• RFK Jr. was spotted wearing jeans and hiking boots in one of America's most exclusive gyms.
• His unusual workout gear reflects the contradictory nature of his persona and views, historians said.
• Showcasing his fitness at 70 helps to signal that his controversial views on health are legitimate.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants you to know that he's healthy, rugged, and has an Equinox membership.

Donald Trump's pick for secretary of Health and Human Services was spotted working out at the elite gym in Manhattan's swanky Hudson Yards wearing jeans and hiking boots, Page Six reported Sunday.

The 60,000-square-foot fitness complex contains both a saltwater lap pool and a heated outdoor pool, a sundeck, a restaurant, Pilates studios, and saunas. Membership costs $405 a month.

We can't know for sure why Kennedy chose that outfit, but consciously or not, it sends a certain message. The combination of denim and sturdy outdoor footwear against the backdrop of a luxury gym encapsulates his "insider-outsider vibe," which helps him to appeal to his varied audience, historians told Business Insider.

Many find it curious that Kennedy is aligned with discredited causes such as the link between the MMR vaccine and autism, while his assessment of certain health issues, such as the link between chronic disease and ultra-processed foods, seems sound. His gym clothing reflects this dichotomy.

Since the COVID pandemic, groups of people with seemingly opposing political stances have converged in unexpected ways. This includes libertarian conspiracy theorists, "crunchy" moms, and "manosphere" figures like Joe Rogan, whose views on some healthcare issues now align, Peter Knight, a professor of American Studies at the University of Manchester, in the UK, said. Kennedy, who is against fluoridated water, has promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and believes the Food and Drug Administration undermines public health, taps into all of these audiences, he said.

"This is the world that he's been moving in for a long time, and a lot of it is not preplanned, but there is an awareness of appealing to these different kinds of groups that have really come together since the pandemic," Knight said.

The 70-year-old is signaling that his brand of wellness works

Earlier this month, the swole 70-year-old shared a video in which he wore the same jeans-and-boot combo but was shirtless and flexing his muscles in an iconic body-building gym in Venice, California.

Promoting exercise — and showing off his own personal strength — is "absolutely" part of his political identity, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a history professor at The New School in New York City, said. It implicitly signals "the efficacy of his own unconventional ideas about health."

Other politicians, including Teddy Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter, used their personal exercise routines to convey their fitness for office, Mehlman Petrzela said.

"But in doing so at the age of 70, and so clearly to show off his looks as much as his health, he is almost painting himself as superhuman, able to transcend the traditional rules of aging," she said of Kennedy.

Sonya Abrego, a design historian specializing in the history of American fashion and an assistant professor at the Parsons School of Design, said the image of Kennedy working out shirtless was reminiscent of a 1980s or '90s action-movie hero.

"Like someone who just sprung into action, ripped off a shirt, and started lifting weights," Abrego said. "I mean, obviously it's showing off the way his body looks as an older person and promoting his ideas about health and diet."

The outfit evokes traditional, rural American masculinity

While jeans are ubiquitous today, they were historically worn by blue-collar workers and they're reminiscent of the American West when worn with cowboy boots and hats, Abrego said.

For someone of Kennedy's generation, jeans and cowboy boots could still be associated with "the kind of rugged masculinity" they exude, she said: "Something of an outlier, something a little bit rebellious, especially someone coming from an elite background that he comes from."

"He's rich and cool and aspirational enough to have access to elite circles, but still sufficiently a man of the people such that he seems out of place there," Mehlman Petrzela said of Kennedy's Equinox visit.

The choice to wear jeans could be read as him positioning himself as "more of an everyman" or possibly a nod to a more rural, traditional American masculinity, Abrego said. The hiking boots also signal his connection to the outdoors and environmental causes.

"He often just dresses like a typical politician in a suit," Mehlman Petrzela said. "So it does feel like an intentional break from how he presents publicly. It also sort of tracks with his unusual and often kind of inconsistent persona and ideals."

• Journaling is now part of a regular wellness routine for many male fitness and "hustle" influencers.
• Instagram influencers who talk about the gym, cold plunges, and the "hustle" also talk about journaling.
• This is probably a good thing.

The best-selling kids' book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" opens with the titular wimp Greg Heffley emphasizing that he's writing a journal, not a diary. (Even though the notebook his mother bought him says "Diary" right on the front.)

You see, for fictional middle schoolers like Heffley, keeping a diary is considered the realm of teenage girls. (The series has some questionable notions about gender equity.)

But journaling has been going mainstream as part of a daily wellness routine that prioritizes mental health. And one surprising group in particular is taking it very seriously: the hustle bros on Instagram.

I suspect you already recognize the hustle bro genre, but I'll attempt to describe it in case you're not familiar: They're male social media creators who post about workout routines and life hacks, and they're often bodybuilders or extremely fit. They might be focused on financial goals, although the sources of their own flaunted wealth might be obscure (it seems in some cases that they got rich by selling online courses about how to get rich).

They exist somewhere within the broader world of the online manosphere but focus inward on the male self and "mindset" rather than the more explicitly toxic corners that focus outwardly on men's place in society.

Don't call it self-help, call it self-optimization

Journaling has become so mainstream that in 2022, Apple added a Journal app to its default suite of apps baked into the iPhone, prompting people to do a daily reflection as part of its ever-expanding health features.

The mainstream king of all this kind of stuff is Andrew Huberman, the musclebound neuroscientist with an incredibly popular podcast that has popularized all sorts of specific health advice on things like sleep and avoiding alcohol.

Huberman did an hourlong podcast about a "protocol" for journaling, which he said he based on academic research into the benefits of a specific journaling exercise where you write about your most traumatic moment for 15 to 30 minutes a week.

Most of the hustle bros I've seen talking about journaling don't describe a specific journaling method. It's not clear if they want men to reflect on their day, do something more like "The Artist's Way" of "Morning Pages" (a stream-of-consciousness three pages first thing in the morning as a form of creativity), or something more like Huberman's protocol.

Thomas Procopovich is a personal development and sales coach with almost 30,000 followers on Instagram. He's affiliated with Andy Elliott, a sales coach with 2.5 million followers whose content urges men to be physically fit to improve their sales technique.

Procopovich told me that he's been journaling for two years. He's made content about the importance of journaling and mindset. "Men need to be able to write down their thoughts more and see how much they have grown," he told me.

Vinny Brusco, a life coach and host of "The Council of Dudes Podcast," talks often about mental wellness and masculinity. "I think we are seeing a major shift in what mental health looks like in general, especially for men," he told Business Insider.

"It is becoming more and more acceptable for men to be vulnerable and expressive with their feelings. Guys are using different yet old modalities when it comes to mental health. It's almost like we are going back to our roots in some way, with things like cold plunges, saunas, meditating, and even journaling."

This is a group of men who are generally interested in improving themselves in very traditionally masculine ways (getting huge muscles, earning money).

And they're increasingly seeing mental health as part of that improvement. Journaling seems like the perfect vehicle for that.