Exercise Icons Of The '70s Who Were So Ahead Of Their Time

The 1970s are known for being the golden era of fitness. "There was the birth of exercise science," Danielle Friedman recalled about the decade during a January 2025 episode of NPR's news and politics podcast, "All Things Considered." But that's not all, according to the journalist; there was also a move toward self-improvement. "The 1970s — the writer Tom Wolfe famously dubbed it the Me Decade," she explained. "After the kind of activism of the '60s, Americans and baby boomers in particular were turning toward themselves, were sort of, in many cases, shifting away from trying to save the world to trying to improve themselves."

Naturally, many exercise aficionados led the charge, pioneering the movement with fitness regimens that were far ahead of their time. From Arnold Schwarzenegger's affinity for bodybuilding to Farrah Fawcett's love of jogging to Jane Fonda's ballet barre workouts and even Judi Sheppard Missett's creation of Jazzercise, these exercise icons blazed a path and put some of the world's most popular workouts on the map! 

While it's clear that Arnold Schwarzenegger is no stranger to controversy and scandal, it's hard to deny that he was on to something way back in the 1970s with his intense weightlifting regimen. As you may recall, Schwarzenegger practically became a celebrity overnight with the release of "Pumping Iron," a 1977 bodybuilding documentary that followed him and his rival, Lou Ferrigno, as they prepared to compete in the Mr. Olympia competition. Spoiler alert: Schwarzenegger comes out victorious in the end. But, perhaps even more noteworthy, was the way he drew many other people to weightlifting, too. 

Fast forward many years later, and we now know that strength training can improve 13 health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even depression and anxiety. And, according to a study using mice and published in The FASEB Journal in May 2021, weight lifting every day may also shrink fat cells.

While it may be hard to believe, there was a time long ago when people were judged, ridiculed, and even bullied for jogging. No, really. "Cars would go by, windows would roll down and either taunts or empty beer cans would come flying out," the 1968 Boston Marathon winner, Amby Burfoot, recalled during an interview with The New York Times in January 2025. "There was no respect," Burfott added. 

Thankfully, that all changed once the famous "Charlie's Angels" actress Farrah Fawcett came on the scene and made jogging cool. Per Vogue, Fawcett's daily exercise routine wasn't complete without a one-mile jog, followed by time in the sauna and jacuzzi. "The only way I can release my day's tensions is not with a drink or a visit to some Beverly Hills shrink, but with something so taxing to my muscles that I fall asleep from body exhaustion instead of a mental wipeout," she was quoted as saying. "You'd be surprised; after you push your body to its fullest, your daily problems hardly have time to affect you," she added.

And as it turns out, Fawcett was on to something. According to a study conducted by Professor Larry Tucker of the Department of Exercise Sciences at Brigham Young and published in 2017 in Preventive Medicine, routine running habits can help slow down the aging process. 

Dare we say Jane Fonda was the OG ballet barre workout enthusiast?! Fonda first started working on her famous ballet-inspired workout routines way back in the 1970s. "People respond differently to various types of movement, to different workout speeds, even to different kinds of music. I like ballet and what it does for me — the slowness, the rigor, the sense of creativity while I move," she told Vogue in 1979. Later, Fonda went on to open her very own gym and release workout videos. And, well, the rest is simply history. "I remember thinking, Oh, God, wouldn't it be great if I could sell 25,000 [tapes]? Three million tapes later, we created an industry," she declared during a 1987 interview for "Good Morning America" (via Analog Indulgence).

Today, ballet barre classes are still all the rage. "Barre requires you to keep your core engaged at all times. So that means while you are working your arms, legs, and booty, your abs are working as well," Bergen Wheeler, the national director of Core Fusion talent development and senior teacher at Exhale Spa, explained during a 2017 interview with Self about what happens when you do barre workouts every day.

We would be absolutely remiss not to discuss famous Jazzercise creator Judi Sheppard Missett while talking about 1970s exercise icons who were light-years ahead of their time. According to Sheppard Misset, she first came up with the idea for the workout in 1969. "I had been at Northwestern University, working professionally as a dancer, and teaching dance class, and lo and behold, I came up with an idea that I thought would be great, and 50 years later, here we are. That idea was Jazzercise, and we pioneered a whole industry, the fitness industry," Sheppard Misett recalled in a video on the company's YouTube account. 

Sadly, Jazzercise is one of many fitness trends that have completely disappeared. But that certainly doesn't negate the wonderful health benefits of the workout routine. Emily Jones says she lost a whopping 90 pounds doing Jazzercise while gaining so much more. "I was kind of apprehensive, because with the history of Jazzercise, you tend to think of leg warmers, and I wasn't sure I wanted to do that," Jones told "TODAY" in March 2021. But Jones claimed that after just one session, she was hooked. "I walked in and I was like yeah, this is it, I love it," she recalled. In fact, she loved it so much that she decided to become a Jazzercise instructor herself. "It's so fulfilling. We're not clique-y and 'all about me,' but it's just genuinely our own little family (at our location)," Jones explained about the community aspect. "I've taught a woman in her 80s, and she's brought me cookies and held my children."