‘It makes you focus on how far you’ve come’ - Oprah reveals her favourite workout

Hiking is a great form of exercise for our minds and bodies - and we think we've found one of its biggest fans. Oprah Winfrey regularly talks about her love of walking and the benefits of hiking in the open air.

If you follow the US TV star on Instagram, you’ll see videos of her hikes, close to her homes across America or when travelling for work. She prioritises it, despite a busy schedule that takes her all over the world. It’s become one of her favourite types of exercise after she had a double knee replacement in 2021.

“The reason why I love hiking so much is because you’re looking at the top of the hill. Don’t look at how far you have to go. Every step you take, turn around and look at how far you’ve come,” she tells Today hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones.

"You get halfway there and look at how far you’ve come, and that gives you the fuel and the strength to keep yourself going. And that’s a great metaphor for life,” she says. “Don’t look at how far you have to go, look at how far you’ve come.”

Most recently, the 71-year-old shared a photo on her Instagram page showing her enjoying a New Year’s Day hike with a friend. “Did our annual gratitude hike! Only 5.4 miles today instead of our previous 11, due to rain. Thank you rain! Blessings of goodness and mercy to you all in the new year. Keep climbing,” the caption says.

During a hike in Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2025, which she filmed for People magazine, Oprah says: “I don’t even recognise the woman I am now because four years ago I couldn’t walk down two steps without great pain. My knees were rubbing against themselves”. She says the surgery was “totally worth it” to get her life back.

"I said, 'God, if you just let me be able to walk again after the surgery, I promise you, I will use my body differently. That's when it started. I couldn't walk without a walker for the first two weeks, and then baby steps. Do short, short distances until you can do longer distances. So I started out with a tenth of a mile, then a quarter of a mile, half a mile, and now we do miles," she says in the interview.

Hiking, along with a GLP-1, has helped Oprah maintain a healthy weight after decades of feeling like she would always be overweight. She tells Jenna and Sheinelle, "I'm not waking up, and the first thing that I think about is how much do I weigh? ... I'm not thinking about what am I going to eat for breakfast, and if I ate something for breakfast, now I can't eat lunch, or I'm going to skip a meal."

“The constant (food) noise has subsided," she adds. "That is what has been transformational for me." Oprah combines her hikes with resistance training, which is essential for women with age, as bone mass density falls. “Resistance training is really important as you get older for muscle tone,” she tells the hosts.

And of course, the star always looks super stylish when taking to the trails. Her favourite brands include Salomon X Ultra 4 walking shoes, P.E. Nation workout gear and a Lululemon Everywhee Belt Bag for carrying her essentials.

We look forward to seeing where her passion takes her this year!