We all want to live a long and healthy life, but staying active into your late 80s isn’t easy. Julie Andrews, however, has managed it. Just two years ago, when she was 88, the actor shared she still regularly works out first thing in the morning.
When asked how she continues to stay active, she told Yahoo Life: ‘I have all my life worked out first thing in the morning or something like that – a little less so these days.’
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As for what she does, yoga, walking and ballet have featured in her workout routine for decades. She first touted walking for its fitness benefits when preparing for her role in The Sound of Music. ‘I was trying to get myself ready for a stint at the London Palladium. And I knew I needed more energy than I could possibly muster. So I decided to go for brisk walks every day. And I started to walk up to the farm and around because there are many hills and steep inclines and that really gets the legs strong,’ she told Theatre Week in 1993.
In 2000, for an issue of Woman & Home, she explained the role of yoga and ballet in her routine: ‘I work out as little as I can for as much gain as I can. Yoga and a little bit of ballet – only 30 or 40 minutes every other day. I keep supple for myself more than for roles.’
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Yoga and stretching have always been a priority for her – not just as a response to ageing or stiffness, which may explain why, at 88, she’s still able to exercise nearly every morning.
In fact, she’s been stretching and practicing ballet for 30 years. In a 1996 interview on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, she said: ‘I do about 45 minutes of stretching and some aerobics and ballet barre and, you know, all the things I know work for me.’
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The bottom line? When it comes to healthy ageing, prevention is better than cure. Andrews has prioritised movement for decades, rather than waiting for stiffness, aches or pains to become her motivation. And she’s always incorporated various pillars of fitness: she ticks off cardiovascular health and strength with walking and ballet, plus flexibility and mobility with yoga. She found those forms of exercise worked best for her, and she stuck with them every morning.
Now, as she told Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a 2024 episode of her podcast Wiser Than Me, she said: ‘I probably feel like in my 50s. Honest to God, as long as the brain holds out, I’m doing okay. You know, and I don’t feel bad at all now.’ At this rate, she really could climb every mountain.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.