The New Kicks in Aerobics

At Galleria Fitness in Sherman Oaks, aerobics instructor Steve Weprin turns on the New Wave music, slathers zinc oxide on his nose and dons jams instead of tights for his Surfrobics class.

San Diego aerobics teacher Summer Leigh-Hart invites students to “let it all hang out” when dressing for her How Tacky aerobics class. The result? “People come dressed with underwear over leotards, whatever is tacky to them,” she said.

Meanwhile, at Shotokan Karate classes in Long Beach and Paramount, students whittle away their waists and their insecurities in Tom Muzila’s Aerobic Self-Defense class.

Silliness and Sweat

Such is the world of wacky aerobics, where getting silly--and sometimes learning a skill--can be just as important as staying fit.

While some maintain that aerobics is passe, proponents of these offbeat versions counter that it’s merely evolving. Wacky aerobics is one incarnation, they say, and not just a California phenomenon.

There are at least a dozen new theme classes, as they are called in the business, said Peg Angsten, vice president of communications for the Sherman-Oaks based Aerobics and Fitness Assn. of America.

Take the Funk class at The Firm, a downtown Minneapolis health club. Co-owners David Gray and Kelly Vesterby videotape students working out at the Friday class, edit the tape and invite students to view it as they exercise the following Friday.

“We put it on the schedule a year ago,” said Vesterby, “and students are absolutely glued to the screen.”

“It’s kind of like home movies,” said exerciser Tom Smith. “When you look good, you’re loving it. But when you look bad, you want to shut the thing off.”

Other would-be stars can have their moment in the sun--and the spotlight--at Miami’s Doral Saturnia International Spa Resort where aerobic students are urged to grab a cane, don a derby and march, strut and kick to Broadway show tunes.

“We also have Caribbean aerobics,” said spokeswoman Lynn Cantisano, for which instructors and guests dress in sarongs. Those who prefer the Motown sound are asked to wear the ‘50s look--poodle skirts, bobby sox and dark sunglasses.

An instructor’s imagination appears to be the only limitation when it comes to wacky aerobics. Leigh-Hart, for instance, dresses in an “aerobic Elvira” costume for her Halloween class.

She tries to make the session spooky by playing “weird, weird music and, for cool-down, we have a seance.” In fact, Leigh-Hart said she succeeded too well once, frightening a woman right out of class.

Even college students are dancing to an offbeat tune, changing the tone and tempo of old-fashioned social dance classes. No one worries about finding a partner at Social Dance Aerobics on the Cal State Long Beach campus. A fast-moving version of ballroom dancing, the class is taught by Betty Griffith, a professor of physical education, and Phil Martin, an instructor in the same department.

Dancing for Exercise

“When you go dancing at a night club, you dance and sit down,” said Griffith. But not in her class, which she describes as 30 minutes of nonstop exercise. “We use the cha-cha as a warm-up, then move to the samba, the polka and two swings, a waltz and then another cha-cha for cool-down.” By polka time, she added, 90% of the students get their heart rate up to the target heart-rate zone.

The offbeat aerobic revolution is even moving into the living room, thanks to some out-of-the ordinary videotapes.

“Jump to It: Rebound Aerobics” doesn’t promise to heal your psyche if you’re jilted on a Saturday night. But it does aim to save your knees. The workout, led by Anaheim sisters Dana Finnegan and Debbie Smith, is done on a rebounder unit, a mini-trampoline. “The trampoline absorbs the shock impact people get on the floor, and you can go longer and harder,” said Finnegan.

“And you’re not beating up a carpet,” Smith added.

Another example, “The Armed Forces Workout,” is definitely not for couch potatoes. Bill Dower of San Diego, the former Marine drill instructor who narrates the tape, describes it as “motivational exercise that builds up a person’s believability in himself.”

To achieve that, the viewer is lead through the “daily seven”--including toe touches, side-straddle hops, side benders and trunk twisters--before beginning the aerobic run. The tape also pokes fun at those who worry about how they look when working out. Exercisers don’t need leg warmers or fancy running suits, Dowers advises on the tape: “You don’t even need headbands. I’ll tell you what you need. What you need is discipline, what you need is desire.”

But what you really need is time, according to Candida Mobley of radio station KJLH-FM, who’s hoping that the “Radiorobics” program she hosted until 1984 soon will make a comeback. Designed for busy executives and commuters, the show included 10 minutes of intense exercise and 10 minutes of health information. “Some of the exercises you could do in the car,” she added.

So exactly what is the attraction of offbeat aerobics?

Dana Thomsen , an instructor at Galleria Fitness who takes Weprin’s Surfrobics class, sums it up in a word: “Change. It’s a lot different than your basic aerobics class.”

Said instructor Leigh-Hart: “People need to relax. They need to be allowed to be children and to have fun. Something like this gives them a party environment, but they don’t have to smoke, drink or go to bars.”

Avenue to Motivation

But to Luanne Hudson, a senior lecturer in anthropology at USC and author of an article on the ritual of aerobics, offbeat classes are primarily an avenue to renewed motivation and participation.

All but the tacky aerobics class, she added: “Tacky aerobics reminds me of the Doo-Dah Parade,” Hudson said, referring to the annual Pasadena spoof of the Rose Parade. “Aerobics is establishment; tacky aerobics is a way of rebelling.”

Tacky aerobicizers, with their mixed-up, lingerie-over-leotards mentality, might not agree. But one thing seems certain: They’re not likely to be welcome at the Christian music aerobic classes springing up across the country, where Top-40 tunes, skimpy leotards and pelvic tilts are shunned in favor of Christian music, sweat suits and more demure exercises.