“Are you ready to do the workout?” Jane Fonda grins from beneath a perfectly coiffed cloud of hair, flowing through the high-energy regimen that transformed the fitness industry forever. As a fitness enthusiast awkwardly straddling the line between Gen-Z and millennial, I watch one of Fonda’s best-selling home workout videos for the first time on YouTube. It’s no VHS tape, but her star power is undeniable on any medium. I’m left feeling highly motivated and unusually inspired to purchase a pair of leg warmers . . .
“We went to the Jane Fonda gym in the ’80s together one summer,” my mom later texts me. “I think it was my sophomore year of college. It was amazing and we got really fit.” Fast forward to 2025, and Fonda is still motivating people to work towards the best, strongest version of themselves. Only this time, she’s trading VHS tapes for a virtual reality (VR) headset.
