Kenneth Cooper popularized the term “aerobics” for oxygen-using exercise in his 1968 book Aerobics.
Cooper was an American physician and former Air Force officer who studied how sustained exercise could improve cardiovascular fitness. He coined the term in 1966 and developed a points-based system that encouraged people to accumulate enough weekly activity to produce a measurable “training effect.”
Aerobic exercise uses oxygen to help produce energy during prolonged activities such as running, swimming, cycling, and brisk walking. The word is often confused with aerobics as a specific dance-based workout class, but Cooper’s original idea was broader: it covered many forms of endurance exercise that challenge the heart and lungs.
Cooper’s work helped move exercise advice beyond athletic training and into everyday preventive health. His later books and the Cooper Institute further promoted fitness testing, cardiovascular conditioning, and regular exercise for the general public.