Jane Fonda dials down workouts

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At 72, Jane Fonda is quite encouraging, telling us it’s never too late to be fit and strong.

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Updated: February 22, 2011 5:10PM

Many women will remember Jane Fonda’s exercise videotapes from the 1980s, including the “Jane Fonda Workout” — she sold 17 million of them, in fact.

Who can forget those VHS videotape covers with her flowing mane, perfect makeup and those shiny high-legged, belted workout leotards that very few women could ever confidently wear in real life. This was 1980s aerobics, baby, with jumping and kicking and panting.

It was exhausting.

Until now, her last workout DVD came out in 1995. Jane is now 72 and offers us “Jane Fonda: Prime Time Walkout” and “Jane Fonda: Prime Time Fit & Strong.” And by the way, she looks amazing, healthy and trim — gone are the fancy leotards and some of the gauntness she had from time to time. She’s slowed down in her older years, though not in a fitness sense.

Though she’s older than the Baby Boomers, her press materials say that’s part of her target audience for these low-impact DVDs. Instead of the bouncy aerobics tapes of more than 20 years ago, Jane has dialed it down with workouts that have a bit of a geriatric feel to it. However, that is not to say that these are for older people only. These workouts are low-impact and have super-easy-to-follow moves.

“Walkout” and “Fit & Strong” are perfect for people of lots of ages, who don’t exercise but want to do something. They are the folks who have that constant, nagging feeling that they know they need to get off the couch and move; maybe just carrying groceries or walking up the stairs leaves them breathless, or their doctors have been warning them that their health is going to suffer if they don’t change their lifestyles. I’d recommend “Walkout” and “Fit & Strong” to anyone who just wants to get moving.

In “Walkout,” one of Jane’s goal is to get you to walk a mile, and work on building some strength, muscle and flexibility in the process. With two workouts, one is an easy 20-minute (excluding a nice cooldown and stretch) mile and the other is a more up-tempo 18-minute mile.

The workouts feature marching in place, side-to-side steps, grapevine and other upright positions, all simple to follow.

The advanced version gets the arms more involved and works a bit more quickly. She talks about getting your heart rate up, but gently, and how it’s OK to take things slow.

Fonda’s very encouraging, telling us that it’s never too late to be strong or fit. She even acknowledges that she’s had a knee and a hip replaced, and mentions how to stretch accordingly without aggravating those parts of the body.

These are excellent workouts for snowbound Chicagoans who can’t easily get out to take walks for fitness and want something more interesting than treadmills.

“Fit & Strong” has you pick up some light weights (Jane soothingly says soup cans or water bottles are fine, too, and advises working up from there). Also with two workouts, an easier and a more challenging version, the easier version offers stretching and gentle warm-ups such as ankle rotations, motions that are kind to the body, in addition to simple moves with weights.

The more challenging workout features exercises to get your backside and legs into shape, such as squats and even just getting up and down out of a chair without using your hands.

She wisely counsels that a loss of muscle mass in the core and the legs has an effect on our balance, a big deal as we age.

I love Fonda’s can-do attitude combined with her compassion for staying strong and healthy through any ages. “Walkout” and “Fit & Strong” are wonderful, practical tools for couch potatoes who truly want to change their lives for the better.

Tammy Chase is a local free-lance writer.