Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been at the center of a few controversies, and the latest is focused on his choice in gym attire: blue jeans.
“Why are you wearing jeans to the gym?” asked an X user this week when Kennedy posted about the “Pete & Bobby Challenge” (100 pushups and 50 pullups in under 10 minutes) he’s spearheading with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A video in Kennedy’s post does show the HHS leader doing pushups and pullups in jeans.
It’s also not the first time he’s been seen working out in denim. Another video of Kennedy working out in blue jeans was circulating online last August.
With an abundance of workout wear and athleisure available out there, jeans are not the most popular choice for exercise apparel, although they were initially developed as workwear for laborers, according to Levi Strauss & Co. Sami Reiss wrote a piece for GQ this April looking into people who decide to lift weights in Levi’s (and other brands of jeans).
“It’s confounding,” Reiss wrote. “Why would a strong lifter favor denim, which isn’t designed for workouts and can inhibit movement? Why is this mythical figure – similar to the kid who wears shorts all through winter – omnipresent at every gym? And why, in an era when we have so many optimized activewear options, are guys even lifting in jeans in the first place?”
He noted that some gyms even kick out jeans-clad patrons, citing concerns about the rivets on equipment. However, Reiss said that Kennedy isn’t alone – Lenny Kravitz and wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin are known to don jeans for a workout, as well as some fitness influencers.
So, why does Kennedy wear jeans at the gym? Fox News asked him this week, and the answer was pretty simple.
“I just started doing that a long time ago, because I would go hiking in the morning and then I would go straight to the gym,” Kennedy said. “And, I found it was convenient and now I’m used to it, so I just do it.”
Kennedy is encouraging more Americans to hike – he says that he does every day – and to generally get more active as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. According to the HHS secretary, everyone should try to get in a 15-minute walk outside every day.
While Kennedy managed to finish the “Bobby & Pete Challenge” in under six minutes while wearing dungarees, not everyone has to get their exercise in donning their favorite jeans. Kennedy has recommended that Americans wear devices such as FitBits and AppleWatches to help improve their activity levels, however.