WEBVTT - The Semi-Recent History of Exercise 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.960 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and Chuck's 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.400 here too, and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.119 you should know about the history of exercising. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:24.000 Yes, I found this super fascinating. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:25.760 Yeah, it is pretty fascinating. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:27.920 I don't know. I it just grabbed me. 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.320 And I guess it grabbed me earlier because it was 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.720 my idea because I think, I don't know, maybe i'd 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.199 seen Anchorman and they made the yogging joke, and then 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:42.599 I remembered hearing that, you know, exercises sort of new, right, 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.080 if you look at not only the history of humans, 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.839 but the history of America, it's only been around for 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:53.720 you know, you know, fifty ish years, sixty maybe. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.040 Yeah, I mean in ancient times they were pretty into fitness, 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.400 but then it kind of dropped off for a couple 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:00.840 thousand years, and we picked it up again in nineteen 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.920 sixty roughly at very least the decade of the sixties. 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.559 And like you said, specifically in America in the United States, 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:09.280 I should. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.240 Say, yeah, so should we do it? 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.640 Yeah. The whole thing is that the first half of 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.840 the twentieth century It's not like there weren't people exercising, right, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.479 they were out there, they were just considered weirdos or possibly. 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:27.880 Gay, exactly. They didn't even really use the word exercise much. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.959 It was called physical culture, and like you said, it 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.720 was a real niche thing. The obviously there were you know, 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.040 sports and athletes and people like that were doing physical training, 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.360 and the military did stuff like that, and there was bodybuilding, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.759 but that was super niche too, But as far as 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:50.640 like your regular average American walking around, they were just 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:52.800 walking around or sitting in chairs. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.680 They were walking around, eating a steak while they walked around. 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.120 That's what they were doing with the martini, and you 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.520 did mention, you know, possibly gay, and that was a 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.440 characteristic early on. Is like, if you are a man 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:10.880 and it's nineteen forty something or fifty something and you 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.639 want to have like a nice body and you want muscles, 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.440 people might say, well, you're probably gay or you're probably 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.880 a narcissist, because gems are for gay men to meet 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:21.320 each other. 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.399 And that was just sort of the perception at the time, exactly. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:26.799 And then women didn't have it much better. They were 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.960 almost culturally forbidden from exercising it in the first place, 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.280 it was unlady like to engage in exercise, or typically 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:41.880 considered that. On top of that, exercises, you're exercising for yourself. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.840 It's kind of the basis of exercise, and that also 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.239 seemed unseemly for women to engage in such a self 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:53.919 indulgent pursuit, right. And then on top of that, there 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.440 was a general idea that your uterus might fall out 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.360 if you exercise too vigorously. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.760 Yeah, or just you know, you may not be able 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.880 to get pregnant if you exercise, So just don't do that. 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.960 Just stay on your feet all day and do the housework. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.680 Right exactly, which, as we'll see, is actually an example 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.440 of moderate physical activity. 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:15.600 That's right. It's better than sitting down. 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:21.240 So in about nineteen sixty, if you asked Americans, hey, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.160 do you exercise regularly? I'm surprised with this, about a 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:25.799 quarter of Americans would have. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:27.800 Said, yes, that seemed high. 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.840 It does. It seems high to me too. In nineteen 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.600 eighty seven, less than thirty years later, that answer to 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.920 that question was yes from almost seventy percent of people. 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.600 So in those three decades from nineteen sixty till the 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.320 eighties through the eighties, exercise came on the scene and 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:50.320 just jelled with the world. In the United States in particular. 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.360 Yeah, I would be curious to see that poll and 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.360 see exactly how it was worded and defined, right, because 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:59.920 that twenty four percent seems high. I could see people 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.040 just being like, well, sure I cut the lawn, right, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:04.320 you know that kind of. 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.800 Thing, and regularly was once within the last three years. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:10.800 Yeah, you cut the lawn once every three years. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.600 Right. So again, it wasn't just women who were considered 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.760 at risk health wise from exercise. Everybody was considered at risk. 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.800 If you exercise too much, you were probably over taxing 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.119 your heart and you're probably gonna die young. They actually 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.279 thought athletes were at risk of dying young from over 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.279 exerting themselves. And then it was finally, I think about 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.240 in the late forties when a British epidemiologist named Jeremy N. