Bond Girl Naomie Harris' Non-Negotiable Fitness Rule

From Women's Health

Actor Naomie Harris has shared her cardinal fitness rule for keeping fit, and really, it's less tire-flipping or tuck jumps than you might think.

Rising to global fame with her roles in James Bond franchise films Skyfall, Spectre and the upcoming No Time to Die, Harris' strong bod actually has more to do with how she recovers than how she trains – something that star opened up to Women's Health about when we quizzed her on her top healthy habits.

While the star likes to exercise, she swims, does gyrotonics (a mixture of yoga, reformer pilates and tai chi) enjoys kick-boxing and circuit training, Harris' number one rule when it comes to fitness is really quite simple:

Without sleep, exercise is nothing.

'Everyone focuses on "do you exercise"', Harris says. 'But, if you're only getting five hours sleep a night then it doesn't really matter and you're probably doing yourself a disservice. Sleeping is incredibly important – specifically good quality sleep,' she finishes.

Well, we know that you know how important sleep is, we bang on about it all the time. But how many of you are actually getting enough sleep, because when the figures stack up, it's a pretty worrying forecast:

According to the Sleep Council, 33% of British people are getting only five to six hours kip per night, something that the impact of can really stack up over time.

Regularly skiving on those sacred Z's has been shown to hamper the immune system, cause chaos with your gut and can even lead to weight gain, putting your body under more stress. Spoiler: this stress can be exacerbated by exercise.

So next time you're thinking about what workouts you're going to crush that week, look at your life more holistically: are you going to be able to get good quality sleep to make those workouts a body-benefit as opposed to a body-hindrance?

Whether that means you need to focus on perfecting your clean sleeping routine, hacking the reason why you find it so hard to drift off or nixing the foods and habits that keep you wide-awake come 11pm, you owe it to yourself – and your goals, tbh – to make it as good as poss.

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