At 85, Martha Stewart has built a lifestyle empire, posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue at 81, and she still gets up for a workout before most people have had their coffee. Her daily routine is not a secret: it starts with a glass of green juice and continues with a training schedule that would exhaust people half her age. And she says it has barely changed in decades.
The green juice she calls “a priority”
Every morning, Stewart makes a green juice with vegetables from her own garden. A typical glass mixes spinach, cucumbers, parsley, celery and mint, sometimes with ginger or half an orange, peel included, according to an interview with Women’s Health reported by Business Insider. She calls it “a priority.”
Other versions she has shared include a pear or an apple and a squeeze of lemon. “Green juice drenches your body in a variety of plant nutrients,” she told TODAY.
Five workouts a week, at 6:30 a.m.
The juice is only the start. Stewart follows a schedule she has kept for years:
- Monday, Wednesday and Friday: reformer Pilates at 6:30 a.m. with an instructor. “I do a very intense program, and it’s nonstop for 45 minutes.”
- Tuesday and Thursday: 45 minutes of strength training with a trainer, mostly dumbbells and machines.
- Every day: “I walk a whole lot. I garden a whole lot.”
She usually ends her Pilates sessions with yoga stretches. And she does not skip: “Even when I get home late at night, I still go and do my workout.” Perhaps the most striking detail is how little the routine has changed: “The amount of weights and things that I use are pretty much the same as they’ve always been.”
What experts recommend after 65
Stewart’s week goes well beyond the official targets. The CDC recommends that adults 65 and older get 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week, and activities that improve balance. Her two strength sessions alone meet the second goal, and Pilates works on posture and balance.
On the juice, nutritionists generally add one caveat: juicing removes much of the fiber found in whole vegetables, so a glass of green juice works best as a complement to vegetables on the plate, not a replacement. And a juice with a lot of fruit can be high in sugar, which is why Stewart’s vegetable-heavy version is the one to copy.
How to borrow her routine
You do not need a home gym or a personal trainer to apply the principle. Strength training is the part most people skip, and the one that matters most with age, as coach José Ruiz explains in why walking alone is not enough after 60. And if gardening sounds like a chore, Oprah’s experience might change your mind: it counts as movement too.
The real lesson from Martha
Stewart’s routine is not built on a trend or a supplement. It is built on repetition: the same juice, the same days, the same weights. At 85, that consistency may be the most valuable thing she has ever taught her audience.
