RFK Jr. Was Involved in Another Pull-Ups Challenge — This Time He Was Sans Jeans and Deodorant

If we had a time machine that could take us back to the mid-1980s, when a younger RFK Jr. was litigating environmental enforcement lawsuits, imagine what he would think of himself in 2025. According to the New York Times, RFK Jr. was a volunteer project director with the Natural Resources Defense Council when he was admitted to the New York state bar in June 1985.

Harold J. Reynolds, the committee's interviewer, said RFK Jr. impressed him as a "person of considerable integrity" and as a "person who is intellectually acute and unusually modest." As is often the case with RFK Jr., there was an undercurrent of controversy in this moment. In 1983, he was sentenced to two years' probation after pleading guilty to heroin possession. His volunteer work was one of his conditions. Four decades later, this modest man cannot stop doing pull-ups in public.

This particular RFK Jr. pull-up story actually begins with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. As part of Duffy's crusade to change how we travel, he showed up at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. with a pull-up bar. Prior to this moment, Duffy had unveiled a plan called "The Golden Age of Travel Starts With You," which involves restoring "courtesy and class to air travel," reports CBS News.

When Duffy isn't telling people to stop wearing pajamas on flights that have been made more uncomfortable due to shrinking airline seats, he's telling folks to exercise before boarding their planes. "Having pull-up bars in airports means you can stay fit while traveling," wrote Duffy in a post to X (formerly Twitter). "You can challenge yourself, or better yet, challenge your friends and family during a layover," he said before pointing out how awful it would be if your daughter did more pull-ups.

With the help of Dr. Paul Saladino, a health and wellness influencer who promotes the carnivore diet, Duffy and RFK Jr. took turns doing pull-ups at the airport. According to Dr. Saladino, "micro workouts are beneficial for humans, physiologically." He explained that even two, three, or four minutes of exercise can "interrupt the inflammatory process." After the doctor's spiel, Duffy, his daughter, and RFK Jr. did pull-ups, which garnered looks from travelers, but no one stopped to participate.

Back in August 2025, which feels like a century ago, RFK Jr. challenged Secretary of War (formerly Secretary of Defense) Pete Hegseth to a pull-up and push-up contest. They each had to do 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in 10 minutes or less, reported The New York Times.

A video of the "Pete and Bobby Challenge" circulated online and was shared on the official YouTube account of the Department of Health and Human Services. Hegseth was clad in classic gym gear while RFK Jr. was sporting his usual uniform of jeans. There were no real winners here, but health experts who weighed in on the stunt said "such a regimen is not feasible for a majority of the population." It can actually be quite dangerous.