Not too much has changed since the 1980s for Jane Fonda. The 85-year-old actress and home workout guru, who released several bestselling aerobics videos in the 1980s, revealed that she still does the iconic exercise routine from her premiere tape, 1982’s Workout. “It’s still relevant today because it really works. I’m 85 now and I can’t do the full workout per se, but I do the same moves only slower and with less weight, every day,” she revealed to ELLE in an interview published on Jan. 11.
However, she made sure to note that she works out to stay fit — not to be skinny. “Wanting to be bone thin is not good,” she stated. “It’s not good for your health, and it’s not good for your mind to be that deprived. Someone who’s in bed with you might not like it either, because you can get hurt on those hipbones!”
The Academy Award winner went on to describe how her exercises have changed as she’s aged. “If I were to go back 40 years to when I started the workout and see me now, I’d probably say ‘Oh, what a wuss! What the hell is she doing?!’ But the fact is that I have stayed in shape, even though I’m 85, by what I do, even if it is slower,” she explained.
“I used to be able to do bicep lifts with 10 pounds and now I do it with five, and I use a lot of resistance bands instead of machines because I don’t want to go to the gym,” she continued. “But the essential moves and the essential goal is the same: you want to strengthen your core and your back, which is especially important if you’re over 30. You want to be able to carry your grandchildren. And I can still do that.” The Book Club actress has two grandchildren and three children.
Jane previously revealed she worked out even when she had chemo for her non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a diagnosis she revealed in a Sept. 2022 Instagram post. “You just have to take care of yourself, which I do even now. Even the days that I get chemo, I still do a workout,” she told PEOPLE in Nov. 2022. “It’s slow and not what it used to be, but still, I’m moving and keeping strong.” Luckily, in December, the activist announced her cancer was in remission.