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.280 Morris and that and and the Morris makes me want 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.320 to say Norris so bad. I mean, it's a real 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.160 it's a weird combination. But he said, you know what, 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:51.039 I like to jog, and I liked exercise, and I 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:52.640 think that this is wrong. So I'm going to go 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.080 about studying it in the most clever way possible. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.400 Yeah, it's a pretty interesting study. And by the way, 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:02.400 Livia put this together for us, and as usual. 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.200 I think she crushed it, knocked it out of the park. 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.159 I had no notes. Not that we're usually noddy, No, 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:09.000 you know what I mean. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:10.520 No, we're not very nody. 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.120 I like to just a gold star, right, But yeah, 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.400 he had a really ingenious and sort of contained way 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.159 to study this. He did lots of other studies, but 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:21.800 one of the ways he did it was he said, 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.600 you know, we got these big double decker buses in England. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:25.560 Everybody's seen those. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.600 Everyone's seen those, and there's there's two people who work 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:31.080 on those. There's the guy who drives them, and then 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:33.560 there's the guy who is the bus conductor. And he's 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.400 always huffing it up and down those stairs. And you know, 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.080 granted it's not like forty stairs or anything, but they're 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.440 steep and you're climbing those things all day long, back 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.400 and forth. So he was like, I got a nice 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.160 little captive audience of of people who are pretty similar 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.839 probably in lifestyle and in age and stuff like that, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.440 and one of them exercises one of them doesn't. And 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.640 he found that drivers had twice more than twice as 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.400 many heart attacks as conductors. And he was like, wait 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.680 a minute, did some more studying and said, hey, everybody, 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:05.800 I think exercising is good for your heart. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.440 Yeah, and other people were like, wait a minute, let 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:12.400 us check it out. Well, wha, it's true. Study after 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.320 studies started coming in saying like, not only does exercise 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.920 not put you in an early grave, it actually probably 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.839 prevents you from an early grave. So maybe we should 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.280 all start exercising. So this was so in the fifties. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.040 This was the era of proving that exercise was good 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.680 for you, and then by the time the sixties rolled around, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.920 people were ready to start getting into it. And at 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:39.320 first it seems like they were. They were more hardcore, 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.800 surprisingly enough at first than we are today because you 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.440 look around and like so many people exercise today, especially 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:48.760 in comparison to like the sixties and seventies at the 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.520 beginning of the boom. But people have just kind of 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:53.840 mellowed out a little bit. Before it was just like 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.320 as intense as you could you could possibly get in 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:58.200 every single way. 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.800 Well, I mean, these are the people that drank three 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:01.919 martinis at lunch. 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.000 Yeah, yeah, they did not want hardcore. 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.400 Right, Yeah, you're just going to do something, You're going 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:06.360 to do it hard. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.480 So in fact, we were talking about those people because 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.480 the culture of work really changed since about the mid 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.840 nineteenth century when people moved away, not entirely, obviously we 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.920 still had farmers and stuff, but you know, mainstream America 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:25.400 moved away from hard labor jobs into desk jobs, and 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.800 they started to worry that the sedentary lifestyle wasn't good 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:33.040 for them. In the mid seventies is when corporate America 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.040 started tuning in because Fortune magazine wrote an article that 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.920 basically said, Hey, all these CEOs and board members that 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.800 we have are just a bunch of and this is 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:44.280 of course in the mid seventies. There are a bunch 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.320 of old, sort of overweight, white fat cats, and they're 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.360 all having heart attacks and it's costing our firms and 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.760 corporations about seven hundred million bucks a year. And this 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.760 is mid seventies numbers. And so it was them who 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.640 started the health boom. It was sort of like corporate CEOs, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.040 I think in the sixties and seventies, Livia found some 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.080 research that found that generally, like the people that started 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:12.360 this whole thing were college educated, they had some money, 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.160 and they were generally white people. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:20.040 Yeah, that's who kicked off the boom. Today, the differential 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.920 in race is pretty much erased, but there's still a 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.280 gap in education where if you have college or some 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.960 college or a bachelor's degree, you're about twice as likely 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.960 to exercise on an average day as somebody who just 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.719 has a degree from high school. Really interesting, it is interesting. