Vintage Fitness Review: Denise Austin's Swingin' to the Big Bands

 Denise Austin was the first fitness expert I ever watched, back at six in the morning before school on ESPN. There weren't that many other options then, in the late eighties. Jane Fonda had several videos, of course, but those seemed very mom-ish to me. Corey Everson and Gilad were on in the time slots after Denise but these were mostly studio shows, maybe a beach here but not as interesting. Denise travelled a lot for Getting Fit; I think I learned half of the Caribbean islands just from her introducing them on her show. 

So it's as a Denise Austin fan that I've approached fitness videos and exercise in general throughout my life; if I felt like I needed to get in shape, I looked for her videos. I still own several of them on VHS (Hit the Spot is my absolute favorite series) and a few on DVD, but once everything started popping up on YouTube, I was able to find awesome, old school late eighties and early nineties Denise Austin videos and put together an awesome vintage watchlist! 

Swingin' to the Big Bands was released on VHS in January of 1994 by Parade Video. Denise is clad in a tailed tuxedo coat, bow tie, and white one-piece leotard but ditches the coat after the first number. This is a pretty unconventional workout video for a few reasons, but overall, it's pretty fun and campy. Here are some takeaways: 

1. This is an extremely low-impact aerobic workout, think dancing for older people (who actually make up Denise's supporting cast)

2. Some of the steps take some focus and repetition, but none of it's super hard. It's easy to want to move to these songs if you enjoy swing band selections such as "In the Mood," "Pennsylvania 6-5000," and "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." The moves are less typical aerobic and more jazzy.

3. Most of the routine is structured well and matches the swing music (which is being performed, live, by a band seated behind the folks exercising), but there is a Samba segment that relies heavily on freestyle that loses its way when members of the band come out and begin dancing with Denise. Just cha-cha through that part. Or get some water. 

4. Apparently Denise's mother is one of the people behind her doing the routine with the rest of the older participants. That's kinda cute. I found this out from a throwback Facebook post from Denise herself.

5. You will not likely break a sweat during this routine, but after approximately 40 minutes of continuous dancing, you'll probably feel goofy and, I don't know, accomplished. 

6. If you've seen Twin Peaks, this entire routine is going to take you back to Leland Palmer's dancing/crying antics during the musical numbers at the Great Northern. My husband (who was sitting in a chair working while I did this) would often shout "Dance with Me!" or "LAURA!" while I was working hard to master the steps, which kept the situation light-hearted. And creepy.

Even though the copy YouTube has is pretty poor in quality, I would definitely add this to my routine to do regularly, create a more challenging set of choreography moves, or even copy down the playlist and make a spotify list for walking or biking. It's a fun, unique kind of fitness inspiration.




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