Will Jardell revamps his training plan to get back into runway shape

Will Jardell always has to look “fit” to get his next job and he has no problem doing so.

The 35-year-old model and reality star reminisces about something from years ago visible on America’s Next Top Model, He was in great shape and feeling fantastic.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving in 2021, when Jardell went to bed and woke up the next morning with extreme back pain and suddenly couldn’t move, his whole world collapsed.

“I couldn’t get up and walk and my back was completely stuck, which kept me from being active for about a year,” explains Jardel. Muscle and health. “I spent about a year trying to figure out what was going on (and) really just living a kind of sedentary life. And then, spent another year finding out I have lower back arthritis at age 34, which is crazy. Figuring out how to get stronger, how to do physical therapy that strengthens my core that will give some relief from the initial pain I was having in my back.”

The doctors were equally surprised Jardel What really happened, and what felt like every test under the sun, including some blood tests, helped get some answers on how to directly address the arthritis.

“It’s genetic in my family,” Jardel says of his diagnosis that took more than two years to receive. “I really studied intensively for about a year, so stayed in physical therapy for the whole of 2024, and like minimal exercise, but really focused on physical therapy to stretch and strengthen my spinal muscles to help relieve my back pain.”

Yet despite diagnosis and months of PT, lasting relief is still out of reach.

“I tried everything,” the former dance teacher adds. “Chiropractor, injections, acupuncture, massages all the time, really just trying to get a little bit of pain relief. And everyone was saying, ‘Do you feel better?’ And I was like, ‘Honestly, no.’

40 pounds wakeup call

As someone who played sports and danced all her life, the emotional impact of this was hard on Jardell.

“I was working out all the time, and then all of a sudden we stopped full stop,” Jardell says. “It really affects those endorphins that you get from being physically active, just turning them off. And so I really just struggle mentally. I’m in so much pain that I can’t do any of the things that really bring me joy, and so it affected my mental health, it affected my diet. I wasn’t working out at all, and so it had a huge impact on my life in general.”

Due to the lack of any permanent activity, the former amazing Race The contestant gained an unwanted 40 pounds, bringing his usually healthy weight to 250, a number Jardell never thought he would see on the scale.

“I lead a very active lifestyle and so when all this happened, it was really hard, not being able to move my body was really challenging,” Jardell says. “I struggled with all this, how I looked and how I felt, not being able to move, but once I was able to get back in the gym, because I played sports and had people train me, I thought, ‘I need someone to tell me what to do, because I don’t really know what to do.'”

Even though he was diagnosed with the disease, Jardel admits he didn’t make working out a priority for a while. Full body workouts revealed that it was not just her weight that was off, but also things like her cholesterol, and she was acutely aware that things needed to change.

“I thought I was really managing the pain, but in that vein, my weight was still increasing,” Jardel says. “And then I did another round of blood tests a few months later, really focused on the whole body panel, and he was like, ‘You need to focus again on like the pain, yes, let’s manage it, but also, let’s exercise and be physically active to get our cholesterol right, lose weight, a little broader impact.’

Rediscovering his athleticism required a realignment of training and nutrition.

After deciding he needed to find his inner athlete once again right around his 35th birthday, Jardell sought help Chris Evans And health changes To start losing weight.

“I was a little scared about aging,” Jardell admits. “To start, we really focused on, ‘What are your goals? Where do you want to be?’ And I really wanted to get back to the weight I was at, but one of the things that is important to me is strength and feeling strong, because I know when I’m strong, it helps with my pain and my spinal alignment. And focused so much on the workouts that I could really build strength in those muscles.

Evans helped Jardell design a workout plan that he could follow consistently by mixing cardio and strength training to target the entire body.

“I love squats, which is crazy,” Jardell says. “I have some really strong legs. I think it’s because I’m a dancer. I love alternating lunges. I had to force myself to do arm and chest exercises. They’re my least favorite, but I started liking them more because they’re more on my workout plan than before.”

To match his increasing strength in the gym, Evans also increased Jardell’s overall training program.

“When we started, I was doing three gym workouts a week. I was doing two HIIT classes a week at Orange Theory, and then also classes at Solid Core, so I was working out six days a week to really kick it into high gear.”

As per the plan, Jardell was committed to following every instruction given by Evans.

“In the beginning, I told them, ‘I’m a good student,'” he says. ‘If you ask me to do something, I will do it, and I will not let you down.’ And so we actually run six days a week, and focus on calorie intake to make sure I’m getting adequate nutrition, while still losing weight.

The reality television star also adjusted her eating habits by focusing on consuming more lean protein, which came with a few setbacks.

“One of the challenges for me is that I’m a vegetarian,” Jardel says. “I think in those last years where I was gaining weight, it was a challenge to find food that was high in protein and not have comfort food that I would gravitate towards. And so I was really focusing on getting vegetable protein and reducing the amount of carbs and calories from the food I was eating.

To bridge that protein gap, he decided he needed to become a little more flexible nutritionally with his longtime vegetarian approach.

“I’ve incorporated fish into my diet, and so I usually eat some type of fish to get high protein meals during the day. But honestly, I’ve probably doubled my protein intake since working with Chris, just because I personally was having a hard time getting enough protein on a vegetarian diet. So we’ve now opened ourselves up to eating fish as well.”

Since November 2025, Jardell has lost 30 pounds. And took off one shirt and three pant sizes. While the scale says she has to lose 10 more pounds to get back to her pre-diagnosis weight, she’s focused on doing something different.

“I know my muscles are growing,” Jardell says. “I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where I’m still losing weight, but in turn I’m also gaining that muscle, and so I’m really proud of where I am right now. Honestly, you only have one body. You only have the facility that you’ve got, and so when you commit to working out, commit yourself and your Maintain the healthiest version you can. There are so many wide-ranging effects that that commitment is worth it tenfold, and so by protecting the one body you have, the rewards are endless.”