{"id":9512,"date":"2024-07-14T22:21:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-14T22:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=9512"},"modified":"2024-07-14T22:26:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-14T22:26:43","slug":"richard-simmons-radical-promise-exercise-is-for-everybody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=9512","title":{"rendered":"Richard Simmons\u2019 Radical Promise: Exercise Is for Everybody"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you lived in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, your choices for an aerobic workout class were truly slim. You could go to Jane Fonda\u2019s studio in Beverly Hills, where everyone breaking a sweat was \u201cfeather-to-lightweight,\u201d according to one observer<\/a>. You could try a few dance studios where the professionally beautiful \u2014 actresses, models, media personalities \u2014 willed their bodies to become even more so. If building muscle was your goal, you could stop by Gold\u2019s Gym or other palaces of pump, where an almost entirely male clientele strove for hard bodies in the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n

It was against this backdrop of fitness exclusivity that Richard Simmons kicked, shouted and shimmied to the forefront of the workout scene, inviting the people he encountered to move with him \u2014 first at his Los Angeles studio and then in their own living rooms, through his home workouts on TV and VHS.<\/p>\n

With his trademark crown of frizzy hair, sequined tank tops, short-shorts and guy-next-door physique, Mr. Simmons, who died on Saturday at 76, \u201cdid not look like a god, and he spoke to those who didn\u2019t aspire to look like a god,\u201d said Daniel Kunitz, the author of the book \u201cLift: Fitness Culture, From Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While other fitness evangelists promoted the idea that exercise was for every body, Mr. Simmons danced the dance, so to speak, and \u201chelped break down barriers for all sorts of people who didn\u2019t see themselves reflected in the fitness cultures of the time,\u201d Mr. Kunitz said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And yet, despite his embrace of the overweight and overlooked, Mr. Simmons was singularly focused on helping his followers shed pounds, seemingly convinced that while you didn\u2019t need to aspire to look like a supermodel to be happy, losing weight was ultimately the key to health and well-being.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Richard Simmons in 2013. He \u201cinjected this performativity into the fitness world,\u201d said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian of fitness culture, \u201cand also the instructor as revival leader, as entertainer, as comedian, as guru.\u201d<\/span>Eric Charbonneau\/Invision, via Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If you lived in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, your choices for an aerobic workout class were truly slim. You could go to Jane Fonda\u2019s studio in Beverly Hills, where everyone breaking a sweat was \u201cfeather-to-lightweight,\u201d according to one observer. You could try a few dance studios where the professionally beautiful \u2014 actresses, models, media personalities \u2014 willed their bodies to become even more so. If building muscle was your goal, you could stop by Gold\u2019s Gym or other palaces of pump, where an almost entirely male clientele strove for hard bodies in the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger.It was against this backdrop of fitness exclusivity that Richard Simmons kicked, shouted and shimmied to the forefront of the workout scene, inviting the people he encountered to move with him \u2014 first at his Los Angeles studio and then in their own living rooms, through his home workouts on TV and VHS.With his trademark crown of frizzy hair, sequined tank tops, short-shorts and guy-next-door physique, Mr. Simmons, who died on Saturday at 76, \u201cdid not look like a god, and he spoke to those who didn\u2019t aspire to look like a god,\u201d said Daniel Kunitz, the author of the book \u201cLift: Fitness Culture, From Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors.\u201dWhile other fitness evangelists promoted the idea that exercise was for every body, Mr. Simmons danced the dance, so to speak, and \u201chelped break down barriers for all sorts of people who didn\u2019t see themselves reflected in the fitness cultures of the time,\u201d Mr. Kunitz said.And yet, despite his embrace of the overweight and overlooked, Mr. Simmons was singularly focused on helping his followers shed pounds, seemingly convinced that while you didn\u2019t need to aspire to look like a supermodel to be happy, losing weight was ultimately the key to health and well-being.Richard Simmons in 2013. He \u201cinjected this performativity into the fitness world,\u201d said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian of fitness culture, \u201cand also the instructor as revival leader, as entertainer, as comedian, as guru.\u201dEric Charbonneau\/Invision, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9514,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9515,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9512\/revisions\/9515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}