Aerobics | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Aerobic exercise Summary

Aerobics

Aerobics is a form of exercise based on cardiovascular activity that became a popular leisure-time activity for many Americans in the final quarter of the twentieth century. Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, an Air Force surgeon, coined the term aerobics in a book of that title published in 1968. Cooper viewed aerobic activity as the cornerstone of physical fitness, and devised a cardiovascular fitness test based on one's ability to run a mile and a half in twelve minutes, a task that was used in military training. Cooper's work was endorsed by the medical community by the early 1970s, and contributed to the popularity of running during that period. By the end of the decade, aerobics had become synonymous with a particular form of cardiovascular exercise that combined traditional calisthenics with popular dance styles in a class-based format geared toward non-athletic people, primarily women. Jackie Sorenson, a former dancer turned fitness expert, takes credit for inventing aerobic dance in 1968 for Armed Forces Television after reading Cooper's book. Judi Sheppard Missett, creator of Jazzercise, another form of aerobic dance combining jazz dance and cardiovascular activity, began teaching her own classes in 1969. By 1972, aerobic dance had its own professional association for instructors, the International Dance Exercise Association (IDEA).

By 1980, aerobics was rapidly becoming a national trend as it moved out of the dance studios and into fast-growing chains of health clubs and gyms. The inclusion of aerobics classes into the regular mixture of workout machines and weights opened up the traditionallymale preserve of the gym to female customers and employees alike. In the process, it created a newly heterosexualized atmosphere in health clubs, which would make them popular social spots for singles. Simultaneously, aerobics marketing was moving beyond real-time classes and into media outlets. Aerobic workouts had appeared on records and in instructional books since the late 1970s, but it was the introduction of videotaped aerobic sessions in the early 1980s that brought the fitness craze to a broader market. Actress Jane Fonda pioneered the fitness video market with the release of her first exercise video in 1982, which appeared on the heels of her bestselling Jane Fonda's Workout Book (1981). Fitness instructors and celebrities would follow Fonda's lead into tape sales, which continued to be a strong component of the fitness market in the 1990s. Exercise shows on television experienced a resurgence during the aerobics craze of the 1980s, spawning new-style Jack La Lannes in the guise of Richard Simmons and Charlene Prickett (It Figures) among others.

A group of women participate in an exercise program at the YWCA in Portland, Maine, 1996.

Even more impressive than the ability of aerobics to move across media outlets was its seemingly unbounded capacity for synergistic marketing. Tie-ins such as clothing, shoes, music, books, magazines, and food products took off during the 1980s. Jane Fonda again demonstrated her leadership in the field, moving from books and videos into records and audiotapes, clothing, and even her own line of exercise studios. Spandex-based fitness clothing became enormously popular as they moved beyond traditional leotards into increasingly outrageous combinations. Recognizing the potentially lucrative female aerobics market, leading sports-footwear manufacturers began marketing shoes specifically designed for aerobic activity. Reebok was the first to score big in the aerobic footwear market with a line of high-top shoes in fashion colors, though its market dominance would be challenged by Nike and other competitors. By the 1990s, Reebok attempted to corner the aerobics market through tie-ins to fitness videos and by exploiting new trends in aerobics like the step and the slide. Fitness clothing designer Gilda Marx's Flexitard line introduced the exercise thong as an updated version of the leotard, which relaxed the taboos on such sexualized garb for the mainstream of physically-fit women. The aerobics craze among women spawned a new genre of women's mass-market fitness magazines, led by Self, a Condé-Nast title first published in 1982, which seamlessly blended articles on women's health and fitness with promotional advertisements for a wide variety of products.

During the 1980s, aerobics transcended the world of physical fitness activities to become a staple of popular culture. The aerobics craze helped facilitate the resurgent popularity of dance music in the 1980s following the backlash against disco music. A notable example was Olivia Newton-John's 1981 song "Let's Get Physical," which became a top-ten hit. Aerobics made it to the movies as well, as in the John Travolta-Jamie Lee Curtis vehicle Perfect (1982), a drama that purported to investigate the sordid world of physical fitness clubs and their aerobics instructors, and was also featured on television shows from Dynasty to The Simpsons.

Despite the enormous popularity of the exercise form among women, aerobics was often harshly criticized by sports experts and medical doctors who faulted instructors for unsafe moves and insufficient cardiovascular workouts, and the entire aerobics marketing industry for placing too much emphasis on celebrity and attractiveness. While these criticisms were certainly valid, they were often thinly veiled forms of ridicule directed against women's attempts to empower their bodies through an extraordinarily feminized form of physical exertion.

By the end of the 1980s, aerobics had become an international phenomenon attracting dedicated practitioners from Peru to the Soviet Union. Moreover, aerobics began attracting increasing numbers of male participants and instructors. Along with its growing international and inter-gender appeal, aerobics itself was becoming increasingly professionalized. IDEA, AFAA (the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America), and other fitness organizations developed rigorous instructor certification programs to insure better and safer instruction. The classes became more intense and hierarchical, spawning a hypercompetitive aerobics culture in which exercisers jockeyed for the best positions by the instructor; to execute the moves with the most precision; to wear the most stylish workout clothes; and to show off their well-toned bodies. This competitive aerobics culture even gave birth to professional aerobics competitions, such as the National Aerobics Championship, first held in 1984, and the World Aerobics Championship, first held in 1990. A movement to declare aerobics an Olympic sport has gained increasing popularity.

Beyond professionalization came a diversification of the field in the 1990s. Specialized aerobics classes danced to different beats, from low-impact to hip-hop to salsa. Simultaneously, aerobics instructors began to move beyond dance to explore different exercise regimens, such as circuit training, plyometrics, step aerobics, water aerobics, boxing, "sliding" (in which the participants mimic the moves of speed skaters on a frictionless surface), and "spinning" (in which the participants ride stationary bikes). Even IDEA recognized the changing fitness climate, adding "The Association of Fitness Professionals" to its name in order to extend its organizational reach. As the 1990s progressed, aerobics, as both a dance-based form of exercise and as a term used by fitness experts, increasingly fell out of favor. Nike ceased to use it in their advertising and promotions, preferring the terms "total body conditioning" and "group-based exercise" instead. By the mid-1990s, fitness professionals were reporting declining attendance in aerobics classes due to increasing levels of boredom among physically fit women. Women in the 1990s engage in diverse forms of exercise to stay in shape, from sports, to intensive physical conditioning through weightlifting and running, to less stressful forms of exercise exhibited by the resurgence of interest in yoga and tai chi.