5 days Ago By Laurie Brookins
More than four decades ago, Jane Fonda ignited the 1980s fitness revolution with one question: “Are you ready to do the Workout?” Among the clearest indicators of how times have changed is the statement the icon makes in the teaser of her latest exercise venture: “It’s Fonda, bitch.” Then again, candor is one of the traits that has defined the actress and activist throughout her legendary life and career, and why she’s a beloved cultural figure today at 87 years old. Fonda’s speech when accepting the Life Achievement Award at February’s Screen Actors Guild Awards quickly went vira l when she noted that acting is rooted in empathy, and pivoted to a rebuke of MAGA politics: “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke.
And by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.” In a reprise of her defiant 1970 mugshot , when she was arrested at the height of her anti-Vietnam activism, she raised a fist. Accolades for Fonda’s speech soon followed.
“There’s a lot of people that are older that have marched, that have protested in the past that are now saying, ‘You know, we’re tired. It’s time that the young people do it.’ And Jane Fonda just reminded us that you are never too old, that you are never too successful,” Ana Navarro, co-host of The View , said the next morning.
Prior to the SAG Awards , Fonda already was proving age can be irrelevant. She recently partnered with Meta’s Supernatural, a fitness and wellness app that employs virtual reality, enabling the user to appear in some experiences as though they’re in the same Beverly Hills studio where Fonda launched her phenomenally successful aerobics video in 1982. “When I arrived at the center [for filming], it looked just like the sets in my videos,” Fonda tells The Hollywood Reporter .
“We wore the same kind of costumes and leg warmers. They tried to recreate in virtual reality my workout of the ’80s. It was really great.
” When it launched in 1982, Jane Fonda’s Workout quickly became a hit and ultimately was one of the top-ranked VHS tapes of all time, selling more than 17 million copies. Fast-forward to 2025, and she is indeed wearing that instantly familiar striped leotard throughout Jane Fonda x Supernatural, which offers four virtual-reality workouts that can be enjoyed in a variety of customizable experiences. “Flow with Jane Fonda” highlights retro elements, including music by Olivia Newton-John and Donna Summer, while “Jane Fonda: Stretching” combines her one-on-one standing stretch session amid the virtual serenity of Korea’s Gungnamji Pond.
In “Jane Fonda: Team Workout” you can connect with friends in other locations via VR to participate in a group workout, and in “Box with Jane Fonda & Ludacris,” the star partners with the actor/rapper in a boxing workout set to hip-hop music, and which can be adjusted according to desired intensity. “One of my mantras back in the ’70s and ’80s, when I was creating the workout, was that it needed to be fun,” Fonda explains. “So I chose the music, and I took quite a bit of time choosing the backgrounds.
I invited Ludacris, who’s a friend of mine. The workouts I did with him take place in a volcano, which is really profound. I felt pretty hip, to be honest.
” “We partnered with Jane Fonda to help people see movement as something actually enjoyable,” says Sapna Champaneria Kirk, head of marketing for Supernatural. “She was the first to make at-home fitness fun, inspiring millions to embrace cardio in their living rooms. Now, she’s continuing her legacy with us to prove that with VR fitness and Supernatural working out doesn’t have to feel like work.
” Fonda also credits Leanne Pedante, Supernatural’s head of fitness, for helping her to adapt to working out in virtual reality. “She made it very, very easy for me,” she says. “I was pretty proud of myself.
I could get in there and keep up with those young ones.” The workout collection requires a subscription to the Supernatural app and a Meta Quest virtual reality headset, which starts at $299.99 .
She may be acutely aware of her 87 years, but Fonda says she didn’t hesitate when asked to put her name on workouts in the tech-forward platform. “I said, ‘Let me try. I want to do this.
Let me see.’ And it was really fun,” she says. “I’m smack-dab in the middle of serious oldness at 87, and the primary way that my personal workout has changed is it is slower.
I know the old joints and everything just can’t move as fast as they did in the ’80s and ’90s. So everything is slowed down, but a lot of the movements are the same.” Instead of running, Fonda points out, she walks.
Instead of doing bicep curls using 10-lb. weights — “well, yesterday I did 8 lbs.,” she adds.
“But one of the things I’m learning is that staying fit, staying strong and flexible when you’re older is way more important than when you’re younger. Unless you want to end up in a wheelchair and be totally dependent on others, you have to stay strong, getting in and out of cars, carrying your own luggage, lifting up your grandkids, or looking over your shoulder when you’re backing up a car. They all become challenging under any circumstance, but if you’re flexible and strong, it gets easier.
And I wanted to do that because I have grandkids.” A commitment to exercise is also key to a remark Fonda hears often, that she looks amazing for her age. “It has to do with how you move, how you carry yourself, your posture,” she notes.
“And you can’t carry yourself well and have good posture if your back isn’t strong. So staying strong and flexible — and I work a lot on balance — this is all critical for staying young. I’m 87, and I’ll tell you what, I was a lot older at 20 than I am at 87, and it has to do with what’s going on in your head.
So in some ways, I’m younger today. But it also just makes a huge difference as a performer; walking down a red carpet, for example, you can do it with confidence, because you don’t worry about falling down. It just makes all the difference in the world, and I feel very grateful that I’m able to continue doing it.
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