I am delighted to share that my new article, Mistakes I Carried: Building Strength in a Time of Crisis, has just been published in the American Historical Review. For historians, the AHR is the big one. But what excites me most is not the prestige of the publication. It is that the piece gave me… Continue reading The Weight of History: Building Strength in a Time of Crisis
I love a rabbit hole. Especially when a friend or family member tips me off on it. Today’s workout came from a relative who asked me what I knew about actor Helen Mirren’s workout course. Sweet nothing was my response. Get reading was the kindly reply. So in my wisdom I began to dig into… Continue reading The 12-Minute Military Workout That Took Over the World
A bunch of us went down to the gym one time to watch Reg Park work out. He was in town doing a show. We lined up along the wall with our eyeballs hanging on our cheeks and tried not to look too jealous when he started lifting. Park walked in looking more like Hercules… Continue reading John McCallum, ‘Training for Gaining’, The Keys to Progress
Set in 1970s San Diego, cult comedy movie Anchorman featured a brief skit about jogging. In the scene, lead character Ron Burgundy attempts to explain the new fashionable jogging craze to his colleagues. Struggling to come to terms with the concept himself, Ron settles on "running for a prolonged distance of time...it's supposed to be wild."… Continue reading When Did Jogging Become Popular in the United States?
You know, powerlifting should really have its own glitzy award show like the actors do. If this event was ever televised, I believe it would be a huge hit, unlike the sorry spectacle being delivered these days on network TV. I don’t know about you, but I rarely, if ever, watch the Academy Awards anymore.… Continue reading ‘A Lifetime in Powerlifting Well Spent: Ernie Frantz,’ Powerlifting USA, June (2010), 61-64
You may walk past a park bar today and see someone straining through a muscle-up, holding themselves sideways in a “human flag”, or flowing through a freestyle routine. To most, this looks like a modern trend, fitness popularised through Instagram and YouTube. Yet, calisthenics — training with nothing but your own bodyweight — carries a… Continue reading Guest Post: The Social and Cultural History of Calisthenics
In the 1940s, long before the commercial gym became a ubiquitous feature of modern fitness culture, lifters often had to rely on their own ingenuity and craftsmanship to equip their training spaces. Purpose-built apparatus was expensive, difficult to source, and frequently beyond the reach of ordinary enthusiasts. Within the physical culture movement, the ethic of… Continue reading When Lifters Built Their Own Gyms: The DIY Squat Rack of the 1940s
Okay, you pencil-neck geeks, listen up. I am sick and tired of people dogging on upright rows. It is tired, clichéd, and predictable. Don't believe me? Check out any generic 'exercises to avoid' article and you'll usually find upright rows there. I am not an exercise scientist, but I am an angry historian which makes… Continue reading Why Does Everyone Hate Upright Rows?
This is one of the odder products examined on this website, and that is really saying something! One of the great issues facing parents and schoolmasters is how to get kids excited about exercising. Well, a century ago, Eugen Sandow claimed to have the solution. What do kids love more than anything else? Candy! With… Continue reading Eugen Sandow’s Combined Toy and Physical-Culture Apparatus (1913)
Few bodybuilders are remembered solely for their individual body parts. The collective entity? Certainly. But the individual sections of the body? This is a far rarer phenomenon. While Dorian Yates may be remembered for his towering Lat spread and Tom Platz for his Quad sweep, Frank Zane holds the distinction of being remembered for his… Continue reading Frank Zane’s Ab routine
Studying the History of Fitness