When it comes to fitness gurus, it seems we like them on the seasoned side. Check a top fitness video list, and you'll see plenty of familiar faces who are pushing or past the half-century mark: perky Denise Austin, buff Billy Blanks, agile Karen Voight, vivacious Leslie Sansone.
These experts have achieved superstar rank. Their multi-market ventures include successful books and videos that cover a range of exercise programs and styles, exercise-related products they've either designed or endorsed, frequent appearances in fitness magazines and television shows and name recognition outside the fitness realm.
Fitness is often marketed and perceived as a young person's pursuit: Witness the plethora of health club commercials and exercise product infomercials featuring buff 20-year-old fitness models plus the scores of under-30 personal trainers who populate almost every gym. On the surface, this may seem anomalous. But someone is keeping the pros high on the charts, and it's not just flab-conscious baby boomers; it's also men and women young enough to be their kids.
"They're in fabulous condition and they're role models," says Nancy Trent, president of Trent & Co., a New York-based marketing and public relations firm specializing in fitness and spas. "Someone in their 50s who looks the ultimate is someone I would trust if I were in my 20s," says Trent, who has worked with Austin, Kathy Smith and Tony Little. "You listen to someone like that because they're living proof that they know what they're talking about."
There are few overnight sensations in the fitness world. "It's the fact that they've been in the industry for years, paid their dues and become known in the industry," says Kathie Davis, executive director of San Diego-based Idea Health and Fitness Assn. "It makes perfect sense to me. It takes years before you establish a clientele, and then another step to be good enough to present [teach a class] at a fitness convention, then getting the opportunity to do a video, and that's when you really begin to get recognized."
Getting and staying in the public eye are essential but difficult. Having your own television show -- or two, in Austin's case -- doesn't hurt, nor does a high-rotation infomercial. Being anointed by Oprah Winfrey can propel someone from successful aerobics teacher to fitness superstar. Being featured in magazines is another key component of fame.
