Not Jane Fonda, Not Suzanne Somers: This Celeb Was The Ultimate Health Icon Of The '80s

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Move over Jane Fonda and Suzanne Somers — Raquel Welch will always be the ultimate health icon of the 1980s. (Whatever happened to the ThighMaster, anyway?!) As you may recall, Welch first rose to stardom as a showgirl, model, and actor. But for her second act, the triple threat contorted herself into a bona fide yogi and author with the release of her 1984 book "Raquel: The Raquel Welch Total Beauty and Fitness Program," while simultaneously pioneering a whole new fitness movement. Spoiler alert: it was an instant best-seller, selling more than 200,000 copies just after its release, per the Los Angeles Times. "I love Jane, but that book was sort of, well, tacky," Welch once bluntly told The Guardian when asked about her fitness rival Jane Fonda's weight loss book.

"Every time I left the theater, there would be a crowd of women waiting to ask me questions, such as: 'What do you eat?' 'What kind of exercises do you do?' and 'How do you look like that?' Well, I wasn't about to stand there and explain my daily hour-and-a-half exercise routine or what I had for breakfast," she recalled to the Los Angeles Times about the loyal fitness following she had amassed and her decision to finally document her health and wellness secrets. "I decided to take a year off to write. For the first time, I had a chance to get outside my image as an actress. And for the first time, I had something to say," she declared. And that she did!

Ironically, Raquel Welch's famous step-by-step program, which she described to the Los Angeles Times as "when East meets Welch," reads more like a coffee table book complete with 250 photographs of the scantily clad author in various poses — some yoga, some not. "I'm looking for some photos here that are truly amazing," David Letterman once gushed during an interview with Welch, while leafing through the book. "Oh, look at this one. My gosh, look at that. Good Lord. You do this, you can look like that!" he joked as he held up a centerfold shot of Welch (via YouTube). Suffice it to say, many readers weren't just there to learn about the yoga poses that reduce bloating or the best yoga moves for strengthening arms. 

Following the publication of her popular book, she went on to release a fitness workout video the same year, aptly titled "Raquel: Total Beauty and Fitness." Think: just like the book, but in a televised format. "I've devised a 7-Day plan, 15 minutes every morning, because a little bit every day is a lot better than a whole bunch every once in a while. And it's easy," she declared in a teaser for the workout video. "Every morning when you wake up, just turn on your VCR, make sure that you're on the right day, and follow right along with the routines," she explained. "When you're finished, you'll be reminded to stop the tape, so just turn off your VCR and you're all set for the next day" (via YouTube). What's not to love, right? 

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Welch was estimated to be worth a whopping $40 million at the time of her death on February 15, 2023. A health and fitness icon, indeed.