Celine Dion's Healing Fitness Routine Is Perfect For Older Women Regaining Their Strength

It's safe to say that whenever Celine Dion gets knocked down by life, she'll always get back up again with her head held high. Despite receiving a diagnosis of stiff-person syndrome back in 2022, Dion found her way back to the stage again on September 12, 2026, for her first performance after a six-year hiatus. But in order to physically prepare herself for her Paris residency and maintain her mobility and endurance, the "My Heart Will Go On" singer has since unveiled her stringent workout regimen (alongside these other celebs who take working out seriously). 

As a result, Women turned to NASM-certified personal trainer and founder of Myri Health, Dr. Pinkey Patel, for further insight into how Celine Dion's fitness routine could help older women regain their strength. Dion's regimen consists of a rigorous weekly routine of ballet and Pilates that spans five days. These exercises are purported to not only assist the singer with her disorder, but it could also help address several common concerns for older women. "Pilates and ballet can both be incredibly useful as women get older because they train things we tend to lose if we don't actively maintain them: balance, coordination, mobility, postural control, and strength through a large range of motion," Patel explains to us. 

This would certainly be a good opportunity to delve into our guide to wall Pilates for a perfect at-home workout, but Patel recommends that a different type of exercise be added to your routine that would be ideal for older women. 

When it comes to exercises to help older women regain their strength, Dr. Patel warns that Celine Dion's workout is still lacking one crucial component. To retain and build muscle strength, our resident expert highly advises us to include strength training as well. "I would not use either Pilates or ballet as a replacement for traditional resistance training," Patel cautions to Women, adding, "Women begin losing muscle mass and strength as we age ... Preserving those tissues requires ... progressive resistance training, along with appropriate weight-bearing and impact-based exercise when it is safe for the individual." Patel then notes that, alongside ballet and Pilates, strength training should ideally be done thrice a week. 

With this in mind, you might be keen to book your first ballet and Pilates sessions right away. But our resident expert has some additional words of wisdom for those who've never done either exercise before. It's important to realize that both ballet and Pilates are entirely different beasts, so even if you are quite the fitness fanatic, it's better to be safe than sorry by starting with an introductory class. "[For ballet,] people underestimate how much work happens below the knee," Patel explains, "Start conservatively and allow those tissues time to build capacity." 

Of course, do not forget to keep your trainer informed of any previous injuries or conditions to help tailor your workouts to your needs. It's advice well worth its weight for women looking to get into exercising in their 50s and beyond, and there's no better time to start than today.