Jill Biden says exercise including spin classes and jogging helps her find ‘inner strength’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Spin classes when she’s on the road. Biking near her Delaware beach home. Jogging on the White House driveway.

Jill Biden says exercise helps her find her “inner strength.” She gets out of bed at 5:45 a.m. most mornings to fit exercise into her schedule.

The first lady also takes barre classes and rides a Peloton bike.

Early morning workouts are when the 72-year-old can focus on herself, she says in the cover story for the upcoming September issue of Women’s Health magazine.

“I need to be with myself and find inner strength so I can be strong for everyone else,” Biden says.

The first lady is a longtime runner who finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 1998. But these days she jogs around the White House driveway that circles the South Lawn because of the security presence that would be needed if she were to run on District of Columbia streets, like Bill Clinton did when he was president. Clinton eventually had a jogging track built around the south driveway during his first term, but it was paved over years later.

Biden is often seen leaving SoulCycle studios after workouts in Washington or when she travels around the country or abroad. She and Akshata Murty, the wife of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, went to a class together during her trip to London in May for the coronation of King Charles III.

Sunak met with President Joe Biden at the White House the following month and afterward commented on how much time he and the president had spent together in the preceding months. “I gather our wives have even started to take spin classes together,” Sunak added.

Exercise has been a part of Jill Biden’s life since she was a child who liked to roller skate. She took up ice skating in college and enjoyed swimming while pregnant with daughter Ashley.

She wrote in her memoir that she kept a pair of running shoes by the front door of their house in Wilmington, Delaware, when Ashley was a teenager.

“Whenever she and I would get into an argument, I’d put on those shoes to go running and calm myself down,” she wrote. “We argued so much, I became a marathon runner.”

At the White House, the first lady is up early to feed cat Willow and dog Commander before she takes the German shepherd outside for a walk.

As for her diet, she likes to eat fish and vegetables. She takes lunch with her on days when she’s teaching her English and writing classes at Northern Virginia Community College.

The September issue of Women’s Health, featuring a U.S. first lady on its cover for the first time, will hit newsstands on Aug. 15.