#Workout Videos

2 items

Video thumbnail — Deal-A-Meal presents Richard Simmons' Sweatin' to the Oldies (1988 commercial)
Trends 1988–present

Sweatin' to the Oldies

Richard Simmons in striped shorts and a tank top, leading a high-school gym full of ordinary people through low-impact aerobics to 50s and 60s hits, on the VHS tape in every parent's cabinet. The first tape came out in 1988, but the sequels and the late-night infomercials selling them made it a 90s fixture.

Billy Blanks in a headset mic leading a Tae Bo class, arms out, with a room of people punching behind him
Trends 1998–present

Tae Bo

Billy Blanks in the headset mic, punching and kicking the air in front of a room of glistening people, and the infomercial promising that Tae Bo would do the rest. From late 1998 the four-tape set was in every living room: the VHS that turned taekwondo and boxing into aerobics and had your mom throwing jabs at the TV.