Today is an annual high holy day in New Jersey, but it’s a little higher and more celebratory than most years.
It’s the 70th birthday of the patron saint of the Garden State, Bruce Springsteen.
And at the age when most people are checking into Del Boca Vista, the Boss is still raising hell in the studio, on the stage and in budget gyms all over northern Monmouth County, where Bruce spotting is a bona-fide sport.
In 2012, the icon spoke to The New Yorker about his no-frills workout routine, which hadn’t changed in over 30 years.
“He runs on a treadmill and, with a trainer, works out with weights,” according to the mag. “It has paid off. His muscle tone approximates a fresh tennis ball.”
Seven years have passed since that interview, but even a casual observer could attest that his physique remains as taut as ever — the perfect frame for his wardrobe of tight T-shirts and skinny jeans that have long been his trademark.
While we can’t account for his diet or anti-aging regimens, frequent updates about his workouts pour in from Jersey Shore spies: “I just saw The Boss on the treadmill at WorkOut World in Tinton Falls,” or, “He was swimming in the ocean at the Chapel Beach Club in Sea Bright all summer,” they tell The Post.
You know, regular guy stuff fit for a regular guy, who just happens to be worth $500 million.
Most recently, he’s been sweating at Jersey Strong gym (the re-branded Workout World) in Marlboro, NJ, where he’s seemingly sticking to that same old routine: treadmill and weights.
Hear about that boutique fitness devotees who are going into debt just to pay for pricey classes that keep them in their size two jeans? Springsteen has found the fountain of youth in a mega gym that charges $9.99 a month.
But his fit physique isn’t a facade for vanity’s sake. As recently as three years ago, during “The River” tour, he was performing electric four-hour shows so energized, one would assume he has a special Duracell battery pack attached to his impossibly toned back.
At most concerts, the then-66-year-old would submit himself to his adoring crowds and allow them to pass him, on his back, to a platform where he’d quickly stand, chug a beer, and continue belting out “Hungry Heart.”
After the encore, he’d send thousands of fans half his age home with the fatigue of having run 10 miles uphill — and saying, “I’ll have what he’s having.”
And he isn’t using his milestone birthday as an excuse to take up less rigorous pursuits.
Last December, the age-defying dynamo wrapped up a grueling 236-show run on Broadway. In June, he put out a solo album, “Western Stars,” and most recently, he announced another 2020 tour with the E Street band.
Forget asking fitness advice from the Hollywood hunks and starlets getting in shape for superhero movies. Maybe we should be following the real superhero, otherwise known as “The Boss.”