The Denver Business Journal
by Sharon Gillen
Jan. 29, 1999

Back to Feature Articles

Don’t let ‘em see you sweat

Talk about a breath of fresh air. Jill Johnson has come up with the most unique and simplest way of losing weight that I've ever come across:  deep breathing.

Combined with a high-profile marketing plan, the idea has turned into a gold mine for this fourth-generation Coloradoan whose great-grandfather arrived in the 1800s searching for gold in Cripple Creek.

At the outset, Johnson wasn't looking, for a business venture. She just wanted to lose weight. "I was chubby -- frumpy -- for years," says the now trim Johnson. "I did the jogging, the diets... I paid $800 one time to work out on some machines that didn't do anything."

So the mother of four decided it was time to do some reading up on the subject. With library books spread out in front of her, she ran across something in a physiology book about "how you have to have oxygen for fat to metabolize."   She thought about that for a moment, and the light bulb went on. If oxygen is what fat needs to metabolize, she thought, then if I increase my oxygen intake ....

That was some 13 years ago and she since has lost more than 50 pounds using a program she developed that uses I 15 minutes a day of deep breathing and stretching exercises as a way to jump-start metabolism. She calls her system Oxycise! which is quickly becoming a household word for cable TV watchers.

Johnson began developing the idea in 1987. In 1997, the first year she put the program out via books and videos, she was pleasantly surprised to see sales of around $4,000. Last year when she went worldwide on cable TV sales reached a whopping $1.6 million as some 140,000 products were sold. The product line now includes three books, three videos and an audio tape (yep, you can do the breathing "workout' in the car). Three more videos are planned this year.

One key to Johnson's success -- aside from the fact that thousands of people swear by the program -- has been her appearances on QVC, the home-shopping channel. After investing about $12,000 to get there," Johnson admits she was a bit nervous at her first live, call-in TV show last February. "Lo and behold," she recalls, "I sold out. They sold 2,500 units in 10 minutes." She has been a regular, appearing on QVC about once a month ever since.

Even more fame for Johnson and Oxycisc! came with the airing of a popular infomercial hosted by Christina Ferrare, launched in November and now in all major metro U.S. markets. "That was the turning point, to go to infomercial." says Johnson. The infomercial company, Guthy-Renker Corp., is picky, at best, selecting only a few choice products each year. It didn't hurt, Johnson confides, that Ferrare tried the program herself and lost 4 inches from her waist in six weeks.

This month Johnson took her business one step further, opening the first of what is sure to be a chain of Oxycise! Studios, at 8170 S. University in Littleton. There, she is showing women and men her deep breathing techniques combined with stretching exercises. The studio is accessible for the growing number of wheelchair-bound fans of the program.

Yoga, it's not

If you think this is just another farm of yoga, think again. It's "just the opposite," Johnson says, "hard and fast." The point is to increase lung capacity and oxygen consumption, relying on the fact that "fat leaves your body through carbon dioxide."

The irony, she adds, is that this is truly what aerobics is -- but you don't have to sweat and letting the guy next to you hear you breathing hard is the point -- not an indication of how out of shape you are.

As with any weight-loss program, skepticism is expected. For proof though, Johnson points to a study by the University of Southern California that found people burned 140 percent more calories through Oxycise! than riding a stationary bicycle. Johnson also gets hundreds of letters and e-mails every day front around the world attesting to the program's success, many losing 6 to 8 inches in two weeks. One woman who lost 45 pounds attributes her marriage to the program. Another wrote about losing 17 inches in just four weeks.

Most letter-writers, though, first applaud the effects on their health. And it’s those results that please Johnson the most. "It’s nice to see your work rewarded [financially]," Johnson says, "but the real enjoyment comes in seeing people so desperate and frustrated find success."

Oxycise! can be reached at 1-800-OXYCISE (699-2473).

Sharon Gillen is editor of the Small Business Strategies