The Fitness Craze

Aerobics to Yoga.

From "exercises you can do in your car" to "exercises you can do lying down," Americans in the 1970s would do anything to improve their health, cure a bad back, flatten a stomach, or handle their anxieties. Aerobics, dancing, isometrics, stretching, jogging, walking, bicycling, swimming, yoga—Americans increasingly worked out. By 1977 a record 87.5 million U.S. adults over the age of eighteen claimed to participate in athletic activities. The most visible sign of the fitness boom were some eight million joggers who trotted along big-city park paths and suburban byways. Popular marathons attracted thousands of participants; and Sen. William Proxmire, a five-mile-a-day runner, claimed, "It's a super feeling, like being immortal." "A good run," said a woman jogger in New York City, "makes you feel sort of holy."

Big Business.

Unlike traditional sports, the new athletics minimized the importance of...

[The entire page is 915 words long]

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