For someone we can’t see, John Cena certainly knows how to conjure a vivid portrait of himself with his words.
During his appearance on Amy Poehler’s podcast “Good Hang,” released July 21, the former wrestler shared his secrets to staying fit — and flexible — at 49.
He said the most important thing he does is stretch in the shower every morning. Specifically, he touches his toes.
“If you walk in on me taking a shower, you’ll see me in a different POV,” he joked, adding, “Every morning, full spread.”
That said, the “heavy stretchy stuff” is not something he loves about his fitness routine.
“I hate it,” he said. “And I do it a lot. All the time.”
He works on his flexibility because the part of his body that “barks the most” is his lower back, which he joked was typical for someone around his age.
“You got to,” he told Poehler of stretching, calling the aging body “a crusty rubber band — don’t let it get too weird.”
Cena stopped wrestling because he wants to ‘enjoy a long, good life’
Cena made his professional wrestling debut in 1999 and spent a quarter-century in WWE, which isn’t exactly easy on the body. He announced his retirement in 2024 and wrestled his final match in 2025.
“I’m never performing physically again,” he told Poehler. “I need to stop, because physically, I want to enjoy a long, good life.
“I don’t want to have a bunch of crusty years of punishing my body.”
He added that he knows “the math isn’t in my favor” for good years, so that’s where the stretching comes in.
“Physically, I’m good,” he said.
Flexibility has been linked to longevity
Research suggests that a greater level of flexibility could be linked to a lower risk of dying early.
A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports in 2024 found that “people with a higher flexibility score were significantly less likely to die during the study than participants with a lower score,” Business Insider reported at the time. This study was observational, which means more testing is needed to truly prove the hypothesis, but it tracks with what other experts have said.
Static stretching is one way to slowly improve your flexibility, and touching your toes could be a great place to start.
“I want to move around, so I can talk about it or do it. And it sucks, I hate it, and I do it,” Cena told Poehler. “And it’s great. I like to do it, because I like what it yields.”
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