My Indian Club Swinging Book is Now Affordable!

Academic Books are notoriously expensive. That isn’t because the authors demand huge royalties… we don’t, but rather because they are often sold in small numbers. I am thus thrilled that my publisher, Bloomsbury, have taken a decision to publish a paperback copy of my last book, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness which is available here for £26.

What is Indian Club Swinging?

This book focuses on Indian club swinging, a form of exercise that has existed for millennia in Asia, especially India and modern-day Iran (formerly Persia). During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, European travellers to Asia began to take notice of club swinging, not least because of the impressive physiques of those wielding these weighted clubs.

During the early 1800s, British doctors and military leaders began recommending the swinging of weighted clubs for exercise. Critically, they preferred lighter weight clubs. You see the kind of clubs swung by Indian and Persian wrestlers and exercisers were heavy, often weighing in excess of 20 to 30kg. I have even found stories of 40 kg clubs being swung.

In contrast, the British military’s recommendation to swing Indian clubs in 1824 focused on lightweight clubs, which weighed anywhere from 1 to 3 kilos. This was important because it made clubs easier to use, more accessible and, in time, easier to produce.

From the 1820s in Britain Indian clubs began the first global exercise phenomenon. By the 1860s, club swinging was used in British military barracks around the world, by exercisers in North and South America and by exercisers in Europe (especially in Germany). They were the dominant form of weighted exercise during the nineteenth century, being far more popular than dumbbells and barbells. It was only in the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the physical culture movement, that they fell out of fortune.

Why Does it Matter?

I have written extensively about the clubs on this website. I am a fan, and use them daily. So yes, I likely care too much about them but, the truth is, the light-weight Indian clubs preferred by Europeans signaled a new shift in the exercise world. During the early 1800s, the most popular form of exercise were gymnastics and calisthenics. While these systems did have equipment (think pommel horses, ropes, and ladders), people often used solely bodyweight exercises.

The mass production of exercise equipment did not yet exist. In the first instance, Indian clubs were important because they were the first mass-produced pieces of equipment and, as the book argues, largely set a template for the later production of dumbbells and barbells around the world. Indian clubs created, or at least facilitated, the first generation of equipment entrepreneurs.

Equally important was their global appeal. Indian clubs, alongside European gymnastic systems like the Turner and Ling method, were the first global exercise systems. This meant that for the first time in recorded history, exercisers in one part of the world used the exact same movements and exercises, and texts, when they exercised. This again, was a precursor, or a platform, for our modern fitness industry.

Finally, Indian clubs helped to break open doors for women in exercise. While the nineteenth century was not a high point for women’s exercise, Indian clubs were deemed an appropriate form of physical activity for women. This shift in perception allowed countless women to enter gymnasiums and, in time, to begin careers as gym instructors.

These are just some of the reasons why the study of Indian clubs is vital. Jan Todd and others have written some fantastic articles but this book represents their first detailed story. It is a story worthy of attention and one which pulls in stories of gender, medicine, colonialism, race, sport science and business.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be producing previews of each Chapter but, in the interim, please do read the sneak preview here!

As always… Happy Lifting!