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Ojai's Sheila Cluff is known as the grandmother of aerobics

KCBX | By Tom Wilmer
Published October 10, 2016 at 2:00 AM PDT
Oaks at Ojai entry
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Oaks at Ojai Spa front entry
Thomas Wilmer
Oaks at Ojai Spa lobby
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Oaks at Ojai lobby area
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Oaks at Ojai Spa pool area
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Oaks at Ojai Spa pool area
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Oaks at Ojai Spa guest room entrance
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Oaks at Ojai Spa guest room entrance
Sheila Cluff and Tom Wilmer
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Sheila Cluff and Tom Wilmer
Oaks at Ojai Spa
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Sheila Cluff at the Oaks at Ojai
Credit Thomas Wilmer
Sheila Cluff at the Oaks at Ojai

Modern Aerobic exercise was the brainchild of Sheila Cluff back in 1959. Ms. Cluff was teaching middle school P.E. in Ottawa, Canada when she devised a plan to enthuse her students by putting skating routines to music.

Eventually Ms. Cluff formed a company to promote her aerobics programs on cruise ships and the spas of Europe and America. Ms. Cluff opened the Oaks at Ojai Spa in Ojai, California in the mid-1970s.

Soon stars like Jane Fonda came to stay at her spa, and stars and regular folks are still coming today for rejuvenating, healthy-living experiences.  
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Lifestyle OjaiNPR OneSpaAerobicsHealthy living
Tom Wilmer
Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
See stories by Tom Wilmer