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It’s been more than 40 years since Jane Fonda slipped on those famous purple leg warmers for her first aerobics video—and 50 since she logged her initial arrest for her activism—but the fitness icon wants you to know that the passage of time hasn’t weakened her backbone. Or, for that matter, her traps: “Every time my son hugs me, he says, ‘Oh my God, Mom, your back is so strong’,” Fonda tells SELF. “People aren’t used to hugging 87-year-olds and feeling muscle.”
For someone known for her fitness proficiency, it’s not really a surprise that working out continues to play a front-and-center role in her personal life. But Fonda’s never been one to sweat alone: She remains committed to helping others find their exercise mojo too. In December, she released four workouts on the Supernatural virtual reality fitness platform, available on the Meta Quest headset. Taught by Fonda herself, these routines pay homage to her fitness start—they include stretching, boxing, and a flow workout that’s similar to her original aerobics, right down to the striped leotard—and prove decades later that yes, you absolutely still can get a great sweat in right at home.
Sure, her own workouts don’t look exactly the same as they did decades past, but they’re still critical to her well-being: “It’s not that I don’t feel my age, but I’m pretty independent, and I’m strong,” she says. Here, she shares with SELF the key to maintaining a truly lifelong fitness habit—and what compels her to slip on her sneakers to keep moving and shaking.
Ditch the boring workouts you think you should do, and turn them into something you look forward to.
From the get-go, Fonda has believed that ho-hum routines just aren’t going to cut it, especially if you want to make fitness stick. That was one of the draws to the Supernatural app, where you’re transported via VR to faraway or imaginary places for fun, full-body workouts. Just like her original videos, which featured a cheerful group dynamic, upbeat music, and bouncy choreography, the Supernatural workouts take something that could be a chore and add an element of entertainment.
“I always was a believer that exercise should be fun,” Fonda says. “If it’s not fun, people probably won’t continue doing it.”
So she took the “location” decision for each of her workouts seriously. Out of Meta’s hundreds of available environments to sweat in, she specifically chose places she’d been before—for example, Machu Picchu and India—and those with bright colors or features that matched the mood she wanted to foster for each session. (Her stretching workout, for instance, is at the serene Gungnamji Pond, “a meditation garden in Korea with a beautiful temple in the background.”)
For her Box with Jane & Ludacris class—where yes, she’s joined by the Atlanta-based rapper—she thought it best to evoke a different kind of vibe: For this one, she chose to jab and weave in front of a volcano, complete with glowing lava.
“He’s very hot, and the workouts were really great and hot, and so I thought that would be a good background,” she says.
Own your age.
Speaking of Luda—he, like Supernatural creator Chris Milk, told Fonda he’d grown up watching his mom do her workouts. For some people this could be deflating, but Fonda took it as a point of pride.
“He said it was surreal for him to be actually doing a workout alongside me,” Fonda says. “That didn’t make me feel old. It made me feel really good. This guy that I’m boxing with was a little infant when he was watching me. But I’m still with you, kiddo.”
In other words, getting older isn’t something to be ashamed of, even in the fitness space, which, let’s be honest, tends to skew younger. Instead, Fonda now considers it motivation to keep moving.
“You want to remain independent, get in and out of cars without help, pick up your grandkids and all of that,” she says. “Staying strong is really important.”
Continue the workouts that make you feel good—but always modify as needed.
Fonda says she does essentially the same workouts she used to do, just at a more relaxed pace. This holds true both for her cardio and for strength training, both of which remain vital parts of her routine.
“It’s kind of like sex—slow is better,” she says. In fact, if she could go back and rerecord her earlier videos, she’d want to keep that nugget of advice in mind: Fonda says she probably would slow the movements down, so the broader population could follow along better and get the full benefits of each move.
While Fonda used to be a runner, she now walks or hikes instead for her cardio, preferably outdoors. On the days when her schedule allows, she meets with an “extremely nice and good” trainer for strength training. Each session lasts up to a full hour, and alternates among upper-body, lower-body, and combo days. “We make sure I work every muscle group,” Fonda says.
Doing all that on the regular left her fit enough that she didn’t have to do any kind of ramp up to lead the Supernatural classes. But she did choose a lower-intensity level of the class to coach, especially since she recently had shoulder replacement surgery. (Users are also encouraged to modify the experience in other ways that feel better for their bodies, including by removing lower-body movements or taking out turns.) Contrast that to her original workout, where Fonda can be seen doing moves like splits and seated stretches leaning all the way over her toes, while mentioning modifications for the less flexible in the voiceover.
Understand how physical strength contributes to personal (and collective!) power.
From the time she released her first videos, Fonda knew she was helping women build confidence that translated to other areas of their lives. She recalls a letter she once received from a woman who’d done her tapes.
“She said, ‘This morning, I was brushing my teeth and looking in the mirror, and there were new muscles in my arms I’ve never seen before. And when I went into work that day, I was able to stand up to my boss,’” Fonda says. “It made [women] say, ‘I am here. I’m taking up space. Deal with it.’ I was proud of that.”
And throughout her career, her fitness has driven her activism, sometimes quite literally: Her workout books, studios, and videos originally funded her progressive political organization, Campaign for Economic Democracy.
She’s still going strong on that front too—she was jailed again for climate activism in 2019, and has been speaking up against the recent shuttering of USAID—and has little doubt that her routine benefited her advocacy. (Though she notes that, of course, people of all physical abilities can be and are activists.)
“I can say without hesitation that staying flexible, staying strong, and maintaining a strong heart—in other words, an aerobic capacity—is really, really important, and it affects your brain, your mind, and your mood, as well as the rest of your body,” Fonda says. “When you feel good, when you’re healthy and strong, you are motivated to do more—go on a march, on a protest. I’m less afraid to be arrested and be in a jail cell. I do tend to do squats in jail cells.”
What’s more, when determined bodies and voices gather to fight for the earth and those living on it, each one finds their purpose—and that can lead them to take action, together, toward progress.
“People want to have meaning in their lives, and we are facing existential challenges right now,” she says. “I think that the more people speak up, take a stand, and join with others, the better it’s going to be for the future.”
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