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The Cooper Institute has been a leading health and fitness provider for as long as that category has existed. It was founded in 1970, by Kenneth Cooper, MD, who was an Air Force Doctor when he started researching the role of exercise on general health. He published the results of his research in 1968; titled simply Aerobics, which is the first time that word had ever been used! He literally is called the “Father of Aerobics”, and the organization he founded continues to do much of the cutting edge research being conducted in the fields of exercise science (including resistance training), nutrition, and health. The website offers a plethora of information and tools freely available, including calculators for how many calories you actually eat, burn, proper portion sizes, and determining your optimal weight.
Check this site out HERE if you are even remotely interested in learning more about fitness.
Fitnessgroan's Blog 
I think I read a book about running that he did a long time ago. And that brings up a question for me. What is the role of running for the gym crowd — as shown in image — when there elliptical and other less impacting forms of exercise are available? Has running been superseded or does it have a unique role in one’s exercise regime?
Thanks for posting about The Cooper Institute. The other thing that Dr. Cooper had the foresight to do was to starting collecting fitness and health data including blood samples on his patients. Now 40 years later the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study is the world’s largest database with objective fitness measurements. It lets us know how fit we are. Here’s a link to more information: http://www.cooperinstitute.org/ccls. Personal trainers use the information from this database to assess their clients. Did you know that you can take classes at CI to become a personal trainer or just learn more for yourself? Lots of police, fire and military take the classes.