As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is known for having the occasional terrific idea (let’s get rid of toxic food additives, let’s make people aware of the dangers of ultra-processed foods) and also having rather terrible ideas (let’s cut funding for vaccine research, let’s recommend vitamin A during a measles outbreak instead of the vax, let’s claim keto diets cure schizophrenia).
RFK Jr. is also known for his very fit-looking physique. For a 72-year-old, the man looks great. He likes to show off his body during media events and on social media. Yet he seems incapable of doing workout videos without at least some undercurrent of oddness.
So here are five of RFK Jr.’s workout videos, ranked from least to most weird.
5. RFK Jr. Posts Work-Out Video Before Biden Debate (June, 2023)
Running as a third-party candidate at the time, RFK Jr. posted the above video saying he was getting ready to debate President Joe Biden (he didn’t end up qualifying for the debate stage). It’s not a particularly impressive workout, as it shows the man struggling to complete some push-ups (he says he was on his final set). This is also the video that introduced most Americans to RFK Jr.’s tendency to work out while wearing dad jeans. (A pet theory about why he doesn’t wear shorts in his videos: The man skips leg day.)
4. The “Pete and Bobby Challenge” (August, 2025)
RFK Jr. and 45-year-old Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth teamed up for a workout they called the “Pete and Bobby Challenge” — perform 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in any order you want within five minutes. Their video, filmed in “the bowels of the Pentagon,” has RFK Jr. once again exercising in jeans and now adding cowboy boots to make his workout look even less practical. Fitness experts chided that encouraging such intense stunts for the average person is “not recommended,” though that seems a bit petulant. But RFK Jr. and Hegseth’s push-up range of motion would be totally called out by any fitness trainer as you’re supposed to start in a high plank. Also, notice this workout doesn’t include any squats.
3. Pull-ups at Reagan National Airport (December, 2025)
RFK Jr. announced a $1 billion grant to “incentivize more family friendly resources in airport terminals” — including play spaces for children and mini-gyms (if there’s one thing every traveler wants, it’s to sit next to a person on a flight who just worked out). Still, one could see some good coming from this and, to help promote the initiative, RFK Jr. performed 20 pull-ups at Reagan National Airport.
Two things can be true at once: Doing 20 pull-ups is impressive for anybody, and especially for a man RFK Jr.’s age, and also for anybody in our political class (34-year-old New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani couldn’t perform a single unassisted bench press of 135 pounds at a photo-op). But also, technically, as with the push-ups, these are not pull-ups — a pull-up is performed from a dead hang and your chin must clear the bar (this is still more than I can do, and probably more than you can, too, but we’re not posting workout videos to inspire a nation to use improper form).
Exercising in slacks, a button-down shirt and a tie is strange, but is fitting for being in an airport, and still somehow less odd than jeans.
2. “What I Do to Stay Healthy” (July 2024)
Now we’re talking: Jumping from a helicopter to swim with a shark. This is the kind of content we want. Otherwise, this is a montage of RFK Jr. lifting weights, skiing, surfing and hiking. You can briefly see his legs during the surfing shot, and here’s a closer look, below. What do you think: Do those calves look neglected compared to his upper body?
1. Working Out with Kid Rock (February, 2026)
Filmed at Kid Rock’s highly enviable home gym and wet suite setup, this is a music video of RFK Jr. working out with the singer, taking a sauna and doing a cold plunge (points for going all the way under). Much has been made about the vaguely homoerotic frenetic fever dream quality of this montage, which seems one minute away from the duo snorting coke off toilet seats (Stephen Colbert dubbed the video “senior softcore”). Nothing here is more off-putting, however, than the prospect of drinking milk in a hot tub.
