoid microwaveing all these foods because this depletes nutrients, there’s no minerals, no enzymes, so now what you’re getting are empty calories. Also I think if somebody is having this issue to see if there’s something in their past or their childhood, a trauma of sorts that triggered this mechanism of protection which would be understandable but I think that sometimes we analyze just their exterior lifestyle and I think sometimes if there has been a trauma that’s unaddressed, it makes it challenging As far as having been successful, this is what I say, I don’t wake up each day thinking I can’t wait not to eat all the things that I think taste great and kill myself in training, what I do know how to do very well, is I learned how to create a system and I’ve put that in place so I can be successful.
The other thing I would suggest is to have somebody you’ve got to check in with and be accountable. Certainly food journaling is essential to this because it starts to let you really notice your habits and see like, oh when I was stressed out that day, look at how it changed my eating, so I think food journaling is also a great tool.
Namita Nayyar:
Tell us more about XPT – Extreme Performance Training.
Gabrielle Reece:
XPT is just an extension of what my husband, Laird Hamilton and I have been doing for a lot of years. So the notion of, we say this first and foremost, we really don’t know anything and we’re going to share what we know today and in a year hopefully, because you keep learning, it’s different.
XPT involves breathing routines for health and fitness I love sharing how to breathe properly is, you can do it anywhere, it’s cheap and you go figure it is the essence of life and it really can be a tool to either ramp you up and put you in your sympathetic system, get you ready to move down, put you into your parasympathetic before bed, get you to relax and things like that so I love the breathing.
We do a thermo regulation system which involves heat and ice.
I do heat and ice 2-3 times a week. There are benefits both mentally and physically from thermo regulation, I encourage everyone to look into it.
We also do pool training (underwater fitness) which is sort of the most unique part. We have developed over thirty underwater exercises, where you can work on your lung expansion and capacity but also you can do ballistic movements without pounding your joints. It’s for people of all ages and we have shallow up to deep water exercises.
People that like to do different exercises, that I don’t do, or vice versa so the ultimate thing behind XPT is also to encourage people to remember that they are uniquely different and can they take that time to figure out what really does work best for them.
We really feel to have a quality fitness program it needs to be scalable. It needs to benefit people of all ages and abilities. One thing great about XPT is that it is beneficial for everyone. The breathing, the water fitness, the heat and ice are incredible techniques for beginners all the way up to tactical forces.
Namita Nayyar:
You are the creator of HIGHX Training and joined forces with Lifeline® December of 2014 to launch a new HIGHX™ program worldwide. Tell us more about this endeavor of yours.
Gabrielle Reece:
I really love HIGHX. It was born out of a system of workouts that I put together for the community of Kauai.
HIGHX is a circuit that combines cardio, strength, balance and a little bit of flexibility. It enables a large amount of people to workout together and provide accountability. I put people on teams to enable the large group I had attending. These groups for example, could have a team full of highly fit 30 year-old men being followed by a group of 60 something old women. It keeps you continuously moving from station to station and as the instructor I can walk around and correct form and things like that versus standing at the front saying follow me in this choreographed move.
HIGHX was born out the thought process “I don’t know what to do, I don’t have time, I can’t afford an expensive workout, I get bored”. So this workout was the perfect solution.
Namita Nayyar:
Advice and motivational words to the inspiring and budding female volleyball players who all are your fans, they shall like to know from you, what they should do for their climb to ladder of success in this field?
Gabrielle Reece:
I try not to tell anyone, give them so much advice but I will say this and it’s true to anything we want to pursue in life. First of all get really grounded in your reasons why, so if you love something or it brings you great joy or it’s just a calling whatever it is, I think, that first build your desire to pursue something, on something that’s real so that on the days that it sucks you have that to lean on, because there are just as many challenging days as there are glorious days.
I would say that and that everything is hard work so not to be afraid of that and just expect that, don’t be surprise, don’t cry, when it gets hard, understand it’s hard, it’s all hard and when a coach tells you something if you can remember in that moment, hey all they’re trying to do is to make me better,
the other thing I learned especially as a female athlete is don’t take anything personal, it’s really important and it’s hard when you combine taking things personal in a competitive environment.
So the sooner we can get rid of that as female athletes, it certainly would serve the athlete in us even greater. So I think hard work and knowing this is really important and you know what if let’s say you started later and you’re not as talented as someone else, you are not as tall or whatever, don’t limit yourself. There is division two and three schools and what I really got from volleyball, even I played in division one school and professional, it had nothing to do with the size of school I was in and had to do with that I learned how to achieve a common goal with people, I learned how to succeed or I learned how to fail, win and lose, I learned how to work hard and believe in myself. These are the things that we really get from sport more than, I played at the UCLA or the Olympics, that is also a part of it but the realest part you can get just by participating.
Namita Nayyar:
What do you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and message for its visitors?
Gabrielle Reece:
When I think about fitness and women, I guess that at the end of the day, it always comes down to we invest so much in our hair and makeup and nails and clothing and then I just can’t think of a more important, fundamental investment in ourselves than our health and wellbeing. It’s not just about the aesthetics, again it goes back to the real reasons so I think that if women can do that for the reasons also beyond how they’re looking because they will be more productive, they will have more energy and be more efficient and effective and all these other things and they probably will look better, but it’s really seeing the value in that investment, in themselves and taking that at time for themselves to train, to eat well and sometimes we have to give ourselves a break like if you just had a baby, three days before, it’s ok, you’re recovering will get there. I think, the other thing I would say is also to really help one another, just to support each other and don’t be threatened by the other women’s greatness around you.
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All content on this site is copyright of Women Fitness and no part of any article found on this site may be reproduced without an express permission and highlighted, do follow link crediting http:// www.womenfitness.net/ or preferably the original page as the source. This interview is exclusive and taken by Namita Nayyar President womenfitness.net and should not be reproduced, copied or hosted in part or full anywhere without an express permission.
All Written Content Copyright © 2018 Women Fitness