Viral 1990s Fitness Guru Billy Blanks Is Still Teaching Tae Bo at Age 69 and Says He Will Until He 'Leaves This Earth' (Exclusive)

"A lot of people, when they hear Tae Bo, they say, 'Oh, that was done a long time ago,' " Billy Blanks tells PEOPLE. "But it's still one of the most popular exercises that people do. And I'm going to teach until the day I leave this earth."

Blanks, now 69, means it. After creating the hybrid workout in the 1970s and bringing it mainstream in the 1990s, he never stopped, traveling the world to share not only the movement, but the meaning behind it.

When asked why he thinks it's still so popular today, he has a quick answer: "the heart of it."

"I tell people the truth," he shares. "People see that when I talk to them, eye to eye."

For someone who has spent much of his life in front of the camera, both in his popular workout videos and dozens of feature films, Blanks is quite unassuming in person; humble, grateful and willing to dispense the wisdom he's acquired in his long career.

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"God is number one in my life," he says. "And I think sometimes when people create something like what I've created, they can get a big ego. But I'm just me; I'm just a server. And I love to help people."

He was molded by some of his more difficult childhood experiences. At age 9, he watched a friend drown, unable to reach him in time to help. He also grew up as one of 15 children in what he describes as a "bad neighborhood" in Erie, Pa., struggling through school with undiagnosed dyslexia.

He decided that "nowhere, no way in my life will I put myself in a situation where I can't help," he says. "It drove me to do what I do today — it gave me that power."

Ultimately, Blanks got involved with martial arts at his local youth center after watching many of his siblings succeed in other sports.

"I got a chance to see out of my own eyes that I could be successful," he shares. "It changed everything."

He credits his parents with giving him the work ethic that drove him to become an international karate champion and eventually open his studio in Los Angeles, which he started with the intention to "teach women how to protect themselves."

"I knew a lot of women liked to do aerobics, so when I started adding karate and boxing and different kinds of aesthetics to it, a little bit of weight training, it gave women the opportunity to feel like they could do it without ever putting on a karate uniform," he says. "They started feeling like warriors."

Though celebrities lined up to take his classes in person, he had some hiccups in getting his videos off the ground. One of the first production companies to meet with him decided not to sign a deal because, he remembers an executive saying, "We don't think you'll work in the Midwest. We don't think White women will work out with you."

"I didn't get mad," Blanks says. "Because all my life, growing up, people told me, 'You ain't gonna do this and you're not gonna do that. You're gonna be a bum, or this is going to happen to you.' Except my mom and daddy always told us hard work pays off, so I just kept working hard."

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He did eventually land his uber-successful video deal, though says he was never properly compensated for the work. (The producer, Paul Monea, was arrested in 2006 and found guilty in 2007 of conspiracy and three counts of money laundering, per Cleveland.com.)

Again, though he could've been angry, "I wasn't," Blanks says. "He didn't give this to me anyway, God gave it to me. So let me go keep doing what I'm doing, and I did. Why I did it wasn't for money, it was to help people."

Blanks calls Tae Bo a "lifestyle," never a trend. "I can help a person change from the inside out — that's what it's all about," he says. "I tell my clients to forget what they see in the mirror and go with their hearts. And the outside will follow."

Related: Billy Blanks Jr.'s New Fitness Platform Offers Accessible Workouts for People with Disabilities (Exclusive)

Though some think Tae Bo is a portmanteau of Taekwondo and boxing, Blanks says it's actually an acronym: "T stands for total, A for awareness, E for excellence, B for body and O for obedience. I tell people: take your mind and your will, and if you come into the gym and work out with me, I will activate it."

He thinks many people trying to get in better shape "look and act like what they see in the mirror." But "I like to look in your eyes and see what's in your heart. Because if I can see what's in there, then we can help each other change. If I can't, then whatever we do in the gym is going to be a waste," he says. "I can't see what's blocking you, what's making you not grow. As a trainer, I have to be able to look at people and go, 'What's going on?' And even if you don't want to tell me, you have to drop it at the door."

To this day Blanks arrives to his classes early to set up and greet each individual at the door. "I like what I do and I love to see people smile," he says. "I like to see people reach their goals and do things they never thought they could do. To come up to me and say, 'Hey thank you. Now I have a way to deal with what I need to deal with.' To me as a coach, as a trainer, that's what my goal is."

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Forming connections with fans through his past videos, Blanks thinks the keys to his success were skipping canned "choreography" and opting not to use scripts, in part due to his dyslexia. "People saw from the heart that this guy was real," he says.

He's managed to maintain that connection long past the VHS era, creating a social media following on Instagram and YouTube and even dipping his toes into the virtual reality space with Taebo Reboot. (He also has two films in the hopper, including 2024's The Circuit 4: Faith Fighter.)

"I think Tae Bo will always be around, even when I leave," he says. "It helps people realize what they need to do to help themselves best."

Though he admits there are days when even he doesn't want to get out of bed to work out, "as long as I can stay in shape, and stay healthy and strong, you'll always hear about me teaching somewhere," he says. "I'm still amazed every day," he adds. "Who would ever think?"

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