A Website Dedicated to the Study of Strength, Health, Fitness and Sport Across Centuries, Countries and Contests.
On December 14, 2023, my latest book, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness will be published by Bloomsbury. This is a work of love that began in 2015 and has slowly progressed in the background. A link to order the book is here. And, more excitingly, you can preview the first chapter... Continue Reading →
Fitness crazes are unsurprisingly not a new phenomenon and in light of that fact, today we will discuss the growth of the Indian Club craze in Victorian England. Indian Clubs are bottle-shaped wooden clubs that are swung in the hand using a range of movements for the purpose of gymnastic exercise. Whilst they have been... Continue Reading →
"Activity is life, while stagnation is death". The Encyclopedia of Indian Physical Culture, xviii. In 1950, several strength enthusiasts got together in the newly independent India to gather accurate accounts of India's contribution to the world of Physical Culture. 700 pages later, they had done it. India has long been an influential player in the... Continue Reading →
Originating in modern-day India, the practice of club swinging has a long and deeply embedded cultural Indian history. In the first instance, the Indian clubs featured heavily in the Mahabharata, a Hindu religious epic written during the Indian Vedic Age (1500 – 500 BCE). Highly allegorical, the epic focused on two warring sects, the Pandevas... Continue Reading →
Fitness crazes are unsurprisingly not a new phenomenon and in light of that fact, today we will discuss the growth of the Indian Club craze in Victorian England. Indian Clubs are bottle-shaped wooden clubs that are swung in the hand using a range of movements for the purpose of gymnastic exercise. Whilst they have been... Continue Reading →
"Activity is life, while stagnation is death". The Encyclopedia of Indian Physical Culture, xviii. In 1950, several strength enthusiasts got together in the newly independent India to gather accurate accounts of India's contribution to the world of Physical Culture. 700 pages later, they had done it. India has long been an influential player in the... Continue Reading →