I Worked Out with Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Personal Trainer and Lived to Tell the Tale (Barely)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows no signs of stepping down from the bench anytime soon. At 84, she still has the stamina to stay up all night reading court cases, pen revolutionary SCOTUS opinions, and be a general badass (raise your hand if you’re the proud owner of a “Notorious RBG” tee). Bryant Johnson, who’s been the justice's personal trainer for almost 20 years and who she once called the most important person in her life, plays a role in that. As they say, behind every Supreme Court justice is a supremely good personal trainer. (People say that, right?)

So when I heard that Johnson, a court clerk and member of the military who started training members of the judiciary in the late 1990s as a “side hustle,” was leading a workout class to promote his upcoming book The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong…and You Can Too!, I had to try it. How would I, a 23-year-old who relies on moderately paced jogs, semi-regular yoga classes, and a diet loaded with Trader Joe’s frozen veggies to stay fit, fare compared to a two-time cancer survivor nearly four times my age? Spoiler alert, dear reader: not well.

When I arrived at the workout studio and met Johnson, I told him that since I don’t typically do strength training exercises (I know, I know), I was a little nervous to try out RBG’s workout—we’ve all heard by now about the justice’s impressive ability to do multiple sets of legit push-ups—but he quickly assuaged my fears. “You’ll be fine,” he said. “The most important thing is that you’re doing something to stay active.” Later on, during the class, Johnson stressed the importance of strength training for improving both bone density and self-esteem.

Johnson passed out resistance bands, and we got started with a brief warm-up.

Since this class took place in an open studio rather than one of the Supreme Court building’s two gyms, we were going to use resistance bands to mimic the effects of machines. (These “at-home alternatives” are included in the book, which is fully illustrated with a spot-on cartoon version of RBG doing each of the exercises.) And since it was merely a promotional event, rather than an 84-year-old’s twice-weekly training session, he claimed to have toned down the routine…but not by much.

Although RBG prefers a workout soundtrack of NPR or PBS NewsHour, Johnson switched things up and put on “old school” '70s tracks for us. We started with a quick warm-up: jumping jacks (Justice Ginsburg does a few minutes on the elliptical instead); head rotations; arm circles à la elementary school P.E. class; and hip, knee, and ankle rotations. We stretched our arms and shoulders before taking a seat on the ground and stretching out our legs, backs, and hamstrings, ending by spreading both legs out as far as they could go and bending forward at the waist. According to Johnson, Justice Elena Kagan, who he also trains, hates this stretch, but only because Johnson can bend forward farther than her. Same, girl.

Next, he had us flip onto our stomachs, and hold a plank for 30 seconds.

At least, it should’ve been 30 seconds, but Johnson had the group restart the count multiple times until everybody was helping him count backwards. He pulls a similar trick with RBG, he said, where he’ll calmly hold a plank without starting the count until she calls him out. Johnson loves his little “jokes,” almost none of which have ever made Justice Ginsberg even crack a smile, FYI. “She doesn’t laugh at my jokes, but I’ve been working out with her so long that she’s like family,” he said.

Next, we did 15-second side planks on the right and left—a relatively recent addition to RBG’s routine—before coming back down into another 30-second basic plank. Johnson said he usually nudges Justice Ginsberg’s hips and back while she’s planking to keep her muscles engaged—which probably explains why, as he revealed, “she can’t stand them planks.”

At this point, Ginsburg would head to the chest press, leg extension, lat pull-down, cable row, and chest fly machines. Instead, we picked up our resistance bands.

We started with a chest press alternative: Wrap the band around your back and under your armpits, hold it tightly in both hands, and, keeping your elbows parallel to the floor, push your arms forward for four sets of eight reps (Johnson’s typical count). For a DIY pull-down, wrap the band around both hands several times to create more resistance, assume Usain Bolt’s classic arms-up pose, and pull your bottom arm diagonally down for four sets of eight; then, switch arms.

Next, we did chest flies by wrapping the bands around our hands until they were only about 6 inches apart, putting our fists straight out in front of us, then fully extending them to the sides, making sure to keep our arms straight. As if the entire class’ triceps weren’t already collectively burning, Johnson had us simulate an overhead triceps press, which RBG would normally do with a 12-pound weight, by securing one end of the band underneath one foot, holding the other end behind our backs and pulling the band straight up and above our heads.

Instead of biceps curls with RBG’s usual 12-pound weight, we held both ends of the resistance band in our hands, stepped on the middle with both feet, and bent our elbows to bring our hands from waist- to shoulder-height. Johnson also taught us a more challenging variation on this move, where we stepped down on the middle of the band with just one foot, placed the other foot a few feet behind it, and squatted up and down, holding tightly to the bands and keeping our elbows bent, hands by shoulders.

Finally, it was time for the justice’s favorite move: push-ups.

We did two sets of five off our knees, then two sets of five on our knees, but RBG is such a badass that she can do two sets of 10 off her knees, then one set of 10 on her knees, but with one hand on a small medicine ball for an added challenge. Justice Ginsberg is so proud of her push-up prowess that she actually gets annoyed with Johnson if he skips them. TBH, I can’t relate. Johnson told us to do this section of the workout at our own pace, and while—confession time—I may have fudged the count a bit, I was definitely not the only person in the room who pretended that “five” comes after “two.”

At this point my classmates and I were rapidly proving that we lacked the mind-blowing stamina of Justice Ginsburg, but Johnson wasn’t done with us yet.

We moved onto all fours for leg raises, donkey kicks, and a particularly painful side kick move that Johnson calls a “roundhouse kick”—while on all fours, lift one leg out to the side, bring your knee close to your elbow, and kick back and forth—because RBG does not neglect her glutes. As Johnson said, “Yes, we work the…can I say ‘booty?'”

The final move is something Johnson calls “sitting on the toilet,” where Ginsberg holds a medicine ball and sits on a bench, then stands and throws the ball to Johnson. We replaced the move with a few sets of basic squats. “I told her, ‘Justice, you have to be able to do this, or you’re going to need a helper 24/7,’” Johnson said, because it mimics the movement of getting up from the toilet by yourself. Speaking of squats, in our truncated version of the RBG workout, Johnson thankfully left out the one-legged version (yes, one-legged squats!) that she does. Small victories.

Finally, it was time for the cool-down—and to get more deets on what RBG's like in the gym.

After about 35 minutes—RBG can go for at least an hour, if not more—when everybody in the class was sufficiently wiped out, Johnson had us cool down with some final stretches before he divulged even more info about the justice’s workout habits. Most pressing of all: No, “she does not wear her collar to train,” Johnson said. Her favorite workout shirt, believe it or not, says “Super Diva,” which she specifically requested be pictured throughout Johnson’s book. She doesn’t stop for snack breaks, she barely rests between sets, and she definitely doesn’t not-so-surreptitiously put one knee down during her planks, as almost everybody in the room did at one point or another.

Suffice it to say, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has fully earned her “Notorious RBG” moniker—and I have no doubt that she could take me down in a fight. (I’m still sore from the class, and we didn’t even use the free weights, medicine balls, BOSU balls, exercise machines, and step-up blocks that she does!) If you want to sample this Supreme Court superstar’s “supremely good” workout for yourself, you can preorder The RBG Workout now, or check it out when it hits shelves on October 17.

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