Decades before Instagram coaches, TikTok trainers, and yoga classes on YouTube, Jane Fonda became the first celebrity-turned-fitness influencer. With her best-selling video, Jane Fonda’s Workout, she revolutionized at-home exercise. The 1982 tape marked the beginning of a shift in fitness culture, opening up the formerly male-dominated industry to women worldwide, launching an aerobics class craze, and even influencing fashion (a former ballet practitioner, Fonda wore leg warmers in her videos, inspiring yet another trend).
Ever the early adopter, the octagenarian Oscar-winning actress (she’s a Grammy shy of an EGOT) and activist is taking another technological leap, bringing her exercises to virtual reality with the help of Meta Quest’s Supernatural platform. “I went from a VCR to VR, which is kind of a kick,” Fonda tells W.
Subscribers to the series can take one of four classes created by Fonda, including a nostalgic session harkening back to her aerobics origins, a boxing class led in tandem with rapper Ludacris, a stretching session to cool down, and a class that can be taken with friends.
Jane Fonda for Meta Quest Supernatural
To celebrate Fonda’s return to the fitness world after a 40-year break, she spoke with W about her current health routine, goals and what keeps her motivated:
You pioneered the world of home workouts, inspiring women, in particular, to get into cardio. What’s your fitness routine like these days?
When I’m home, I exercise every day. One day, I do upper body; one day, I do lower body. My preferred cardio is walking. Depending on the weather, I also do the treadmill and bike indoors. The operative word is slower—I do a lot of the same exercises I used to. I just do them slower.
We’re coming up on the New Year, a time of intention-setting. Do you have any resolutions or goals?
I think it’s great to make New Year’s resolutions—and to keep them. My resolutions are usually things like: I pledge to be less judgmental, to expand my heart, and to be more empathetic. Fitness goals have always been year-round for me, ever since I was a teenager.
Fonda in 1984, two years after her first workout tape was released.
Harry Langdon/Archive Photos/Getty Images
What’s it been like to witness the evolution of fitness culture these past four decades?
Back in the fifties and sixties, women weren’t supposed to be fit. They weren’t supposed to have muscles, they weren’t supposed to sweat. I did ballet because it was the most rigorous form of exercise that really had an effect on your body. Then I met [exercise instructor] Leni Cazden, who taught me ‘The Workout.’ It changed my life. I began to study exercise physiology, and I developed the series. I don’t consider myself at the forefront of things, but I carry other people’s messages well. I am too old to have been part of the virtual reality revolution, but when Supernatural came to me, I thought it was just genius. You don’t have to understand technology to enjoy the workout.
Looking back, is there something you wish you knew about health and fitness when you were younger?
You take health for granted when you’re young, but it’s when you’re laying the foundation for the future. When you get older, everything depends on whether you’re healthy. I’m 87, but I’m healthy. My father died 10 years younger than I am now. He seemed so old because he had heart disease. Everything depends on keeping your body limber and strong and keeping your heart healthy, and you get your heart healthy through cardio.
You’ve been making contributions to the world—through art, activism, and wellness—for a long time. What keeps you going?
The fact that I am not alone as I fight for a livable future in combination with other people. It’s the fact that I am with other people who share values and strategy and who see a way forward. And we do it with joy—it’s fun! That gives me hope, and so do all the young people doing the same thing in concert with others.
