OK, lotsa media Qs re the history of home exercise, which has a long history predating social isolation + #Coronavirus.

A fun (I think) thread to highlight some key turning points in *why* + *how* exercise has made its way into the intimate realm of the home… and our lives!/1

Mail-order fitness really took off in 1st half of 20th c. Ads for HOME programs like Charles Atlas’ promoting a muscular, MASCULINE bod took off in part bc gyms were NOT places to be seen – working out was considered sleazy, even if a fit body was becoming more attractive/2

TV ownership exploded in 1950s+ exercise TV was born! Jack Lalanne self-financed a show bc no exec believed people wld watch – or DO – exercise on TV.

WRONG! He appealed mostly to homemakers + made working out “me time”... but also a new domestic to-do/3

Other TV personalities followed; Debbie Drake framed fitness for women as a way to “keep your husband happy.”

And maybe not *only* by working out… men were known to tune in to ogle the rare sight of lady in a tight, (collared!) leotard /4

The 1980s brought VHS! JANE FONDA’s workout tape sold millions + enabled exercise “on-demand” in markets w/o fitness TV, for people w inflexible schedules, abroad...

Fonda intended it to be feminist, but some women saw it as MORE pressure to be thin, pretty, and now fit/5

*Everyone* wanted in on $$$ fitness VHS genre; “Muscle Motion” w The Chippendales Men was a soft-porny show of male bodybuilders doing aerobics, but its creators (I’ve interviewed them!) insist it's ALSO a great workout (haven't tried yet; will report)/6

Speaking of porn, adult film star Traci Lords was one of MANY celebs (Heather Locklear, Raquel Welch, etc) with workout videos.

Lords’ full-length! 1988 vid is worth watching just for the distinctive, spoken-word style narration/7 https://archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-WarmUpwithTraciLords

I have no stats, but I’ve spoken to multiple exercise video producers from the 1980s who said that one audience for these workout tapes led by sexy women were incarcerated men prohibited from receiving porn but not nice, wholesome exercise videos!/8

Somehow the thread got broken! It continues here: https://twitter.com/nataliapetrzela/status/1248448839096455168?s=20