Maureen Callahan says Lenny Kravitz is lying about his '100% real' workout

Lenny Kravitz is working out in $800 Jackie O sunglasses and a free-flowing head of dreadlocks. This is not the behavior of a man trying to get a good pump. It is, as Maureen Callahan points out on The Megyn Kelly Show, a highly produced illusion. Kravitz recently graced the cover of Men’s Health, complete with a workout video where he insists his ageless physique is purely the result of old-fashioned grit.

everyone who works out knows you get your hair out of your face and you wear proper clothing and you certainly don’t work out in expensive eyewear.

The aesthetic is absurd, but it is the biological claim that has Callahan fired up. Kravitz, looking straight into the camera, promises his routine is entirely natural and “100% real.” Callahan immediately calls bull. She points out that gravity comes for everyone, citing Arnold Schwarzenegger as proof that even the most elite genetic freaks eventually look their age. Kravitz, she argues, is getting chemical help.

His skin is sagging. Uh Lenny has had lasers. He has definitely had some surgical interventions. Um he is probably on like human growth hormone or uh some other kind of and or some other kind of metabolic steroid.

The celebrity industrial complex

Callahan is officially diagnosing Kravitz from across a screen, which is always a dubious game. She also ages him up slightly to 62 (he just turned 60). But her broader point about the insidious nature of celebrity culture and its impossible fitness standards lands hard. Famous men in their sixties do not magically maintain single-digit body fat and flawless skin through sheer willpower and a few sets of bicep curls.

don’t let Men’s Health and the celebrity industrial complex fool you and make you feel bad about yourselves.

If Callahan is right, the average middle-aged guy can stop feeling guilty about his waistline. The secret to aging like a rock star is not a better workout split. It is a better pharmacist.