The Fitness Boom

While the worlds of sports and fitness are intertwined, it was not until the 1970s that popular culture was prepared to accept fitness as eagerly as it had accepted sports. Fitness had not yet taken on its significance for improving health, and popular opinion likened fitness to work and manual work. In the 1940s and 1950s, few participated in fitness eagerly. Among those that did were Jack LaLanne, Victor Tanny, Joseph Gold, Joseph Weider, and Les and Abbye’Pudgy’ Stockton. These fitness pioneers, among others, drew folk to the beach in Santa Monica, California-the original Muscle Beach. More and more spectators became participators, and these folk, originally on the fringe, became a part of the cultural conventional. Jack LaLanne, Vic Tanny, and Joe Gold all started gym chains with bodybuilding as their main focus. Due toPage 602 the influence of Abbye’Pudgy’ Stockton, ladies were introduced to the muscularity and strength that came with bodybuilding. No longer reserved for just for’strongmen,’ bodybuilding led to a change in the mindsets of all those that visited Muscle Beach.
From the seeds planted at the Santa Monica came Venice Beach, the home to weightlifting legends Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and many , many more . Venice Beach in the 1970s brought with it a fitness explosion across the globe. Not only did muscle building become main line, but the popular opinion of fitness changed dramatically.

Sports and athletics grew in the 1970s too. Women became increasingly more interest in participating in sports ; however [*COMMA] very little funding was available for the development of girl’s athletics. A landmark law was passed in 1972. Part of a sequence of tutorial amendments,’Title IX,’ legislated gender equity in athletics. Not only were girls getting more active and more physically fit, a law now existed that requested equal funding and equal opportunity for female athletes. On 21 Sep 1973, female tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the very first winner-take-all’Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match. The hoopla surrounding this event-and its outcome-provided even more motivation for girls to get involved with sports and fitness. Adults over the age of eighteen made a claim to be involved in some variety of athletic activity.
A healthy way of life was becoming a part of popular culture. Innovators such as Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons were able to bring their exercise programs to a new population. The significance of being in good health and physically fit has made and continues to have an impact.
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