Let's Get Physical

Bust out your scrunchie. Fitness is throwing it back

- Amy Starr

If you’re pining for the days of early-morning televised aerobics and thong leotards over shiny tights, you and your penchant for high-top sneakers and push-down socks will be happy to know you’re not alone. Check that tracker on your wrist – it’s telling you that fitness has become so high-tech and fancy in recent years, we’re beginning to crave simpler times. Perhaps that’s why some old-fashioned favourites from the ’80s are making their sweaty return.

In 1982, Jane Fonda told us to “feel the burn” and became a cultural phenomenon (selling a cool 17 million workout tapes) in the process. More than 30 years later, Fonda is still inspiring how we get fit. Shannon Dooley launched her throwback aerobics studio Retrosweat (retrosweat.com.au) in Sydney six years ago. “I think exercise is hard to get motivated for,” she says. “Personally, I find it hard to walk into a big corporate gym. It lacks energy for me. I created this workout for people like me, who know that exercise and endorphins are essential, but so is having a good time.”