Work Out With This Quiz on Fitness Fads

Hua Tuo was a third-century physician and surgeon who worked with injured soldiers. Tuo was very interested in physiotherapy and developed a system of exercise, known as “the frolics of the five animals,” for those recovering from surgery. These popular exercises encouraged people to mimic the movements of the tiger, ape, bear, deer, and bird.

Nearly all of the equipment used in modern gymnastics was developed in the 19th century by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Known as the “father of gymnastics,” Jahn opened his first gymnastics club in Berlin in 1811 and taught exercises on the parallel bars, rings, horse, horizontal bar, and balance beam.

In the 1930s and ’40s, Charles Atlas was the archetypal muscleman, often photographed showing off his biceps while wearing briefs. He developed a hugely successful self-resistance exercise regimen called Dynamic-Tension, which he sold through mail-order adverts in newspapers. The workout became so popular that it had fans in King Edward VI, Gandhi, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Former college athlete Walter Camp developed the Daily Dozen routine during WWI to help American troops get in shape. The short routine was based on a sequence of 12 calisthenic movements, and after the war, Camp was asked to write a pamphlet to make the exercise accessible to all.

In ancient Greece, the gymnasium was a male-only space where athletes worked out, listened to lectures, and attended poetry recitations. Greek athletes exercised in the nude so that their coaches could observe their movements and give them training tips.

Today, it’s difficult to imagine the streets and parks not filled with enthusiastic joggers. However, back in the 1960s, it was very unusual to see ordinary people running, and police didn’t know how to handle the new fad. There was even one incident in 1968 when an NYC jogger was issued a ticket for "illegal use of a highway by a pedestrian.” Despite the bumpy start, by the '70s, jogging had become a legitimate, popular way to exercise.

In 1967, mail-order gift firm Greenland Studios began offering sauna suits and promised that wearing them while working out or doing housework would help the wearer lose weight. The idea was that the rubber suit acted like an actual sauna, causing the wearer to sweat profusely and shed pounds. Unsurprisingly, the discomfort of sporting the suit soon saw this fad fall from fashion.

The 1980 film “American Gigolo” made gravity boots the must-have fitness fad after a memorable scene in which Richard Gere hangs upside down while pumping iron. The idea behind gravity boots was that inversion was good for the spine. After appearing in several other movies and TV shows, gravity boots became a popular part of home workouts across the U.S.

In 1936, health advocate Jack LaLanne opened the first public health club in the U.S. The club eventually turned into a chain, and 15 years later, LaLanne began hosting the first televised exercise show, “The Jack LaLanne Show.” By the end of the 1950s, the show was syndicated across the U.S.

The Hula-Hoop was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958. The hip-swiveling toy was an instant success, with an estimated 25 million sold in its first four months. While wooden hoops had been around for decades, the plastic Hula-Hoop became both a popular children’s toy and an adult fitness craze.

In the mid-1980s, pole vaulter Greg Smithey started fitness classes at his studio in Anchorage that solely focused on the butt. His students told him it gave them “buns of steel,” which inspired Smithey to launch a fitness video. His version was a modest success, but the franchise really took off when Tamilee Webb took over as host in 1988. Webb went on to host 21 more “Of Steel” videos.

The oldest transcripts of Hinduism mention the practice of yoga. These transcripts, known as the Vedas, are among the oldest in all of India, dating from 1500 BCE. During this period, Vedic priests practiced “yajna,” which is believed to be a precursor to modern yoga poses. By the third century BCE, “yoga” was a common term in Hinduism, used to describe a spiritual or meditative practice.

On April 24, 1982, Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda released her first fitness video, “Workout.” The video capitalized on the success of her bestselling 1981 book, “Jane Fonda’s Workout Book,” which was instrumental in popularizing home workouts. Fonda went on to release 21 more tapes and sold more than 17 million copies.

The 1990s were the era of the infomercial, and the Thighmaster was a classic success story. Suzanne Somers had made a name for herself in the 1970s and ’80s, playing Chrissy Snow on the sitcom “Three’s Company,” and she used her popularity to front the Thighmaster campaign. The $20 fitness equipment was marketed as a quick way to tone thighs, with the tagline, “You just put it between your knees and squeeze!”

Jazzercise was founded by Chicago dance teacher Judi Sheppard Missett in 1969. Missett was looking for a way to retain her dance students, because many of them were dropping out of class to focus on physical fitness instead of technical dance. Soon, she began teaching other women how to teach the class for her, and business began to boom. Because many of the women she taught were military wives, the fad grew around the country as these women moved around. Missert still teaches Jazzercise classes to this day.