Boston hipsters Hilken Mancini and Maura Jasper spent much of the '90s in clubs and bars.
They drank. They smoked. They stayed out late at punk rock shows.
And when the new millennium dawned, these two veterans of the New England punk scene saw that they weren't just worn down, they were badly out of shape.
"We were realizing that we were in our 30s and that we weren't looking or feeling so great," Mancini said.
But their mental picture of aerobics classes -- mirror-wrapped rooms filled with beefcake instructors and gym-bunny types -- kept them away from conventional fitness centers.
"Our options [were not good,]" said Mancini, who added that she and Jasper were daunted by what, to their minds, was a cookie-cutter workout culture.
With no suitable alternatives, the two self-described "doughballs" decided to make their own punk-rock exercise program.
"Much of what punk rock is about is to look at the status quo and say, 'yuck,' " explained Mancini. "What we did was just that. We just created [a solution] ourselves."
And so it was that the newly released book Punk Rock Aerobics was conceived.
The punk-influenced workout moves (think pogo jumps and Pete Townshend-style guitar windmills), set to some of the genre's classic songs, got a public debut in 2001 when Mancini and Jasper held the first punk rock aerobics classes -- P.R.A., as they're known -- in a Boston nightclub.
The weekly sessions attracted a loyal following that, in turn, engendered the book, which went on sale last month.
The 208-page text is an illustrated and often hilarious manual of "killer" exercise moves accompanied by fitness-focused Q&A interviews with an impressive selection of punk rock legends.
A comprehensive discography is also included, so that P.R.A. practitioners can choose their own punk soundtrack for a raucous at-home session of lunges, head shakes and knee bends.
The authors' tongue-in-cheek tone is displayed in the photographic demonstrations of moves (one is named the "Transient Squatter") and the related info-bits. Skull and crossbones aerobic intensity ratings, for example, show one skull for "lo-fi," or the lowest-impact moves, and three skulls for "hi-fi," or high-intensity maneuvers.
This irreverence has mostly been well-received, the authors say, but some in the punk community, which prides itself on going against the grain, have criticized Mancini and Jasper for going mainstream.
