Maybe an 84-year-old was the real fitness inspiration we’ve needed all along?
Lucky for us, a 112-page book about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s workout routine is being released on Oct. 3, Refinery29 reports.
Co-created by Ginsuburg’s personal trainer Bryant Johnson and illustrator Patrick Welsh, “The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong... and You Can Too!” details Ginsburg’s rigorous workout alongside images of the justice exercising in her court robes, purple leggings and sneakers.
This isn’t the first time Ginsburg’s workout routine has been in the headlines. The justice, who is also fond of Canadian Air Force exercises, has been noted to be able to complete 20 traditional pushups, with her knees off the ground, and speculation about her health has only intensified since the election of American President Donald Trump.
Concerns about her retirement or potential death, leaving a liberal vacancy in the Supreme Court for Trump to fill with a conservative, have prompted well-wishers to ask after her health, offer to give her their blood, and encourage her to eat enough kale, reports The National Post.
Earlier this year, Politico’s Ben Schreckinger attempted Ginsburg’s fitness regimen with the help of Johnson. The experience wasn’t as easy as he’d anticipated.
“I was able to match Ginsburg’s pushups feat with only a little grunting, though Ginsburg never grunts, as Johnson felt compelled to tell me at one point. He also let me know, as I peppered him with questions, that unlike me, Ginsburg barely rests between sets,” Schreckinger wrote in the piece.
Concerns about her retirement or potential death, leaving a liberal vacancy in the Supreme Court for Trump to fill with a conservative, have prompted well-wishers to ask after her health.
“As for Ginsburg’s continued vitality, after going through one of her workouts I can confirm she could not be in better hands. Sore, disoriented and cranky, I didn’t feel a day over 65,” the 27-year-old reporter concluded.
Ginsburg works out with Johnson at least twice a week for around an hour and does cardio, stretching, planks, pushups, and much more, according to Mic. She can even bench 70 pounds. Ginsburg has said her trainer is a very important part of her life.
Johnson’s been Ginsburg’s trainer since 1999 when her husband encouraged her to take up a gym routine to help her get back in shape after intensive treatment for colon cancer, according to The Associated Press.
“When I started, I looked like a survivor of Auschwitz,” Ginsburg said in a 2013 interview with The Washington Post. “Now I’m up to 20 pushups.”
Johnson’s day job is as a record’s manager in the clerk’s office in Washington, D.C., and he’s also an army reservist. Along with Ginsburg, he also trains her fellow justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.
“Exercise is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter what size, shape or color you are,” Johnson also told the Post. “A push-up is a push-up, no matter how you look at it.”
Ginsburg, who survived cancer a second time in 2009, this time in her pancreas, said Johnson’s training was vital to her life.
“I attribute my well-being to our meetings twice a week. It’s essential,” she said.
A champion of women’s rights, equal pay, and marriage equality, it’s good to know Ginsburg will soon be championing our workout routines too.
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