Cooper (born March 4, 1931, Oklahoma City) is a doctor of medicine and former Air Force Colonel from Oklahoma, who pioneered the benefits of doing aerobic exercise for maintaining and improving health.
He is the author of the 1968 book Aerobics, which emphasized a point system for improving the cardiovascular system.
The popular mass market version was The New Aerobics (ISBN 0-553-26874-0), published ten years later.
His points system is also the basis of the 10,000 steps per day method of maintaining adequate fitness by walking.