The Evolution of Group Fitness: Shaping the History of Fitness

Abstract

HOW IT ALL BEGAN Leg warmers in assorted colors. Boom box charged and ready to go. Cassette tape with Neil Diamond’s latest and greatest songs available. All the items needed for a fitness instructor to head out the door and teach an aerobic dance class in the 1970s V the rest is history. Group fitness can be traced back to 1968 when Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., introduced the concept of aerobic exercise. Cooper, widely known as the Father of the Modern Fitness Movement, encouraged people to exercise, with an emphasis on disease prevention rather than disease treatment (1). The next year, in 1969, Judi Sheppard Missett founded the dance-based fitness program Jazzercise consisting of 1-hour group fitness classes composed of cardio, strength, and stretch moves with elements of hip-hop, jazz dance, kickboxing, and resistance training for a total-body workout. Both milestones led to Jackie Sorensen taking the world by storm in the early 1970s. Sorensen took Cooper’s aerobics program, added music, and created one of the most influential fitness movements in modern history V aerobic dance V leading the way for today’s group fitness programs. More than 40 years later, Jazzercise is still here and Sorensen continues to produce new programs, remaining a fixture in the health and fitness industry.