80s costumes · 80s fashion · 80s workout · fitness · mens fashion ·Oct 25, 2026

The 80s Workout Outfit for Men: Aerobics Guy, Gym Guy or Tracksuit Guy

by Newretro.Net

On April 24, 1982, Jane Fonda released a workout tape for $59.95. It became the first non-theatrical video to top the home video sales chart and stayed at number one for a total of 41 weeks. Plenty of people bought it before they owned anything to play it on. In 1980 about 2.5 percent of American homes had a VCR. By 1985 about a third did.

So when people say "80s workout outfit," they're usually picturing the living room in front of that tape: leotards, leg warmers, a lot of pink. That's a fair picture of the women's side of the aerobics boom. The guys were there too, dressed in their own very specific way, and a lot of them weren't in the aerobics room at all. They were in the weight room next door, or out running in a nylon suit that made noise at every step.

The aerobics guy

Aerobics didn't start in the 80s. Kenneth Cooper's book Aerobics came out in 1968, and both aerobic dancing and Jazzercise date to 1969. The 80s were when it went mass market, helped by Fonda's tapes and by Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," which came out in September 1981, sat at number one for ten weeks and ended up as Billboard's top single of 1982. Its video is set in a gym full of men working out, which is either a fitness video or a comedy sketch depending on how you watch it.

The men's aerobics look came from the same place as the women's, with fewer leg warmers. A tank top. Very short nylon running shorts with contrasting trim and split sides, the style people call dolphin shorts after Dolfin, the Pennsylvania company that made them. A terry headband and wristbands, a look tennis players like Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe had already made famous. Tall socks. White leather sneakers.

The sneaker part has a good story. Reebok released the Freestyle in 1982, a soft leather shoe in a lot of colors, designed and marketed for women in aerobics classes. Men bought it anyway, and by 1984 the Freestyle was about half of Reebok's business. Richard Simmons went further: crystal-trimmed tank tops and candy-striped Dolfin shorts. In 2012 he said he owned about 400 pairs of vintage Dolfins.

Illustration close-up of worn high-top sneakers and striped tube socks on a wooden gym floor

For a costume, this is the easiest one to get right. Headband, tank, short shorts, tall striped socks and white sneakers. A digital watch with a stopwatch finishes it, since you'll need to time your intervals. The Digital Futuristic Watch 1989 ($23.99) has the right chunky screen. Leg warmers are optional. They were a dancer and aerobics-class thing more than a gym-guy thing, so wear them as a joke if you wear them at all.

The gym guy

The weight room had its own uniform, and its home base was one gym in Venice. Joe Gold opened the first Gold's Gym in Venice, California, in August 1965. Pumping Iron, filmed there and at nearby Muscle Beach and released in 1977, pulled bodybuilding out of the fringe, and Gold's started franchising in 1980. Arnold Schwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia for the seventh time the same year and then spent the decade becoming Conan and the Terminator.

The gym guy wore a stringer, which is a tank top with barely any tank left, or a cut-off tee. Short shorts, because before the 90s men's gym shorts were short, period. The switch to long baggy shorts is usually traced to a 1988 Nike commercial with Michael Jordan and Spike Lee. Late in the decade came Zubaz, the baggy printed pants started in Minnesota in 1988 by two pro wrestlers from the Road Warriors and a pair of gym managers. They hit about $100 million in sales in 1991, so if you're doing an early 80s look, leave them out.

Add a Walkman clipped to the waistband. Sony launched it in Japan on July 1, 1979, and in the US the following year. By 1989 it had sold 100 million units, and it made working out alone a lot less quiet.

Illustration of a muscular man lifting a barbell at an outdoor beach gym next to palm trees

The tracksuit guy

Then there's the guy who never went inside at all. Velour was the tracksuit fabric of the late 70s, and in the 80s the look moved toward nylon. Run-DMC's "My Adidas" in 1986 tied the tracksuit to hip-hop, and by the late 80s the nylon shell suit, with its zip top, elastic waist and cuffed pants in colors that don't occur in nature, had its moment before fading out in the early 90s.

This is the look that survives best. A color-blocked nylon jacket over a plain tee is still a good thing to run in, and a good thing to wear to the store after. The Color Block Windbreaker 1984 ($59.99) has the panels and the colors without being a full shell suit. Pair it with a lightweight runner like the Retrowave Runner Sneakers 1982 ($59.99) and you have something that works for a jog and a party on the same day.

What to take to a real gym

Some of this still makes sense. A terry headband does what it always did. A digital watch with a stopwatch is still the fastest way to time a rest set without unlocking a phone. A windbreaker over a tee is still the right call for a cold morning run. Shorts are a personal decision between you and your gym.

What doesn't translate is the full costume. Wear one piece at a time to the gym and save the full set for a theme party. If you want more ideas for the everyday version, our post on 80s inspired fitness apparel goes deeper on gym wear, and how to recreate an 80s workout at home handles the part where you actually move.

Questions we get

What did guys wear to work out in the 80s? Depends which room. Aerobics guys wore tank tops, very short nylon shorts, headbands and white leather sneakers. Gym guys wore stringers or cut-off tees with short shorts. Runners wore nylon tracksuits and windbreakers.

What were the short 80s shorts called? Dolphin shorts, after Dolfin, the Pennsylvania company that made nylon track uniforms. The company still exists.

Were Zubaz from the 80s? Barely. The company was founded in 1988 and peaked in the early 90s.

What is an easy 80s workout costume for a guy? Headband, tank top, short shorts, tall striped socks, white sneakers and a digital watch. Add a Walkman if you can find one.

Did Jane Fonda invent aerobics? No. Aerobic dancing and Jazzercise both started in 1969. Fonda's 1982 tape turned it into a home video phenomenon.

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Work out like it's 1984