One of the most successful and long lasting exercise trends of the last century is Jazzercise. This fitness craze was created by Judi Sheppard Missett and founded in 1969. This aerobic workout combines jazz dance, resistance training, Pilates, yoga, and latin dance. An average class is 60 minutes long and promises to burn 600 calories. Synonymous with Jazzercise are neon colored leotards, footless colored tights, and leg warmers. Over the years, this workout has been featured in many movies and TV shows like Glee, Golden Girls, Futurama, and Taxi. In the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas, an hour a day is blocked out in the Grinch’s schedule just for Jazzercise.
Although Jazzercise is a blast from the past, it still going strong all over the world. Judi Sheppard Missett is still the CEO of this fitness empire that made $96 million in 2010 alone. Each week there are over 32,000 classes hosted by 7,800 instructors in over 32 countries. This international exercise phenomena has something like a cult following which has made it successfully after all these years. What has made Jazzercise so successful around the world is that all of classes are consistent and the people who stick with them have long lasting results.
There are now 7 different types of Jazzercise: original Jazzercise, Jazzercise lite, Jazzercise body sculpting, Jazzercise personal touch, Jazzercise express, junior Jazzercise, and Jazzercise low impact. They have also created a new kind of workout called Dance HIIT by Jazzercise, a high intensity interval training workout which is composed of high energy cardio dance moves. This workout was created and choreographed by Shanna Missett Nelson, daughter of Judi Sheppard Missett and President of the Jazzercise company.
Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, Jazzercise has an entire campaign to encourage women to exercise and lead healthier lifestyles to reduce their risk.The this initiative has encouraged women to “dance for breast cancer prevention” and to talk to their doctors about their own breast health. If want to try this group fitness classic click here to find a class near you.
Does Jazzercise bring back Throwback Thursday memories for you?
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Never Jazzercised!!!!! This was popular when I was really young and didnt even know what exercise was! However, if it came back, I wouldn’t be opposed to try out a class and wearing the REQUIRED uniform!
REMEMBER??? I’m still doing it!!! Haha, j/k. But I love any exercise classes that incorporate dance. A really cool one I tried recently is Pound. It’s an upbeat cardio/strength training class using weighed drumsticks. Super fun!