Photo: CNN Films/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Over the last 20 years, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has survived colon and pancreatic cancer, plus theremoval of cancerfrom her left lung Friday. She’s also had successful heart surgery and recovered from multiple incidences ofbroken ribs.
How does the 85-year-old Supreme Court justice bounce back again and again — and with such vitality? She credits her trainer Bryant Johnson, who shetold theNew York Times“has been my physical fitness guardian since 1999.”
“Even this, she is going through this, she asked me, ‘When can we go back to training?'” he says.
“Me as her trainer,” he continues, “I sometimes have to protect her from herself.”
Their routine, outlined in Johnson’s bookThe RBG Workout, includes planks, 20 full push-ups, arm and leg work using dumbbells and machines and bodyweight exercises. (You can see her working out with Stephen Colbert in her signature “Super Diva” sweatshirt in the video below.)
“Her attitude is, ‘When is the next time I can work out?’ No matter what, it is, ‘When can we work out?'” Johnson says.
“The justice is strong,” he says, “and blessed.”
Filmmaker Betsy West, director of this year’s acclaimed Ginsburg documentaryRBG, saw the focused Ginsburg working out in her “Super Diva” sweatshirt.
“It was Bryant who pointed out to us her toughness,” she says. “He calls her a ‘cyborg.'”
“He is a fitness trainer for the U.S. Army Reserve and he compares her to young soldiers. He says they ask too many questions — why do we have to do this, why do we have to do that — and Justice Ginsburg, she is dedicated, she does what he tells her to do. He says she is like a machine.”
Ginsburg’s work this week included a training session with Johnson and avote before the surgeryto refuse to let the government enforce President Donald Trump‘s proposed restriction on asylum-seeking immigrants, a 5-4 decision that upheld a lower court ruling.
“Justice Ginsburg is one tough cookie,” says West. “She has overcome challenges that would have felled many lesser people.”
source: people.com
