In the late nineteenth century, before the internet, before broadband, before anyone had even heard the word influencer, people still argued about fitness with the same mix of certainty, panic and wounded pride you find today in any comment thread. They just did it on paper. They did it with fountain pens and postage stamps.… Continue reading The First Fitness Comment Section
WITH regard to the routine of training, I again repeat, my idea is not to develop muscle at the expense of either health or strength. It is really impossible for me to prescribe special exercises with fixed time limits for same, and fixed days for each individual who may ready this book, as we are… Continue reading Arthur Saxon, ‘Routine of Training’, The Development of Physical Power (London, 1906)
Everyone has an opinion on how to squat. High bar, low bar, toes forward, knees out, belt on, belt off. Coaches argue, lifters swear loyalty, and internet experts defend technique like sacred doctrine. Yet most of the things we treat as universal truths in squatting are barely a century old. The movement has never been… Continue reading How the Back Squat Took Over the Gym (and Why Its Future Is Still Being Written)
The following excerpt comes from Dan Lurie’s Body Building System, a mid-century mail-order course that reflects the commercial and cultural ambitions of the American Physical Culture movement. Lurie, a one-time Mr. America contestant and tireless self-promoter, occupied a peculiar space between showman and health educator. His system, like those of his contemporaries, blended moral advice,… Continue reading How To Lose Weight Fast And Make Your Muscles Stand Out
Next month my new book When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century is published with Bloomsbury. It has been ten years in the making, and, in truth, a lifetime in the thinking. I began the project trying to understand why my obsession with lifting and movement felt so personal,… Continue reading How Fitness Conquered the World (and What It Still Teaches Us)
In 1907, Eugen Sandow opened what he called a Curative Institute of Physical Culture in London. That moment captures something essential about the fitness entrepreneur. This is not the sports retailer selling boots or the coach guiding a team. The fitness entrepreneur trades in belief. Their product is the body, but their business is persuasion… Continue reading All Muscle and No Brains? What Makes a Fitness Entrepreneur
Mike Israetel has earned real authority in fitness. Through Renaissance Periodization, he has become one of the most recognizable figures in evidence-based hypertrophy training. His lectures on training volume, recovery, and nutrition are staples in gyms and classrooms. When he speaks about training, he cites peer-reviewed studies, parses physiology clearly, and backs it up with… Continue reading When Fitness Gurus Become Public Intellectuals
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)
