Ginsburg Ruth Bader - Rbg Workout: How She Stays Strong... and You Can Too!

THE

R BG

WORKOUT

The

RBG

WORKOUT

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Boston New York 2017

Bryant Johnson

Illustrations by Patrick Welsh

Copyright 2017 by Bryant Johnson

Illustrations 2017 by Patrick Welsh

Badge and gavel illustrations Decorwithme/Shutterstock.com

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

Always consult your physician before beginning any exercise program. This general information is not intended to diagnose any medical condition or to replace the advice of a healthcare professional.

This book is based on an article by Ben Schreckinger that originally appeared in Politico magazine.

hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-328-91912-0 (hbk)

ISBN 978-1-328-91914-4 (ebk)

Book design by Rachel Newborn

v1.0917

Contents

foreword by ruth bader ginsburg

Introduction

Warm-Up

Strength Exercises

cooldown

acknowledgments

About the Author

foreword

In 1999, I had a long bout with colorectal cancer. When surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation were at last done, my ever-supportive spouse insisted, You look like an Auschwitz survivor. You must get a personal trainer to regain strength and well-being. I asked around, and the United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, Gladys Kessler, recommended Bryant Johnson. Bryant worked in the District Courts Clerks Office when he was not called away for military service. In his spare time, he pursued an enterprise, Body Justice. Bryant had trained several District Court judges, and all agreed he would be just right for me. That prediction proved entirely correct. At a pace I could manage, Bryant restored my energy as I worked my way back to good health.

Ten years later, in 2009, another challenge confronted me. The diagnosis: pancreatic cancer. Surgery once again and follow-up treatment, leaving me in frail condition. As soon as I could, I resumed workouts with Bryant. Step by step, Bryant restored my energy, adding planks as well as push-ups to my regimen.

I am often consumed by the heavy lifting Supreme Court judging entails, reluctant to cease work until I am sure Ive got it right. But when time comes to meet with Bryant, I leave off and join him at the gym for justices. The hour-long routine he has developed suits me to a T. This book, I hope, will help others to experience, as I have, renewed energy to carry on with their work and days.

July 24, 2017

INTRODUCTION

When word about Justice Ginsburgs workout got out, people went so crazy for it that I was approached to put it in a book so all of you could do it for yourselves. This opportunity had me humbled, excited, and nervous all at the same time because writing a book was way out of my comfort zone. I wasnt sure how to approach it, which I guess must be how many of my clients feel just before their first training session with me. What I did know was that the first person I needed to discuss this with was Justice Ginsburg herselfif she wasnt okay with it, then the idea for this book would amount to absolutely nothing. Needless to say, she approved the project and youre reading the result.

Ive been honing the workout I do with her for the past eighteen years. Its excellent for older people who want to maintain a full life, but its also challenging enough to leave some of you young ThunderCats panting. (If youre not old enough to know what a ThunderCat is, you probably are one, and Im just dating myself.)

Let me start by explaining how the workout came to be.

I was born in the city of Newark, New Jersey, but raised in the countryside of Warsaw, Virginia, population 1,500. Now, people love to cook in the country, and I love to eat. As a young boy, eating all that good country cooking wasnt a problem because I was running around playing outside. However, once I graduated high school, it didnt take long for me to figure out that if I wanted to eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted, Id better start working out. Though I have since evolved from that way of thinking, that was my mindset at the time, and since I was a paratrooper (yes, jumping out of an

airplane or helicopter for no reason), I figured I needed to keep my body in shape. But the most important reason was my Aunt Idabells pound cake, and if you ever tried it, Im sure youd understand.

Then, on a whim back in the nineties, I took things to the next level and got certified as a personal trainer. I soon found I didnt have to look far beyond my day job at the U.S. District Court to find clients. I began working with courthouse staff, deputy U.S. marshals, and federal judges. Now, any judge should be familiar with the Latin term habeas corpus literally, you have the body. However, many of them still needed to be reminded that YOU have a body, and in order for it to take care of you, you have to take care it.

So, thats what I told them, and word of my workout got around. In 1999, when Justice Ginsburg was recovering from cancer and her late husband, Martin, urged her to find a personal trainer, she found me. At the time, she couldnt have done the workout that is now her regular routine, but she was determined as all get-out, and we started building her regimen from scratch.

Justice Ginsburg receives bone density scans every other year. After some years of twice-weekly workouts, her bone density began to increase. The result of this test became my report card for whether the exercises we did were effective or not. My efforts were confirmed by a majority decision when her doctor delivered his verdict: Im not sure what youre doing, but keep doing it. Its working.

Keep doing it we have. Other than a deployment in Kuwait from 2004 to 2007 (I deployedthe justice kept doing her important work on the court), weve continued the regimen, and as shes gone from her sixties to her eighties, she keeps getting better at it. We aim to complete the workout twice a week, usually at the gym at the