What Jennifer Aniston’s yacht plank can and cannot tell us about short workouts

Jennifer Aniston was photographed holding a plank during a yacht holiday near Mallorca, where she was traveling with Courteney Cox, Pedro Pascal and Jim Curtis. The image is a simple example of an exercise that needs little space, but it is not evidence that one movement or a 10-minute routine will produce the same results for everyone.

That distinction matters. A celebrity photograph can start a useful conversation about staying active while traveling. It cannot reveal Aniston’s complete training program, medical history, coaching or the factors behind her appearance.

What was observed on the Mallorca trip

Aniston, 57, and Cox, 62, were photographed aboard a yacht off Mallorca in late July. Coverage by People documented Aniston kayaking and Cox preparing to swim. Vogue’s account described separate photographs of Aniston performing a forearm plank on deck.

The responsible claim is therefore limited: Aniston included some physical activity during the trip. It would be speculation to infer the duration, intensity or effectiveness of her full workout from the available images.

A plank can be useful, but form and context matter

A forearm plank is an isometric exercise: the body holds a position while muscles around the trunk, shoulders and hips work to maintain alignment. It can be adapted by shortening the hold, placing the knees down or using a stable elevated surface.

The exercise is not appropriate in every setting. Wet decking, an unsecured bench or a position close to a pool edge adds avoidable risk. Anyone who feels pain, dizziness or unusual shortness of breath should stop. People with relevant injuries, balance problems or medical conditions should seek individual guidance from a qualified professional.

No fixed hold time is necessary for every person. A shorter, well-controlled repetition can be more appropriate than remaining in poor form to reach an arbitrary target.

Short activity sessions count, but they are not a complete plan

Short sessions can make movement easier to fit around travel, work or caring responsibilities. Current US guidance does not require aerobic activity to occur in 10-minute minimum blocks, so brief periods can contribute to a person’s weekly total.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days. Older adults are also advised to include balance work. People who cannot meet the full recommendations are encouraged to be as active as their abilities and circumstances allow.

A plank may support a strength session, but it does not replace aerobic, lower-body, mobility and balance activities. Nor does one holiday workout establish a lasting habit. The practical value of a short session is that it can keep someone moving when a longer routine is unrealistic.

What the Antalya study actually found

Published in BMC Geriatrics on July 28, 2026, the cross-sectional study included 214 adults aged 60 and older who attended a Third Age University in Antalya, Türkiye. It was not a worldwide study and did not examine Aniston or holiday workouts.

Participants completed measures of self-reported physical activity, perceived barriers, exercise-related beliefs and functional fitness. In the researchers’ final model, functional-fitness measures added 16.2 percentage points to the explained variation in activity. Aerobic endurance and lower-limb flexibility were independently associated with reported physical activity. Personal barriers had a weak negative association, while the study’s health-belief measure added little explanatory value after demographic factors were considered.

Those findings describe associations in a selected educational-community sample. Because the research collected its variables at roughly the same time, it cannot show whether better fitness caused people to be more active or regular activity improved their fitness. The authors also noted that their belief measure did not include self-efficacy and that some subscales had ceiling effects.

The study should therefore inform questions, not prescriptions. It suggests that physical capacity and practical barriers deserve attention alongside general knowledge about exercise. It does not prove that a particular short workout will improve activity levels in all older adults.

A more useful takeaway than celebrity comparison

The most defensible lesson from Aniston’s yacht plank is modest: movement can be adapted to the available time and space. For one person, that may mean a brief bodyweight session. For another, it may be walking, swimming or a balance exercise performed in a safer environment.

The goal should not be to reproduce a celebrity’s appearance from a photograph. It should be to choose activity that is safe, repeatable and appropriate to the person’s health and abilities.