Globally, the total market share of the fitness club industry alone is over $87 billion.
Fitness is big business; globally, the total market share of the fitness club industry alone is over $87 billion, according to 2021 findings from Statista, a market and data research firm. 6.1 million Americans take part in exercise classes at least twice a month.
“While fitness culture today can feel sleek and sometimes sterile, the story of how women’s exercise developed in the twentieth century until now, I discovered, is weird and messy and awkward and glamorous,” writes Friedman in her new book,author Danielle Friedman . “It’s rich with cinematic characters and forgotten pioneers of what we now call self-care. But more than that, it’s the story of a paradigm shift in the way women, so long accepted as the ‘weaker sex,’ came to view their bodies.
The book takes a fascinating look at the world of modern exercise and some of the main female players in it, from the barre phenomenon to marathons, the ’80s aerobics craze to Instagram fitness influencers.One section introduces readers to Bonnie Prudden, an American mountaineer and descendant of Davy Crockett who teamed up with Dr. Hans Kraus to develop and administer a 90-second physical fitness evaluation of American children.