- The founder of Jazzercise stays active and energetic at age 80 by dancing and lifting weights.
- Judi Sheppard Missett said she is motivated by an effort to help others enjoy exercise.
- Her longevity diet is all about moderation and occasional snacks.
More than 50 years after the launch of Jazzercise helped pioneer the group fitness industry, founder Judi Sheppard Missett still loves to dance every day.
Now 80, she continues to teach and choreograph for her company, which has more than 2,000 locations worldwide, more than 55,000 customers in the US alone and brought in $77 million in sales last year. .
Missett continues to play an executive chair instructor role at the company, which is now a family affair; her daughter (55) has taken over as CEO and head choreographer, and her granddaughter (22) is an instructor.
She told Business Insider that she believes her longevity probably has something to do with the fact that she’s very active but relaxed about her fitness and nutrition. She eats her protein and vegetables along with a daily Dr. Pepper, her favorite food.
While she follows a weightlifting routine and takes long walks at the end of each day, her priority is making time for other people.
“I have more things to do in life and I want to be able to enjoy them. I want to be able to enjoy my nieces and just everything that’s going on in life and in society for as long as I can ,” Missett said.
She built a community around fun and accessible fitness
A lifelong dancer, Missett stated her purpose as a 25-year-old instructor in 1969 it was to bring her love of exercise to others, especially women who thought exercise was a chore. She noticed that her classes, which initially focused on traditional techniques, weren’t getting many returning students.
“Everybody said, we love the class. It’s great, but it’s really hard. We don’t want to be professional dancers. We just want to look like them,” Missett said, “I thought maybe I just have to . that’s simpler and more fun.”
She changed her approach to teaching, taking students away from the mirror, instructing them to follow her lead, and doing simplified choreography with lots of encouragement and motivational, high-energy music.
The first session in this new class “Jazz Dance for Fun and Fitness” had 15 students.
By third grade, her clientele had quadrupled to 60, which quickly grew to more than the studio in Evanston, Illinois, could handle.
“The room wouldn’t hold anymore because people were telling their friends,” she said.
From there, Jazzercise started a community that spread—first in California, where the company is now headquartered, and then around the world.
Missett thinks of her as family. What she loves about her job, and what gets her out of bed in the morning excited to start the day, is this sense of purpose.
“I really loved that so much because it was exposing people to dance and the joy of movement and the joy of music. There was a spirit behind it and there was a camaraderie in those classes,” Missett said. “I feel like we had an impact on helping women realize what they could achieve and how powerful they could be. That meant everything to me. And it still does.”
Lifting weights keeps him strong and prevents injuries
Still a devoted fan of Jazzercise, Missett also stays active with strength training and walking.
“I have a motto, and the motto is, keep moving so you can keep going,” she said.
Her daily morning routine includes 20 minutes of lifting weights, and she’s not afraid to get heavy. She said the routine keeps her back healthy and being strong helped her recover faster from a recent hip replacement.
“When people get older, you’re going to have a little aches and pains here and there and a few little tweaks and whatnot in your body. For some people, it’s an excuse to stop doing things, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. because if you keep moving, it really helps most of these things,” Missett said.
She eschews fad diets in favor of moderation
Missett said her approach to nutrition is to focus on getting plenty of protein and greens with her meals. Lean protein sources like beans, chicken and fish can help with satiety and muscle preservation, and green vegetables are rich in nutrients like antioxidants for healthy aging.
But having a little fun is just as important to her routine.
“If I want to have a hot needle, I’ll have it,” she said. “I just want to do what I do in moderation and eat as well as I can.”
This includes her daily habit of drinking a Piper Dr., which she has loved since childhood.
Dietitians usually don’t recommend sugary drinks like soda. They suggest limiting added sugars to 20-25 grams per day (the average soda has about 40 grams of sugar). Artificial sweeteners in diet drinks can also have downsides.
For Missett, the pleasure is worth the trade-off.
“It just brings me joy,” she said.
After decades of watching health trends come and go, Misset isn’t a fan of diet fads or anything else.
“I think people get into fashion and think, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do this.’ I have to be trendy.” No, you don’t,” she said. “Do what works for you. And if the fashion thing isn’t working, find something else.”