Quote:
It all started with one man. In 1968, four-time Olympian Les Mills started his first gym in Auckland, New Zealand. It was a simple operation, basic strength and cardio training for a small community of athletes. Now, 50 years on, it is the hub of a global revolution – a vibrant destination where the world’s top fitness talent create new ways to get fit, combining music with movement and then taking it to the world.
It was Les’ son Phillip Mills who drove the change.
Phillip started working in the family gym after school. Back then he was charged with motivating exercisers by delivering magazines to them as they pedaled away on indoor cycles. It’s fair to say it’s a role he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about. But all that changed when he returned from a UCLA track scholarship. He had witnessed the birth of the aerobics phenomenon and as a result his enthusiasm for motivating exercisers had been kicked into a higher gear. So in 1980 he eagerly jumped back into the family business to create group workouts driven by the beat of modern music. Those early aerobic programs drew queues down the street and Phillip could sense the real power of group fitness.
Together with his wife Jackie, a doctor and former gymnast, Phillip spent years developing the concept, learning first-hand what makes – and breaks – a good fitness class. In 1990 they changed the game entirely by introducing weights – BODYPUMP was born.