As he forced astronauts to walk, run, cycle, and swim, he developed a point system that ultimately turned into a twelve-minute test that measured cardiorespiratory fitness. Cooper published his test and the science behind it in a 1968 book titled Aerobics (a term he coined) that became an international best seller and was a major impetus behind the 1970s fitness boom.33 To this day, when people think of exercise, they usually have in mind sustained moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. Because that’s a mouthful of jargon, let’s use the term “aerobic exercise.”
