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aerobic exercises, but they didn’t appeal to everyone. Some people wanted to exercise, but they found it boring to do the same thing over and over again. They wanted exercise to be more fun and interesting than it currently was. Fortunately, step aerobics and aerobic dance came along to fill that void. Both forms of exercise have surged in popu- larity since their creation. THE BEGINNING OF STEP AEROBICS Step aerobics as they are known today can be traced back to Gin Miller, who first introduced this form of exercise around 1989. Gin Miller loved sports as she was growing up, and she performed as a gymnast in college. While training very hard, she suffered an overuse injury to her knee. Overuse injuries occur when muscles, ligaments , and joints are used more often than they should be and become worn down and weak as a result. This type of injury is very common in gymnasts who train for hours each day, even if the gymnasts are very careful. Gin sought the help of an orthopedic doctor to help her strengthen her knee again. Her doctor suggested that she ease her knee back into gymnastics by stepping on and off a milk crate repeatedly. Gin went home and, determined to make her knee better, followed her doctor’s orders. She loved being outdoors, so she used her front porch for step- ping instead of a milk crate. The exercises were helping, but they weren’t very fun. Gin was bored of doing the same steps over and over again. One of the ways she fixed her feelings of boredom was by listening to upbeat music while doing her step exercises. The fast-paced music made her routine fun, and she began looking forward to exercising each day. Gin was eager to share what she had created with the local gym she taught at, and she decided to start her own classes. Gold’s Gym accommodated the classes by building a large wooden bench in the exercise room that people could use to step up and down. The classes filled very quickly, making the one large bench extremely crowded and uncomfortable for everyone to use. To make more space, this large bench was cut into smaller pieces and placed throughout the room.

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What Are Step Aerobics and Aerobic Dance?