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.640 Another thing that happened too, not just the health aspect, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:47.720 but in the twentieth century, because of that increasing sedentariness, 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:55.439 Americans became a lot more fixated on how you looked physically, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.839 especially weight, whether you were overweight or not, and there 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.680 became a much greater emphasis on not being overweight, and 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:08.120 that really dovetailed with the idea of taking care of 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.160 your insides while also taking care of your outsides, and 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.960 that really kind of provided the foundation for kind of 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.479 funneling people into the exercise boom of the sixties and seventies. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.320 You could live longer, you could look better, so just 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.160 go exercise. Let's all give it a try. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.880 Yeah, for sure. And into the eighties is when you 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.240 really saw a boom and women exercising more and more. 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.559 The whole fitness movement was almost geared toward women at 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:40.040 that point for a number of reasons. One was, you know, 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:43.840 women trying to become more empowered, women gaining power and empowerment. 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.040 The feminist movement that said, all right, if you're you're 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.240 gonna do that in the workplace, why not be strong 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.000 in your personal life, physically strong, strong like bull Yeah, exactly, 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.760 and so be strong and your work life, be strong 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.280 in your physical life. Title nine, of course, really helped 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.080 things out because all of a sudden, girls sports were 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.280 getting more funding and more attention. And then, like you said, 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.840 the standards for physical attractiveness changing was for men and 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.479 women and everyone across the gender spectrum exactly. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.920 So the first thing that really caught everybody's attention was jogging. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.280 That was the one that really laid the groundwork, and 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:26.520 jogging grew out of legitimate running like it came most 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:31.120 people peg. A New Zealand Olympic track coach named Arthur 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:35.680 Lydiard as the guy who if he wasn't interested or 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:40.400 involved in bringing jogging to the masses, he still was 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.280 kind of like the inadvertent father of the whole thing, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:48.600 because in the sixties, he came up with training techniques 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.240 for marathon runners that people still use today. It's really simple, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.920 really basic, but it's really effective. It's things like on 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.920 a Monday, you run ten miles a half effort over 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.920 hills and roads, and then Tuesday you do you know, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.920 flat fifteen mile run or something like that. I don't 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.920 think that's exactly it, but people use it today. And 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.760 the fact that there was now a framework that anybody 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.920 could just buy this book or buy this pamphlet and 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:21.240 approach jogging that really kind of helped usher people in. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.840 But again, bear in mind, this is an Olympic level 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.920 track coach who's establishing this stuff, and this was people's 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:34.239 first entree into jogging. So the earliest joggers were hard core, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.480 like scary. I'm a little nervous about them. And we're 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.800 talking about people who are running around in the sixties 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:40.520 and seventies. 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:41.800 Yeah, I think they. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.800 I think they like to be called runners, those types. Sure, 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:47.840 they're like, you're a jogger, Chuck, Actually not even. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.960 That speed walker like Chris Paul, I should do speed 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:56.320 walking to me, Jim, I'm sorry, speedwalking is way harder 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:56.959 than jogging. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.599 Oh do you mean like on your cardio or just 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.680 your body. Yeah, well cardio, yes, intent to look cool? 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.800 Okay. Well, but. 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.200 So in the mid nineteen sixties, a guy you may 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.920 have heard of named Bill Bowerman. He was a running 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.240 coach from the University of Oregon, Go Ducks and co 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.680 founder of a little company called Nike. He published a 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.240 pamphlet kind of based on stuff Arthur Lydiard had been 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.400 talking about, and then eventually wrote this book that I 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:27.560 remember seeing on in houses of like friends of mine. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.920 Really for sure it was. It was a very big book. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.040 It was called Jogging Colon even back then, a physical 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.959 fitness program for all ages. He co wrote it with 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.520 a cardiologist named W. E. Harris, talked about all the 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:46.000 health benefits of running, and it really caught on. It's 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.400 really funny though, like people still like it caught on, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:50.320 but it was still. 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:51.080 Sort of a new thing. 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.000 So The New York Times wrote an article that demonstrated 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.559 and this was in April of nineteen sixty eight that 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:01.199 like when people were running like co occasionally they had 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.840 real stories, like a cop would stop and say like 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:05.079 why are you running? 