If you heard someone say, do the Russian Twist or let me see a Cherry Picker or it’s time for some Mountain Climbers, you would probably run the other way!
I know I would. Although I’ve been working out now for a year, I’m still intrigued by the names of gym equipment and exercises.
For instance, the other day, my trainer told me to go on the Roman Chair. “No way,” I said. I didn’t know what the Roman chair was and it didn’t sound too Kosher. When he showed me the machine, I started to think. Who in their right mind came up with these names? What were they thinking?
So I did some research. I found that the first gym which was filled with fitness equipment was invented by a Swedish physician , Gustav Zandler in the late 19th Century. All of the machines that he built, are variations on the equipment that we use today.
Then I looked into the whole idea of fitness. Who was the first to think that exercise was an important part of one’s well-being?
I found an article on the Internet of the “History of Fitness,” written by Lance C. Dalleck, MS and Len Kravitz, Ph.D. They say that fitness was around 10,000 years BC. Primitive man needed to survive, so regular physical activity was a major part of their lives, they wrote.
In China and India in 2500-250 BC, Confucius felt that those who didn’t exercise would get major diseases. These illnesses would be prevented with regular exercise. In India, Yoga was developed to form a union between the mind, body and spirit. Originally developed by Hindu priests who observed the movement of animals, the priests felt that they would achieve the same balance in nature if they simulated these animals. This form of Yoga was later known as Hatha Yoga.
In 4000-250 BC in the near east, fitness was used to improve strength and stamina so that soldiers could expand the Persian Empire.
But in 2500 – 200 BC, the Greeks believed in physical perfection. Gymnastics with music was mandatory in all classrooms. Physical activity was for both men and women so that they would have strong children who would eventually serve the state.
Moving ahead hundreds of years during the Renaissance (1400-1600), physical education started to appear in schools.
Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was a proponent to physical activity? He stressed the importance of running, swimming and basic forms of resistance training for healthy living. President Thomas Jefferson encouraged the citizens to workout at least two hours a day because he said, “if the body is feeble, the mind will not be strong.”
Slowly fitness started to take a turn for the worse and few people actually worked out on a regular basis. Then in the 1950’s The Jack LaLanne Show aired on television and it started an exercise frenzy across the states. Many say that LaLanne is the inventor of the “jumping jack,” however, according to the article the real inventor was John “Black Jack” Pershing who was a tactical officer in World War 1.
This information was interesting to me, but I still want to know who came up with these silly names like: Power Snatch, Abs sling, the Preacher Curl, and the Burbees?
