Let's get physical! The start of a new year is always when people are at their most active. New Year's resolutions are still in tact, and fitness is everyone's top priority. With that in mind, we couldn't help but take a look back at the most iconic era of workout-adjacent media: The 1980's. Between the spandex, the bulging muscles, the music, and the montages, 80s film and TV (and 80s-inspired media) is truly the Golden Age of the fitness aesthetic.
First and foremost, we had to look back at the outfits. There's just spandex as far as the eye can see, often in bright, neon colors. Between the leotards, sweatbands, short shorts, and even polos, it is an incredibly defined style. Obviously, a movie like Perfect is well-known for its era-appropriate workout scene with Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta. But even more modern hits, like Burn After Reading and Red Oaks take their cues from the era when making wardrobe decisions. It is the easiest, most straightforward way to mark the time period of the movie (or to point out character traits about your dumb-as-rocks lead character).
Another crucial element to 1980's film was the training montage. They're sweaty, over-the-top, and soundtracked by cheesy songs. But how else can you show a character getting ready for a big moment in just five minutes? The Rocky franchise obviously redefined the training montage, featuring at least three of them a movie by the time we hit Rocky IV. But it also bleeds into movies like The Karate Kid and Top Gun, and we couldn't be happier. Training montages are some of our favorite scenes to watch on Youtube, and can always serve to inspire you to get moving.
Finally, we couldn't help but touch on the ridiculously jacked movie stars of the 80s. Whether or not they were using performance-enhancing drugs is a different discussion. But for an entire decade of cinema, we got unrealistically bulky dudes as our movie heroes. Whether it was a shorter actor like Tom Cruise in Top Gun, or the hulking Arnold Schwarzenegger, everyone was just HUGE. And we had to honor it in the Moodboard.
Whatever your New Years fitness goals are, we at King Penguin are behind you! Hopefully you can find some motivation to get off your couch from these 80s gems, and definitely stay tuned later in the week for a soundtrack to your workouts!