I did a Jane Fonda workout… Pregnant.

I recently started working out again. After what was the most demanding and hardcore first trimester, I’ve finally got it in me to go back to the gym. It’s been inconsistent, albeit intentional. On the days I have the energy to go, it’s pelvic floor exercises, deep core, booty workouts, and ‘cardio’ (emphasis on the quotation marks, as merely walking these days spikes my heartrate and blood pressure.)

But after coming across a fellow pregnant mama recreating a ‘Feel the Burn with Susan Harris’ reel, I figured why not give the ol’ leg warmers a shot.

Before I go any deeper, I must disclose that I was absolutely not prepared for the blood pressure spike that came with this workout. I experienced a lifetime of lymphatic drainage in a single Jane Fonda ep.

This is what they call post-workout endorphins. I can only manage about five words per minute because my veins are coursing with coke-level dopamine. Sugar-free, zero cal.

I’m impressed though. Modern day workouts are just gym girlies doing the same weighted bridges and squat routines, never tasting the real burn that comes with stretching, aerobics, and cool downs.

It’s almost as if we do them all separately while the 80s did them all in half an hour… and in a neon-spandex bodysuit. [EDIT: My cellulite could never.]

We jump on tiny trampolines and reenact qigong exercises we see on Instagram to achieve any semblance of lymphatic drainage when Jazzercise would unlock those channels in the warm-up section.

I did my first workout in pajamas because I genuinely didn’t think I’d make it through, let alone put a whole outfit on to match the aesthetic… Pregnancy might have gifted me Kathy Smith boobs, but the general energy is much closer to Richard Simmons… Say less.

Nevertheless, we started with the warm up, then arms, core, and to finish, as quoted, ‘buttocks.’

Oh, how the fitness industry has changed… and dare I say, not for the better.

There was something about being reminded to lift… and lengthen… and breathe… that pushed me past what I thought was my threshold. Of course, I’m cautious, being pregnant and whatnot. But somehow, I have more body-awareness during an aerobics workout than when I’m pumping iron at the gym.

Do I want to… ‘Feel the burn’?

I could totally see myself being an aerobics mom. A fanatic hot mama in spandex, jumping up and down in front of the TV, doing oblique twists. There’s something so 80s classic and feminine about it. And even if the reality is I don’t look half as good as CherFitness, I’ll take the delusion, leg warmers, and endorphins, thank you.

The high is settling down now. But feeling as flexible as I did in my late teens is a feeling I don’t think I want to let go of. Doing aerobics in the morning made me want to stretch that feeling out for the rest of the day—in how I move, how I eat, how I dress, and how I wear this changing body.

There’s something about it that makes me want to lean fully into eating, dressing, and taking on the world the way women did in the 80s. So, I’ll keep doing these workouts because they remind me of something we forget in modern times: it doesn’t have to be so serious.

Sometimes it’s just leg warmers, a questionable amount of jumping, and someone on a VHS telling you to feel the burn like it’s a totally reasonable thing to say to a pregnant woman at 9am.

Anyway… I get it now.

Still feeling the burn,
Sarah Elle

Subscribe if you think leg warmers deserve a comeback.