Jane Fonda is 72. And she's back.
She's putting on her workout clothes and getting ready to exercise, and she'd like you to join her.
The actress, who was the queen of the aerobics movement in the '80s and '90s, is hosting World Fitness Day, an exercise event Saturday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
And she just finished two new workout DVDs for Baby Boomers and seniors, scheduled for release in December. They're her first since the mid-'90s.
"I got a new knee and a new hip, but I want to show that, even at 72, with new body parts, you can be fit and healthy," she says.
At the fitness event, Fonda will do the warm-up exercises, followed by workouts led by high-energy fitness celebrities Denise Austin, Debbie Allen, Billy Blanks and Richard Simmons.
There also will be performances by Ludacris and the Pointer Sisters. About 3,000 people are expected. It will stream live on UStream.tv and Facebook.com/JaneFonda.
Fonda has two goals:
*To raise money for the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, which she founded in 1995.
*To bring people together to have a good time while getting fit. "For this country to be as unfit as we are is unconscionable," she says. "We need to turn things around. I want to play a role in that."
Still keeping in shape
She certainly has played a big role. She is widely recognized as one of the leading stars of the aerobics movement in the 1980s. Her toned and sculpted body inspired millions to start exercising. She created 23 workout videos.
Fonda is still physically active, but not in the same way she used to be.
"I try to work out four or five times a week, and usually there's an aerobic component," she says. "It's either walking outside or hiking in the hills or doing the elliptical or biking.
"I do a lot of walking. It's brisk but doable. I look for hills. Hills are good because they force my heart rate to go up."
She walks a mile in 18 minutes. "I used to run, used to ski. I don't do those anymore. I ride bikes. I swim in the summer.
"I use weights but not as heavy as I used to. Weight training helps you maintain bones and muscle as you age."
She has osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The latter, which led to her knee and hip replacements, is genetic, she says. Her father, Henry Fonda, and her brother, Peter Fonda, had it.
A book about aging
Fonda says she's happy to be teaching again on the two upcoming exercise DVDs. One emphasizes balance and strengthening exercises using hand weights. The other offers two walking workouts. "They are very gentle. The workouts are appropriate for people who have never been fit or who want to be fit again."
She's also writing a book about aging. "It talks about the ingredients for successful aging."
So what are the secrets?
"It's a combination of things," she says. "About a third of it is genetic, and we can't do anything about it. But that means two-thirds we can do something about, and a major part of the can-do portion is staying active. It can be as simple as walking, swimming, moving, using light weights."
Plus, you need to eat fresh, healthful foods and not fast food, she says.
"It's treating our bodies with respect," she adds, "staying curious, maintaining personal relationships, maintaining a social network, keeping our brains active. We need brain workouts. It's trying to maintain a positive attitude and combating stress."
Fonda says living a full life as you get older involves understanding what shaped you.
"As you approach your third act in life, you need to go back over your life in a profound and forgiving way. The more you can understand about who you have been and why, the better able you are to go into your third act armed with what you need."
She learned a lot about herself, she says, when writing her 2005 autobiography, My Life So Far.
Centered on her faith
Fonda says she has been surprised that "at 72, I'm at the most interesting time of my life."
How so?
"I'm active. I'm involved. I am working. I'm earning money still. I'm in love (with music producer Richard Perry). I have two grandchildren. My kids are OK. You know the saying: 'You are only as happy as your least-happy child.' "
Plus, Fonda says, her faith keeps her centered. She was raised an atheist but became a Christian when she was in her late 50s.
Faith helps keep stress levels down and "helps you not make mountains out of molehills and enables you to turn lemons into lemonade," she says.
It makes you realize that "there is something more important than me. There is a higher power. I have a belief that I am being guided as long as I listen to that voice."
Her faith has freed her from her lifelong search for perfection and made her whole, she says.
"I'm sitting in a kitchen in Los Angeles. I look out the window onto this valley. I see the trees, the birds, and I see God."
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