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.680 What are you running from? Or what did you do? 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:09.720 Or people that were. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.719 Runners and joggers said, you know, I like to run 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:13.839 at night because people don't stare at me. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.559 It don't feel as weird. So it's just so funny 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:18.120 to look back at, you know. And this was in 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.640 the late sixties, that people jogging on the streets where 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.120 you were like, what's up on that person? Why are 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:22.600 they running? 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.840 Right? And at night they like to run in all 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.040 black with a black watch cap and black mask covering 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:28.520 their eyes. 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:29.640 Yes, very safe. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.680 There was another guy who really brought jogging to the masses. 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.400 His name was Jim Fix. He wrote the Complete Book 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.400 of Running, released in nineteen seventy seven, and he I 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.640 remember there was a proselytizer for running, if there ever 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.280 was one, it was him Fix. Yeah, And he ironically 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.000 died while jogging. He ran himself to death. He had 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:54.760 a massive heart attack while jogging. But he's still I mean, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.440 it doesn't really undo what he did, which was, Hey, everybody, 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.600 let's let's go jog. And that's what Anchorman was referring to. 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.360 Was that, right, the jogging trend that Jim Fix helped 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.120 usher in in the late seventies. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.920 But there was another gym in the seventies. A man 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.000 by the name of president Jim Carter, it'd be weird. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.080 So weird does sound weird? He's such a Jimmy, He 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.320 totally is Jim. It seems like you'd have an overly 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:22.400 strong handshake. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:23.240 Right, Jim Carter. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.920 Jim Carter, good to meet you. Yeah, what have you 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:26.960 done for me lately? 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:28.120 He high five. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.120 But this was at a time in the seventies when 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:36.480 the president of the United States had influence on popular culture. 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:41.000 Like I don't feel like presidents really have that much anymore. No, No, 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.200 it's dying fast at least. And he was a jogger 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.960 from the White House. This is the late seventies. He 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:51.520 would jog sometimes ten twelve miles at a time, really 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:52.160 got into it. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.720 And The New York Times wrote about this, of course. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.680 And you know, if if someone's in the White House 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.400 jogging and running, then that normalizes it for a lot 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:01.920 of America. 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.920 Yeah, I read an article about that. I don't know 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:06.440 if it was the New York Times one or not, 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:10.920 but he yeah, it wasn't New York Times. It chronicled 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.000 him going on this run like he held like a 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.960 fun run basically at Camp David, and he almost collapsed 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:20.680 on one of the hills and had to be ushered 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.280 off and taken to the hospital. Oh really, yeah, And 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.600 he was like running with you know, dozens, scores, if 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.760 not hundreds of other people on this fun run, and 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.480 they were running with the president, and he had Secret 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.680 Service guys running with them keeping pace. But he he 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.720 had to leave the race that he helped organize because 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.400 he just went too hard. That was how they used 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:41.920 to do it. 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.160 Did they say over a bullhorn now dropping out a 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.000 runner of thirty two jim Carter? 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.480 Shame, shame. That's how they used to. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.120 Do would you. Oh was that Sean Connery? 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.440 No, I didn't mean it, but sure, I'll take that. Yeah, 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.200 that was Sean Henri shaming Jimmy Carter on that run 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:03.400 in the late seventies. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.920 It sounded like Sean you doing Sean Connery saying same. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.240 That's how it heard in my. 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:17.360 Yes, shame traback so speaking of the New York Times, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.720 and I guess we'll take a break after this. But 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.600 in the late nineties ninety seven they wrote an article 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.680 kind of looking back on running and jogging, and they 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.160 were keen to point out that, like even into the seventies, zho, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.480 it was still a bit of a subculture. Like you said, 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.040 they were like running and jogging enthusiasts, But it wasn't 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.800 like tons of mainstream Americans were running. It was still 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.400 like what are those people doing? Like should I do that? 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:40.600 Right? 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:43.400 All right? Okay, break time? 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:44.600 I think it is break time. 0:16:45.080 --> 0:17:05.800 All right, we'll be right back with aerobics. 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.720 Okay. So you've got jogging that's on the scene, then 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:13.560 you have aerobics too. This was the one that was 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.280 like probably the most popular thing of the eighties. If 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.320 you ask me, I think I think aerobics dominated the eighties. