The 1977 bestseller “The Complete Book of Running” begins with author Jim Fixx’s solemn purpose: “first, to introduce you to the extraordinary world of running, and second, to change your life.” With over a million copies sold, the book made Fixx America’s jogging guru, helping to launch a physical fitness revolution in the 1970s by popularizing the sport of running. Writing from personal experience, Fixx championed the health benefits of jogging, how at age thirty-five he had started running, quit smoking, and lost 50 pounds. His expectation that such regular exercise considerably increased life expectancy inspired a healthy movement that created our modern fitness industry.
So, the question remains, Great Taste or Less Filling? I’m Joel Rhodes “Telling History.”
The seventies proliferation of joggers, health clubs, gyms, saunas, weightlifting, biking, home workouts and group classes were decidedly healthy developments. But also symptomatic of a people obsessed with self-image, with roots deeply embedded in the narcissistic ethos of the Me Decade. As writer Tom Wolfe opined, millions of Americans spent those years indulging in an egocentric and self-absorbed celebration of “ME,” “remaking,” as Wolfe said, “remodeling, elevating, and polishing one’s very self.” Some reconfigured their lives around disco, sex, or self-actualization therapies. Others focused their energies wearing matching sweatsuits and terrycloth headbands.
Jim Fixx’s “The Complete Book of Running” extoled the psychological benefits of exercise as well: improved self-esteem and stress management. For Americans turned off by psychedelic drugs in the sixties and cocaine in the disco culture, jogging promised its own natural “runner’s high.” Now, prior to the 1970s, anyone running in the street was probably being chased, and the only people exercising for fun were considered off-beat characters or else schoolchildren competing for the president’s council on physical fitness. Footwear was canvas and un-cushioned.
By decade’s end, though, thirty million Americans ran without anything in pursuit, many in small groups, and increasingly wearing running shoes. Local clubs hosted 5k and 10k races. The New York Marathon started in 1970 with 127 runners and by 1979 hosted tens of thousands. President Carter joined the trend the same year a cover of People magazine featured Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors jogging under the headline “everybody’s doing it.” Nevertheless, in the textbook definition of irony, Fixx ultimately died of a heart attack while running slowly.
The 1972 Boston Marathon opened the race to female competitors, reflecting the growing sense in the Title IX era that women were indeed athletes. Feminists urged sisters to embrace physical strength and competition. Billy Jean King promoted women’s tennis. Aerobics and Jazzercise classes and yoga practices flourished. The first sports bra – the Jogbra – came out in 1978. And as gyms sprang up around the country, women were allowed to work out anytime, not just on designated “ladies’ days.” Health clubs were indeed the new singles bar.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced bodybuilding in the documentary “Pumping Iron,” thousands of Americans chose healthier, organic foods; millions more turned to fad or crash diets. Which brings us to the story of “Lite Beer.” To dethrone Budweiser, Miller marketed a lower calorie alternative to this fitness crowd using masculine professional athletes and macho male celebrities. In a testament to the craze’s commercialism, Miller doubled beer sales in just two years, before the king of beers countered with Bud Light.
