Health & Wellness

Women Spent Years Trying to Get Smaller—Jennifer Aniston’s Trainer Wants the Opposite

May 25, 2026

Women are always sold the same workout formula. You know the one; the endless cardio, tiny dumbbells, and the fear that lifting anything remotely heavy would somehow make them “bulky.” But that’s all shifting, now. And according to Dani Coleman, VP of Training at Pvolve and Jennifer Aniston’s longtime trainer, it’s long overdue.

On The Bossticks, Coleman chats about the biggest mistakes women still make with fitness and why muscle matters so much more than aesthetics. “It does so many more things than just making you look hot,” she says. “It’s a dopamine hit. You just feel amazing in your body.” That, and it helps support healthy aging more than you might realize.

And despite what women have been told for years, you won’t get bulky…unless you really try. “It takes so much energy and effort and like specific training to really bulk with muscle,” she explains. Which means a lot of women are finally starting to rethink the way they’ve approached fitness—and realizing strength training has a lot more to offer than they were led to believe.

Women are relearning what strength actually looks like

Get that whole Arnold-Shwarzenegger-in-the-90s look out of your head. The reality is, building noticeable muscle takes years of intense, consistent, highly specific training. Most women simply are not going to wake up one day looking like a bodybuilder because they picked up heavier dumbbells a few times a week.

And as women get older, avoiding strength training can actually work against them. “We’re at risk to lose three to eight percent of muscle mass per decade,” Coleman explains. That loss can impact everything from posture and stability to energy levels and how your body moves day to day.

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Host Lauryn Bosstick admits her own perspective completely changed once she started lifting consistently. “You put on your jeans, and they fit differently, and you feel different, and your posture is different.” That’s probably why so many women who start strength training suddenly become evangelical about it. Once you feel the difference, it’s hard to unfeel it.

Jennifer Aniston’s fitness mindset has changed, too

Aniston has been evolving, too. Coleman says one of the biggest things she’s watched while training the Friends star is her idea of what a “good” workout actually looks like. For years, so many women were taught that exercise had to leave them exhausted, sore, or completely drained to count for something. Aniston apparently used to think that way, too. “You don’t have to break your body down to get a good workout,” Coleman says—what a relief that is.

She explains that Aniston has dealt with injuries in the past and used to gravitate toward more grueling workouts before shifting her focus toward strength, mobility, and longevity. “To see her mentality more so shift with how she imagines what a successful workout is, that’s been probably the most rewarding as a trainer,” Coleman says.

And watching Aniston get physically stronger over the years? That’s been “game changing,” for the celebrity trainer.

Muscle impacts way more than aesthetics

Yes, strength training can change your physique, but she says the bigger benefits are often the ones women don’t immediately see. “Weight training and all the capacities that you touched on, especially for women, I think just touches on so many things outside of just physicality,” Coleman reveals. “It’s also your confidence, your mental well-being, and truly like, I think how you carry yourself throughout the world.”

A huge part of that comes down to mobility, too. Strength without mobility can leave the body feeling stiff and restricted, which is why Pvolve focuses so heavily on both. “When your body has good mobility, it only enhances your strength work,” Coleman says. “Think deeper squats, smoother presses, better pushes.”

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Movements that support posture and everyday function are equally as important—especially glute and core work. “When you have stronger glutes, you stand better, you stand taller, the entire rest of the body is supported.”

To hear the full conversation, listen to The Bossticks wherever you get your podcasts.