Dick Van Dyke, who turned 100 in December, has shared an Instagram video of himself strapped upside down to an inversion table, feet raised and head hanging as the song Keep Stretching plays in the background. The entertainer captioned the clip with the hashtag keep moving, the same phrase that has defined his approach to aging for more than a decade.
According to the Daily Mail, Van Dyke works out up to three times a week, relying on weight machines, circuit training and stretching to stay mobile. He focuses heavily on stomach exercises to maintain his overall strength, and the outlet reports that his commitment to movement extends even to how he gets around the gym.
Per the Today Show, Van Dyke has been seen dancing from one gym machine to another instead of simply walking between them, a habit witnessed by fellow entertainers Ted Danson and Rick Springfield. It is a small, telling detail from a man whose 2015 memoir, Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging, recounts a doctor once warning him at age 40 that severe arthritis would put him in a walker within seven years — a prediction Van Dyke famously answered by breaking into a soft-shoe dance step, according to his publisher's description of the book.
A Body That Still Moves, A Life That Sometimes Feels Diminished
The inversion table video captures a lighter side of a man who has also been candid about the harder parts of reaching 100. Van Dyke has said he feels physically and socially diminished, and that he has felt lonely and frustrated in old age, per the same Daily Mail account. He has outlived most of his best friends, and he says he is probably the last person alive who knew and spent time with Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer in 1966.
Even so, Van Dyke still does guest spots on television, in advertisements and in videos, and he hosts most of his visits with people at his own house rather than traveling. The article notes he has declined travel to gigs or events in New York or Chicago because the physical toll of travel has become too taxing. During a recent outing with his wife, Arlene Silver, he leaned on a walker — a quiet counterpoint to the same-week video of him working out upside down.
Longevity Habits and a Milestone Birthday
Van Dyke has credited giving up cigarettes and alcohol in his 50s for his longevity, telling the Daily Mail he used to smoke a lot before he stopped drinking and smoking altogether. His wife, 54-year-old Arlene Silver, led a flash mob dancing to a medley of his songs and said the couple's 100th birthday celebration, held with family and friends at their Malibu home, went perfectly. Van Dyke also spoke at the Vandy High Tea fundraising event, which raised money for the Van Dyke Endowment of the Arts and the Dick Van Dyke Museum.
His outlook on aging is not purely physical. In interviews leading up to his 100th birthday reported by Us Weekly, Van Dyke attributed part of his longevity to maintaining emotional peace and avoiding white-hot anger or hatred, noting that his father died at age 73 after living in a state of constant stress. That framing echoes findings from the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Campus, which has found that people who reach 100 tend to compress serious illness and disability into a shorter window late in life, delaying disability to an average age of 93 and, in 15% of cases, escaping major age-related disease entirely.
The Fine Print on Hanging Upside Down
Inversion tables like the one in Van Dyke's video work by suspending users at angles up to 180 degrees to decompress spinal discs, but the exercise is not without risk for older adults. Medical guidance relayed by the Cleveland Clinic notes that the inverted position raises blood pressure and intraocular eye pressure while slowing the heart rate, which can make full inversion hazardous for seniors with hypertension, heart disease or glaucoma.
Van Dyke's milestone birthday has already made him a fixture of the conversation around exceptional aging. In June 2024, he became the oldest person in history to win a Daytime Emmy Award, taking the honor at age 98 for his guest role on Days of Our Lives, a record he held until October 2025 when 99-year-old Sir David Attenborough won for Netflix's Secret Lives of Orangutans, as reported by Rolling Stone. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, he has also won five Primetime Emmys, a Tony Award for 1960's Bye Bye Birdie and a Grammy Award for 1964's Mary Poppins, leaving him just one Oscar short of an EGOT, according to the Kennedy Center, which honored him in 2021.
Part of a Growing Club
Van Dyke's continued mobility at 100 fits into a broader demographic shift. A U.S. Census Bureau special report released in September 2025 found the country's centenarian population grew by 50% between 2010 and 2020, reaching 80,139 people, with women making up 78.8% of that group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Pew Research Center's analysis of United Nations projections places the United States second in the world for centenarians, behind Japan, and projects the global centenarian population to nearly quadruple by 2054.
For now, Van Dyke's own regimen remains simple and unglamorous by his own account: weight machines, circuit training, stomach exercises, and stretching, done up to three times a week, with missed workouts quickly bringing on joint stiffness. Whether upside down on an inversion table or dancing between gym machines, the message behind the hashtag stays the same — keep moving.
