# When did people start "working out"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636 "2014-01-13T05:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/41 "2014-01-14T22:00:28Z")
Thanks for all the replies. I was aware of muscular Christianity and the YMCA movement, but had forgotten them. As for Teddy, I knew about his obsessions but assumed he was somewhat sui generis. Interesting information all around. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/42 "2014-01-14T22:16:24Z")
I recall as a kid in the late 60’s that no adult I knew ever “worked out”. Sit ups, push ups and weights for teens and young adults. Anyone over 25 just went to work and earned a living. Some of the moms would diet and lose a few pounds. I can remember things changing in the mid 70’s. People started worrying more about what they ate and started doing light exercise. Didn’t the mall walkers start in the 80’s? Older people walking around and around the mall. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/43 "2014-01-14T22:57:03Z")
Really the modern physical craze started in the early 80’s. You had Olivia Newton John singing _Physical_. Jane Fonda was selling aerobic dvd’s by the millions. Singles got gym memberships to meet and hookup. There were movies about the fitness fad. It’s continued into today. Theres still a lot of aerobic classes, spin classes. A lot of sweaty people. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/44 "2014-01-15T01:59:59Z")
I remember jogging in the late 1960’s (and I called it “jogging”). I thought of it as aerobic exercise to stay in condition between wrestling seasons in high school. I didn’t live in any hip area where new fads started, incidentally. I lived on a farm out in the middle of nowhere. Certainly some people knew about jogging then, even if most people thought it was ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/45 "2014-01-15T02:28:31Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I’m sure that’s true to some extent, but in the 1870s, more people lived on and worked farms than lived in cities and worked cushy office jobs **sitting on their butts**. What do you think train crews did delivering passengers across the country… 😉 (Hence the gymnasium waiting for them at the end of the line!) ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/46 "2014-01-15T02:40:50Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > …to enjoy a nice smoke, surely. 😉 Sure and they[didn’t live long enough](http://uk.photos.com/stock-illustrations/factory-chimneys-pouring-out-polluted-smoke/92846222) to notice the effects of mere tobacco. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/47 "2014-01-15T20:11:51Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Really the modern physical craze started in the early 80’s. You had Olivia Newton John singing _Physical_. Jane Fonda was selling **aerobic dvd’s** by the millions. Singles got gym memberships to meet and hookup. There were movies about the fitness fad. > > It’s continued into today. Theres still a lot of aerobic classes, spin classes. A lot of sweaty people. 😉 Sorry, but there weren’t any DVD’s back in the '70’s. Jane Fonda sold those new-fangled video tapes (even LP’s) of her routines. Sold like hotcakes.😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/48 "2014-01-15T22:29:52Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Australia tended to be a bit behind trends in the UK and US in the 1960s and '70s and '80s, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the jogging and fitness craze arrived a bit later there. > > (Reminds me of the Simpson’s episode where they go to Australia. Near the beginning of the episode, Bart receives a letter from Australia, and it has a commemorative stamp that says “30 Years of Electricity.”) The first time I visited Australia, I did feel like I had travelled back in time about 20 years. Mostly in a good way, though! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/49 "2014-01-15T23:05:17Z")
:smack: you’re right. Fonda sold vhs and beta tapes. I goofed. > [@medstar](#): > > Sorry, but there weren’t any DVD’s back in the '70’s. Jane Fonda sold those new-fangled video tapes (even LP’s) of her routines. Sold like hotcakes.😃 ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/50 "2014-01-16T15:54:57Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Some people credit Jim Fixx and his best-selling book, The Complete Book of Running, with starting the running/jogging craze in 1977. [Marathons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon) were also experiencing a jump in popularity around that time. The first NYC Marathon was in 1970 and the US took home gold for the marathon in the 1972 Olympics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636.md?page=2)