As standards of beauty changed, the slender and slim bodies of the ’60s and ’70s gave way to the toned, body-building-inspired muscles of the ’80s, the techniques became more specific. Even as lifting weights became standard for women, aerobics, Jazzercise, and barre still emphasized slimming; women’s gyms were not a girl-power utopia, free of archaic ideas of what a fit female body should look like.

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