Which actress is credited with helping start the aerobic exercise craze?

Jane Fonda is credited with helping start the aerobic exercise craze. Her 1982 video Jane Fonda's Workout brought organized home exercise into millions of living rooms and made colorful leotards, leg warmers, and choreographed routines part of popular culture.

Fonda's program grew from her 1981 book Jane Fonda's Workout Book, which became a major bestseller. The video combined dance-inspired aerobic movements with strength and flexibility exercises, making gym-style training accessible to people who preferred exercising at home. Its commercial success helped turn fitness into a mainstream entertainment and lifestyle industry.

Fonda did not invent aerobics. The broader exercise method developed through earlier work by figures including Kenneth H. Cooper, whose 1968 book Aerobics popularized the term. Dance-exercise instructors such as Jacki Sorensen and Judi Sheppard Missett also helped shape the movement. Fonda's distinctive contribution was packaging these ideas for mass television and video audiences, which is why she is commonly associated with launching the 1980s aerobic boom.