A Supreme workout challenge
Justice keeps up rigorous fitness regimen
Think you can keep up with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ? You might want to think again. The 84-year-old “is TAN — tough as nails,” says her personal trainer, Bryant Johnson, whose book
The RBG Workout hits the Internet and bookstores today.
Forget the fiber, fresh air and blood transfusions, liberals: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg can take perfectly good care of herself, thank you.
This I learned Monday by attempting the very squats, curls, planks and push-ups performed twice weekly by the 84-year-old justice under the tutelage of personal trainer Bryant Johnson, whose book, The RBG Workout, reached the Internet and bookstores Tuesday.
Several of those attempts were futile. Though the justice has a couple of decades on me, she apparently has better balance, flexibility and core muscles. She requires less rest between sets and, from reliable reports, much less sleep.
Ginsburg hails Johnson as the most important person in her life. Twice weekly, they meet at the Supreme Court’s gym, where they work out for a solid hour to the beat of the PBS NewsHour.
“I am often consumed by the heavy lifting Supreme Court judging entails, reluctant to cease work until I am sure I’ve got it right,” Ginsburg wrote in the book’s fore- word. “But when time comes to meet with Bryant, I leave off and join him at the gym for justices.”
PUSH-UPS AND POLITICS
“Exercise will not necessarily make you live longer, but it will improve your quality of life,” Johnson says. It increased Ginsburg ’s bone density after a lengthy bout with colon cancer in 1999.
That’s good news for millions of liberals who worry about the justice’s well-being during President Trump’s time in office. The two have exchanged insults: Ginsburg called him a “faker” during last year’s campaign, and Trump responded that “her mind is shot.” Will she be able to serve four or eight more years, or however many are needed to get a Democrat in the White House?
The website Axios reported Sunday that Trump expects to replace three more Supreme Court justices, including Ginsburg, after this year’s confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Antonin Scalia.
Johnson isn’t in search of a happy political ending, only a healthy one. He swears he would train Trump if asked, or any of the conservative justices. (Alas, only liberals have inquired; he since has taken on Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.)
“A lunge, a plank, a squat, a push-up — it doesn’t care who you voted for,” Johnson says.
To keep the petite Ginsburg in shape, he pushes her through a series of stretches and strength exercises, always paying heed to working both sides of the body — chest and back, quads and hamstrings, hips and buttocks.
“Yes, I work the justice’s booty, too,” he says. Nothing is off limits in the name of fitness.
Monday’s workout showed that the justice keeps fit. It included chest presses and pull-downs, leg curls and extensions, donkey kicks and roundhouse kicks, regular push-ups and medicine ball pushups, front and side planks. Hardest by far: one-legged “pistol squats,” which apparently require quad and core muscles this reporter lacks.
“She is TAN — tough as nails,” says Johnson, 53, a records manager at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Over 18 years, he says, she has not regressed at all.
ONE TERM AT A TIME
Johnson has designed the workout to feature functional exercises — those that will help aging athletes get on and off a toilet, or reach items on a top shelf, when there’s no one around to help.
After ignoring pleas from some liberal allies to retire while Barack Obama was president, Ginsburg stands by her oft-stated determination to stay on the court “as long as I can do the job full-steam.”
She told USA TODAY in 2013 that she had not lost a step mentally and planned her future one term at a time.
“I have to take it year by year at my age, and who knows what could happen next year?” she said. “Right now, I know I’m OK.”