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Coming on the heels of the exercise-crazed 1980s, with its ubiquitous leg warmers and tights, were the 1990s. During the decade, cardio-packed martial arts workout videos and stationary bike spinning classes came into vogue, as well as some new gym lingo. And, while the decade did get some things right when it came to health and fitness — like the Health At Every Size Movement and the culmination of the U.S. government’s push to promote its Healthy People guidelines — it also got some things very wrong, especially when it came to its fitness jargon. We just can’t forget the fact that these popular ’90s catchphrases sounded quite ridiculous, not just today, but even back then. With that said, here are some of the classic cringeworthy slogans of the era, which you might recognize if you’re a Millennial, Gen Xer, or Boomer.

By the late 1990s, fitness guru Billy Blanks seemed to be touting his Tae Bo kickboxing-meets-martial-arts videos on every screen. Thus, his calls to form a “Tae Bo nation” and to “Work it!” became commonplace.

Interestingly, Blanks refused to follow a script for his Tae Bo videos (via Men’s Health). Consequently, his enthusiasm was totally legitimate (and smile-inducing) for everyone involved. As Blanks told The New York Times in 2026, “Even though we were working out hard, we were having so much fun with doing it.”

Unlike many fitness trends that completely disappeared, Tae Bo has demonstrated some staying power, with today’s generation rediscovering the classic workout, albeit without the “Work it!” catchphrase or the tight neon outfits.

The 1980s saw the birth of “Buns of Steel” workout videos, featuring glute-burning exercises. The slogan took on a new form in the 1990s and became “Abs of Steel,” a branded workout featuring toned fitness instructor Tamilee Web that eventually took off as a catchphrase as well. 

Even nowadays, it’s used as a figure of expression (or even ironically in memes) because of how everyone associates well-developed abs with toughness. Obviously, though, everyone knows that toned abs aren’t literally as hard as steel. (Check out these ab exercises that should be in your workout routine.)

In the ’90s, it wasn’t that uncommon to hear someone utter, “Boo-yah!” after any great accomplishment, like winning at sports or completing a particularly intense workout. In fact, the strange term became a one-word catchphrase after ESPN reporter Stuart Scott kept saying it during the early part of the decade. 

According to Scott’s college friend Fred Tindal (via The Ringer), “boo-yah” was a misspelling of how someone used to describe the sound of a thunderstorm to them (“crack crack crack crack crack boo-yaw”). Interestingly, while Scott popularized the phrase, he didn’t invent it; experts traced its roots to West Coast hip-hop (per Slate).

Fitness star Susan Powter gained popularity in the 1990s for her passionate cry to “Stop the insanity,” a rallying call for people to move beyond restrictive dieting and fad fitness trends toward true holistic health. Though it earned Powter positive attention (and a guest spot on “The Tonight Show”), her catchphrase also became the subject of jokes and spoofs on various TV shows of the era.

Ultimately, Powter’s following faded. But while her catchphrase is no longer popular, its message remains significant, as evidenced by the growing movement towards fitness at any size.

Longtime actress and model Suzanne Somers shook up the 1990s when she starred in ThighMaster exercise product infomercials, where she claimed it was possible to “squeeze your way to shapely hips and thighs.”

Consumers seemed to buy into the silly slogan: On the “Hollywood Raw” podcast, Somers claimed that they “stopped counting” when they reached 10 million copies sold (via Yahoo!).

But does Somers’ ThighMaster actually work, as the catchphrase suggests? “[With the ThighMaster], you’ll build muscle, but it’s not going to be functional in any way,” fitness expert Justin Price told the Los Angeles Times, reinforcing what we know about spot reduction being fiction.