How Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union 'Grind Together' at the Gym
Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union have a solid marriage and enviable careers, but they also have something else that makes them such a power couple: an awesome workout routine. Wade and Union have been open about how they stay healthy and in shape, both separately and together. Here's what they have shared.
Dwyane Wade's Workout
Wade has been one of the NBA's most popular players since he first entered the league in 2003, and the three-time champ works hard on and off the court to keep in shape.
Wade has worked with various trainers, but the best-known is Tim Grover, a strength and conditioning guru and owner of training facility ATTACK Athletics. He has also worked with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Grover had worked with Wade for years, but he most noticeably helped Wade recover when he was struggling with bone bruises in 2013.
As Wade told to Stack.com in 2013, "My body is my temple, so I made sure that I dedicated myself to him [Grover] -not only on the court, but probably in the weight room more so."
"We always start on the court to get shots going and to get into a rhythm...Then we take it into the weight room, which right now is probably the most important part," Wade said in an article on his website. "We do a lot of things that focus on my explosiveness and agility and power in the mix of a 30-minute workout, a very tough 30-minute workout."
Grover explained that the sets Wade completes during those half-hour workouts are designed to improve his flexibility and strengthen his shoulders. "The [supersets] are a combination of explosive movements timed with endurance movements," Grover said. "There are times in basketball when Dwyane’s just jogging back and forth, and then he has to do an explosive movement, then he slows down again."
Wade also posted his full workout on his website, and his workouts include hamstring curls, leg presses, and ankle circuits.
Last year, MensHealth.com was able to work out with Wade and his trainer David Alexander. The workout was the day after the team Wade was playing for-the Chicago Bulls-beat the Golden State Warriors, so it was more about recovery than performance. The group went through anaerobic exercises like med ball slams, box jumps, and ladder footwork, as well as sprints and core work.
Wade frequently works out with his teammates. He's posted various photos and videos with his Miami Heat teammate Udonis Haslem; the two go through various routines that include balance work, squats, and weight lifting.
And even though they no longer play for the same team, Wade and LeBron James still work out together, practicing their shots and running drills.
Gabrielle Union's Workout
Gabrielle Union has graced movie and television screens since the 2000s, but the 45-year-old actress doesn't look like she's aged a bit. She credits that to her exercise routine, as well as her daily habits. As she told Fitness, "I started drinking a gallon of water a day in my mid-thirties and some people have called me a vampire or that I'm using embalming fluid, or other crazy things. But honestly, my hair, skin, and nails all changed once I started drinking a gallon of water a day."
The actress likes to do daily cardio on a treadmill or elliptical machine, and she keeps track of her rate rate while she does it. "Keep your heart rate in your fat-burning zone. For me, it’s between 120 to 160," she told Us Weekly.
Union's trainer, Ahmad Baari, also told the magazine the actress will tell him what she needs to work on. "Depending on her schedule we'll do about three or four months that I will see her regularly, she'll leave and then come back and we work to get her back to where she wants to be. She tells me exactly what she needs," he explained.
She frequently posts her workouts online, and as Shape reports, she shared her total-body circuit workout at DBC Fitness in Miami on Instagram in January. Union went through everything from barbell and box pistol squats to mid cable rotations and sled pushes. She was also at DBC in April, and she worked out with Udonis Haslem's wife, Faith. The duo squatted, sprinted, and lifted weights.
However, Union is very frank about the fact that she works out because of her health, not just because of aesthetics. "I have a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and I know that can lead to an early death," the actress told Women's Health in 2017. "I want to be a vital and energetic part of my family for a long time, not to be big mama in a rocking chair in the TV room, or huffing and puffing just going up stairs. I work out not because I get off on it, but because I want to live!
The Wade-Union Partner Workout
While most couples spend their anniversary doing things like going to dinner and exchanging gifts, Wade and Union spent their fourth anniversary this past August going hard in the gym.
In a video of their couples workout at the Heart and Hustle gym, the Wade and Union worked out on an elliptical machine, threw weight balls, lifted weights, and did lunges and squats together - all to the tune of Drake's "Nonstop."
Wade and Union later posted photos from the workout, emphasizing their time spent getting fit as a couple.
Of course, it wasn't the couple's first time partnering up in the gym. In July 2017, Union posted a series of videos to Instagram Stories. In the first video, the duo runs on treadmills, while the second snap shows Union squatting while Wade coaches her.
And in 2015, Union also spoke to Us Weekly about how the couple stays in shape together. "We have a basketball court at our house, so we have shooting contests and a game of 21," she said. And the boys [Wade's sons] were into those hoverboard scooter things, so I jog alongside them with the dogs."
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