Buzz
While delving into the realm of home fitness, my thoughts often drift back to the VHS workout era. Back then, purchasing a Jane Fonda tape was a much bigger commitment compared to the endless free videos flooding social media feeds today. (Jane herself is on TikTok, by the way.) Through grainy footage and muted colors, Jane became your personal cheerleader, instructor, and trainer. A single tape might have been your sole workout routine for months.
In the 1988 workout I tried, available on YouTube, Fonda begins by explaining the routine, followed by a five-minute warmup. The video is then divided into three parts:
10 minutes of upper-body strength exercises
30 minutes of cardio aerobics
10 minutes of lower-body strength exercises
The video includes some dialogue and transitions between sections, so the timings are rough estimates. Fonda recommends either doing the entire video every other day and just the aerobics portion on alternate days, or combining upper body with aerobics one day and aerobics with lower body the next.
Beyond leading the exercises, Fonda explains how you’ll improve over time—such as by using heavier weights—and the benefits of each movement. She doesn’t pause to teach the aerobics steps; instead, she assures you, “you’ll get it next time,” and honestly, you will. After all, you’ll likely watch this tape daily for months. You’ll manage just fine.
I completed the entire tape, though I skipped part of the aerobics section because my daughter was distracting me, and I was also starting to feel a bit bored and annoyed. Honestly, that’s probably part of the genuine experience. With sufficiently heavy weights, this routine could serve as a decent workout for most people.
Fonda recommends one-pound and three-pound dumbbells for beginners, along with optional one-pound ankle weights. If you’re more advanced, you might use dumbbells up to 10 pounds and ankle weights up to five pounds. Most exercises involve two sets of 8 to 12 reps, with Fonda emphasizing that you won’t bulk up but will instead develop a nice “contour” on specific body parts. As a workout, it’s solid. And as a display of ’80s fitness fashion, it’s absolutely iconic.