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:25.439 Jogging the seventies, and aerobics was around a lot longer 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.720 than just the eighties. It was one of those things where, 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.679 you know, some people who were kind of into exercising 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.240 kind of developed it on their own separately, and then 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:37.119 it just took a little while to get more and 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.919 more popular as word of mouth spread. But there's a 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.919 guy named Kenneth Cooper who started it all again in 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.520 the sixties. He was a US Air Force surgeon and 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:49.160 he was like, you know those that weightlifting, the calisthetics 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.240 that the military uses for training. It's all well and good, 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.960 but these guys are like like dying on these these 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:58.840 runs and jogs and hikes. 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.800 They've got no aerobic stamina. 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.919 Stamina exactly. So he started looking into it and he 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.280 was like, I think we need to start using what 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:12.120 we call now cardio. But Jack then it was aerobic exercise. 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.240 Yeah, he was a jogger. He said, I think aerobics 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:18.879 is being sold short. So he wrote a book in 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.600 nineteen sixty eight called Aerobics, and he said, you know, 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.440 running and walking and biking is what people should be doing. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.960 And that was his idea of aerobics at the time, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.840 was just getting that heart rate up sustaining it for 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.120 an extended period of time. He had a pretty clever 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.760 test where he could basically tell you in about twelve 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.000 minutes what kind of like how good of shape you 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.280 were in. But then what happened was really really awesome. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.439 Like I really love this section because my mom figures 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.840 into this, which I'll get to as we as we go. 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:54.320 But women in the United States said, you know, what 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.199 they're talking about running and biking and walking, but what 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.520 they're really talking about is getting your heart rate up 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.879 for an extended period of time. So I'm going to 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.960 make that my own. And there was one woman in particular, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.720 very early on, there were some real trailblazers here. She 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.600 was a dance teacher, also an Air Force wife, no coincidence, 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.600 by the name of Jackie Sorenson. She read that book, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:18.879 she took that fitness test and found out she was 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.840 in really good shape. And she was like, but wait 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:23.320 a minute, I don't run. How can I be in 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.280 this good of shape. She was like, I'm a dancer. 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.159 I'm getting my heart rate up. And so she in 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.919 nineteen sixty nine came up with a danced base exercise 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.200 class on the Air Force base in Puerto Rico where 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.320 they were stationed, and the Air Force said, we should 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.639 produce this as a TV show, which is really weird, 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.400 and they did. It was called Aerobic Dancing, and eventually 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.480 she published a book as well in the late seventies, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:47.760 but she I think was. 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:49.679 One of the first ones. It really was like, you 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:50.440 don't have to run. 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:52.520 You can be in a room and do this as 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:54.400 long as you get that heart rate up exactly. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.840 And also it just is much more engaging and fun. 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.240 No too, you know, biking and jogging those are very 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.560 frequently solitary pursuits. Aerobics was a bunch of people getting 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.760 together in a room and having fun together to like 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:11.240 popular music. 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.280 Right yeah, clapping in, yelling and doing all that. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:18.440 Exactly and encouraging one another. So this was really attractive 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.000 to women at the time because this was you know, 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.840 they were still coming out of this social expectation that 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.919 they shouldn't really be exercising, and now they were saying, 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.119 you know, to heck with you guys, We're gonna do 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.400 this anyway. And this was it was almost like there 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.840 was strength in numbers, but there was also there was 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.480 a social component to it as well. There was another 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.400 woman named Judy Shepherd. She started out in the sixties 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:46.240 as well, but she became the founder of jazzer Size. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.480 That's my mom used to jazzer size. I remember. She 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.320 even had a poster of Judy Shepherd doing different moves 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.320 that came with her record, like record, vinyl record. I 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.879 should say, oh yeah, so my mom would do jazzer 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.280 size at home. She went to jesuitize class, so she 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:01.399 was into it for sure. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.960 It was originally called jazz and Dance for fun and fitness. 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:08.879 Jazzer Size is way more marketable, and this to me, 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.720 maybe the fact of the podcast it was a Jazzer Size, 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:17.840 you know, was a copywritten or whatever, an owned title 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.600