Jane Fonda's Workout

1982 VHS release in Australia

Jane Fonda's Workout, also known as Workout Starring Jane Fonda, is a 1982 exercise video by actress Jane Fonda, based on an exercise routine developed by Leni Cazden and refined by Cazden and Fonda at Workout, their exercise studio in Beverly Hills. The video release by Karl Home Video and RCA Video Productions was aimed primarily at women as a way to exercise at home. The video was part of a series of exercise products: Jane Fonda's Workout Book was released in November 1981, and both Jane Fonda's Workout video tape and Jane Fonda's Workout Record, published as a double-LP vinyl album, appeared in late April 1982. In July 1982, Fonda's exercise video was released on RCA SelectaVision videodisc. The VHS tape became a bestseller, and Fonda released further videos throughout the 1980s and into 1995. The video also increased the sales of video players.[1]

The original 1982 Jane Fonda's Workout was the first non-theatrical home video release to top sales charts,[2] and it was the top-selling VHS tape for six years.[1] In total, Fonda sold 17 million videos in the 1982–1995 series, considered an enormous success.[3] Fonda's accomplishment spawned imitators and sparked a boom of women's exercise classes, opening the formerly male-dominated fitness industry to women, and establishing the celebrity-as-fitness-instructor model.[4] The ballet-style leg warmers she wore increased the popularity of an ongoing fashion trend, and her encouraging shout, "Feel the burn!", became a common saying, along with the proverb, "No pain, no gain."[1]

The success of Fonda's workout series funded her political activism, which was her original goal.[5][6]

In 2010, Fonda resumed the series with a focus on exercises for women over 50, releasing additional programs on DVD. Between 2015 and 2018, seven of her earlier Workout videos were released on DVD and digital platforms. In 2020, she referred back to her videos in a TikTok video showing her doing leg lifts at age 82.[7]

  1. ^ a b c Hendricks, Nancy (2018). Popular Fads and Crazes Through American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 526. ISBN 9781440851834.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grein1985 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Garcia, Patricia (July 7, 2018). "Jane Fonda's 1982 Workout Routine Is Still the Best Exercise Class Out There". Vogue. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  4. ^ Stillwell, Jadie (November 13, 2019). "That Time Jane Fonda Sculpted Abs to Save the Planet". Interview. Retrieved September 6, 2020. 1984 interview between Fonda and Maura Moynihan.
  5. ^ Ferrise, Jennifer (September 18, 2018). "Jane Fonda on Her Biggest Regret – and How She Got Past It". InStyle. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stukin2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Garvey, Marianne (April 3, 2020). "Jane Fonda joins TikTok and revives her iconic 'Jane Fonda Workout'". CNN. Retrieved September 6, 2020.