[article] Aerobics: The Aftermath

an article in The New York Times, by David Sheff

"OLIVIA SIEMENS, in a shiny blue Speedo swimsuit and with goggles pinching her forehead, climbed out of the pool and draped a towel over her shoulders. Before she walked (stiffly) toward the women’s locker room at the Koret Center at the University of San Francisco, she complained: “Swimming is just about the only exercise I can do these days. I’m a fashion victim — the fashion of aerobics.”

Mrs. Siemens, 54, a jewelry designer in Berkeley, Calif., said she often took as many as six aerobics classes a week in the ’80s when, she said, “aerobics was new and everywhere and my friends and I all did it with a vengeance.” Sipping a drink from Jamba Juice, she added: “I was jogging in place with Jane Fonda. I did my jumping jacks and high knee lifts with Richard Simmons. I twirled my arms and punched the sky while hopping on one foot to the music of Olivia Newton-John. It was supposedly all about staying in shape, but look at me: I can hardly walk.”"

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