Richardson, Donna 1962–

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Donna Richardson 1962–

Fitness expert

Shape-up doyenne Donna Richardson is one of the most prominent African Americans in the world of celebrity fitness. A longtime aerobics instructor with several popular videos to her credit, Richardson has inspired women of all colors to begin and stick with a healthy-lifestyle plan that includes daily exercise, proper diet, and a good dose of spiritual affirmation. She is married to radio personality Tom Joyner and credits her own drive to succeed with those around her. “I keep motivated through people,” she told Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service reporter Ira J. Hadnot. “The ultimate goal for me is reaching and making a difference in as many lives as I can as a wellness expert. My purpose is helping people become healthy.”

Born in 1962, Richardson grew up in Silver Springs, Maryland, and realized at an early age that members of her large extended family were “walking statistics: heart attacks and strokes waiting to happen,” she told Houston Chronicle journalist Carolyn Poirot. Her grandmother died of a heart attack, and her father had two strokes, both of which served to illustrate statistics showing African Americans suffered from a disproportionately higher rate of cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Her own mother was another example, as she told Poirot. She worked two jobs, volunteered in the community, and struggled with her weight for years. Her hectic schedule left little time for a proper diet. “Women tend to focus on others’ needs—their husband’s, children’s, parents’—and they are in denial,” Richardson said in the interview with the Houston Chronicle. “They think they won’t get heart disease.”

Richardson developed an early interest in the performing arts and belonged to a dance troupe. A Hollins College graduate with a health education degree, she considered herself in good enough shape, but one day a friend invited her to join a 90-minute aerobics class, a new fitness craze in the early 1980s. “I thought I was going to die,” Richardson recalled in an interview with Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service writer Janny Hu, thinking that she would never make it through to the end. Chastened, she began taking the class regularly and within months had become an instructor herself. Over the next few years, Richardson developed a steady following for her high-energy leadership in class, and eventually became the fitness director of a health club that succumbed to economic pressures. Jobless, Richardson decided to go into business for herself as a

At a Glance…

Born in November of 1962; married Tom Joyner (a radio host), July 29, 2000. Education: Hollins College, health education degree.

Career: Aerobics instructor in the Washington, DC area, mid-1980s; launched Donnaerobics, c. 1984; opened own aerobics studio, Stay Fit Plus, 1989; made national television debut on ESPN’s Fitness Pros show, c. 1991; signed contract with Anchor Bay Entertainment for video production and distribution, 1994; has appeared on CNN and NBC’s Weekend Today Show, spokesperson for the American Heart Association and founder of StayFit Kids.

Address: Office —c/o Donna Richardson, P.O. Box 168112, Irving, TX 75016.

personal trainer and leader for group classes, which she called “Donnaerobics.” Richardson taught up to 25 classes a week herself at churches, community centers, and anywhere else she could gather a paying crowd.

In 1989 Richardson leased her own studio in Maryland, which she called Stay Fit Plus. It was an eye-opening experience, she told Black Enterprise writer Melba Newsome. “That’s where I cut my business teeth,” she recalled. “For the first time, I had overhead costs and I worked nonstop, seven days a week. When the instructors didn’t show, I taught the classes. If the cleaning crew didn’t show, I scrubbed the showers.” Determined to ply her success on a national level, Richardson left the business in 1991 and tried to break into television. She found her race made it difficult. “Doors were closed in my face or I was offered less money than white colleagues,” she recounted to Black Enterprise. Finally she landed a slot on a new ESPN show, Fitness Pros, which called for her to tape 52 shows in a two-week period; she made just $5,000 for the job, but the cable-channel exposure launched her career and she soon began making her own fitness videos.

Richardson served as executive producer and appeared in her videotapes as well. Some of her more popular titles have been Buns of Steel Platinum and Old School Dance Party which features catchy tunes from the Sugarhill Gang. Her strategy seems to have caught on with her intended audience. “I would like to get millions of African-American women up and moving, taking care of themselves,” she told Hadnot in the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service report. “As far as statistics for preventable diseases are concerned, we have more than our share of ailments such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension. I do not see black women going to the clubs and gyms as often as I see white women.”

Richardson wrote her own book, Let’s Get Real: Exercise Your Right to a Healthy Body, which laid out her tenets for exercise, diet, and a positive mental attitude. She has appeared on CNN, NBC’s Weekend Today Show, and other outlets, and has worked with numerous groups, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of Washington, D.C. She is a spokesperson for the American Heart Association, and even won a contract with Nike for her own shoe, the Air Max Mundo. Richardson’s success stories include that of her own mother, who lost 35 pounds in nine months by following her daughter’s advice, and her future husband, Joyner, a well-known radio talk-show host. The couple met after Richardson’s publicist finally won her a guest appearance on Joyner’s show—Joyner had always said no, but then realized that Richardson was the woman he liked to watch in the mornings on ESPN. After Richardson finished her time-slot with Joyner, she warned him, “you are overweight and have health problems,” she recalled in an interview with Ebony s Lynn Norment. “You have two trainers and a cook, all bigger than you are, and I don’t see any results.”

Chastened, Joyner began to follow the fitness program she created for him, and their relationship quickly moved from the professional to the romantic. They were wed in Jamaica in an exuberant ceremony presided over by inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant in July of 2000. Home is a Dallas suburb, Las Colinas, and the couple prefers to think of themselves as an ordinary pair, despite the high-profile nature of their careers. “People are always amazed when they come up to us and nobody stops them,” she told Hu in the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service article. “They say, ’Where’s your bodyguard?’ We don’t have one. ‘Well, who’s carrying your luggage?’ We are.” Both, Richardson noted, consider their jobs a form of public service—“when you walk out that door, or your hotel room, you’re on,” she asserted. “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.”