“Go for the burn!”

And my 87-year-old mother-in-law and my 63-year-old wife do. At 10:30 every morning in the basement. Their legs go one way, their arms another, not necessarily in sync, but as close as I’m ever going to get to seeing the Radio City Rockettes in action.

And the low, husky voice of Jane Fonda on the small screen in my basement gym encourages even the most out-of-shape to join in.

“And back to the left, don’t hunch those shoulders,” she urges, as if the fate of the world is soon to be decided by good posture.

Jane Fonda is reborn for my family in this time of coronavirus. She is known for many things, but her fitness tapes from the 1980’s are still iconic. And, more importantly, back in the day they offered a hurried workout for my wife while doing a grapevine around kids and a job. Absent the big hair and the leg warmers, my wife was just one more member of those classes of bare-midriff women and, yes, the one or two token men.

“Roll up one vertebra at a time,” Jane directs with a smile.

And Jane even put together tapes for the older set as she herself aged and became a spokesperson for accepting the limitations brought by time. Jane was mortal, it turns out. She replaced a hip, a knee, and eventually said to Elle Canada: “There isn’t going to be any more plastic surgery.”

“Stretch it up long and tall,” Jane tells the class.

And, amazingly, she continues to act with her good buddy Lily Tomlin in the series “Grace and Frankie,” while standing up for the climate change fight, where she is protesting the lack of governmental action by marching on Washington and getting arrested — five times this last fall before the coronavirus hit.

All at the age of 82.

And let’s not forget Jane Fonda’s Terry Branstad connection.

You see, back in the day Jane protested the Vietnam War just like she is now fighting the climate change fight. In 1972, she was invited to North Vietnam where a photo was taken of her on an enemy anti-aircraft gun. This was not well received by some Americans. And is not well received by some folks even today. “Hanoi Jane” they call her. And nonsensically false rumors of her personal mistreatment of American POWS can still be found on the Internet.

By the way, Jane has apologized many times for the photograph and thought it was “horrible” for what it conveyed to American solders and their families.

Which brings us back to Terry Branstad.

Apparently he was instrumental in providing the written rationale for why Jane Fonda should not be on the base at Fort Bragg during the Vietnam War years. She came anyway and was arrested. The myth was that Terry Branstad slapped on her cuffs — this was furthered by U.S. Rep. Steve King in his statements about Branstad at a 2015 Iowa Freedom Summit.

“‘I will take you back to his service in the United States Army in 1969 to ’71 where he guarded Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon,’ King said of Branstad. ‘He was based at Fort Bragg where there were war protesters that crossed the line and one of them was Jane Fonda. This individual was tasked with putting her under arrest.'” U.S.A. Today.

Not quite true, Branstad says.

Oh well. But what a near brush with fame.

And then there’s our very own Mary Brubaker, who began her TV career as an “exercise girl” for the Mary Jane Chinn show in the early 1960’s. This was nearly 20 years before Jane Fonda’s first workout video was released. As always, Mary was ahead of her time.

Mary Brubaker went on to have her own show on KCCI TV 8, where she interviewed everybody who was anybody — including Peter and Jane Fonda. With no photo of Jane, Peter is going to have to do.

Mary Brubaker spends the second half of her life lifting people up, helping them to connect, fighting the good fight. Not a bad legacy. And don’t forget, she did interview Jane Fonda.

But now we are in lockdown. My mother-in-law, my wife . . . and Jane.

“When you think you can’t do any more repetitions, do two more!” Jane encourages, with a smile.

That was of course young Jane. I prefer old Jane.

“When you’re older, what have you got to lose? You’re not in the marketplace for some guy who’s scared of a strong woman, so you can rise to yourself and become who you are meant to be, and you can be brave.” Jane Fonda talking with PBS Newshour, Judy Woodruff.

Not bad advice for this coronavirus time. Make it burn indeed.

Joe