Jane Fonda was the scion of Hollywood royalty, the daughter of the 1940 Grapes of Wrath actor Henry Fonda, and a serious actress in her own right, having a slew of Golden Globe nominations and a few Oscar statues to her name. She was also an outspoken anti-Vietnam activist, but none of that endured as much as her aerobics-trainer image. The introduction of the Video Cassette Recorder allowed Fonda’s signature yellow bodysuit to reach the middle-aged moms at home, and help them tone up.

On this day, April 24, in 1982, Jane Fonda released her self-dedicated Workout video. Fonda took the viewers through a series of warmups and aerobic routines that she herself practiced to keep toned, and divided the video into two sections — a 30 minute one for beginners and 60 minute one for advanced.

Ten years before she became the workout queen, Fonda made a name for herself (“Hanoi Jane”) by posing for the famous photograph next a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, behind enemy lines. Fonda’s celebrity name allowed her to travel unopposed to Hanoi, where she examined the results of the American bombing campaign and made a series of radio recordings denouncing the U.S. war effort. As Jane remembered the incident, she was praised and flattered by the NVA soldiers, who led her to the gun. Without thinking about much, she sat down, and flashbulbs starting going off. Fonda called it “a two-minute lapse of sanity that will haunt me forever.”