The History of Physical Fitness

 

Fitness, as we know it today, seems to be a relatively modern invention – something that started vaguely in the 70s with jogging and Jazzercise. But physical exercise obviously goes back much further than that, to a time where people wouldn’t have thought of it as working out, but rather a way of life. Centuries and millennia ago, they did not have all the machines and weights and gyms that we have today, and yet they were in better shape than we are. To understand why this is, how we got to our modern fitness culture, and what we have lost along the way, it’s helpful to take a look at the history of exercise.

In a previous article on the philosophy of “MovNat,” I briefly talked about the history of physical training before there were modern gyms and workout programs. This article is a more detailed overview of exercise throughout time, from its ancestral origins, to the early history of physical education in Europe and America, to today’s plethora of fitness modalities, sports, and activities.

Primal Times: Move for Your Life!

From the dawn of humankind to around 10,000 BC, men had a constant voice in the back of their head saying, “Run for your life!” Physical development followed a natural path that was determined by the practical demands of life in a wild landscape as well as the vital need to avoid threats and seize opportunities for survival.

One’s movement demands consisted of locomotion, the manipulation of tools and natural objects (rocks, tree limbs, etc.), and defense. To survive in a harsh environment full of natural and human obstacles and enemies, early man had to know not only how to run, but also walk, balance, jump, crawl, climb, lift, carry, throw and catch things, and fight. We can also safely assume that playful or creative moves like early forms of dancing were performed when bellies were full and predators weren’t around.

 

The strength and mobility of early man was not developed through structured programs, methods, or schedules, but rather was forged by the daily, instinctive, necessity-driven practice of highly practical and adaptable movement skills. Today, the few hunter-gatherer tribes which still exist around the world would have no idea what “primal fitness” or a “caveman workout” is, as this kind of “exercise” remains deeply ingrained in their everyday lives.

Neolithic Times: Crop Culture

Starting between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, the Agricultural Revolution is often considered to be the dawn of civilization.

Man’s transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer to farmer led to dramatic changes in his physical activity. The numerous demands of growing food and raising cattle meant a lot of chores and a lot of daily labor for farmers. But these tasks were largely repetitive, and required a very limited range of movement. At the same time, the need for performing a variety of complex movements — running, balancing, jumping, crawling, climbing — greatly diminished. Such movements were rarely performed in a farm environment, or were performed in much simpler ways; for example, climbing a ladder is safer and more constrained and predictable than climbing trees.

Ancient Times: Prepared for War

 

Between 4,000 BC and the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, civilizations rose and fell through war and conquest. Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, and later on, the Greeks and Romans all imposed physical training on boys and young men. The purpose? Preparing for battle.

Ancient military training had similarities to the movements performed in nature by our cavemen brethren, but with more structure and a different end goal. Young men practiced fundamental skills such as walking and running on uneven terrains, jumping, crawling, climbing, lifting and carrying heavy things, throwing and catching, unarmed fighting, and weapons training.

Civilized populations valued physical culture for sports as well. Records of athletic competitions exist from ancient Egypt, and of course, the ancient Greeks famously created the first Olympic Games. Not surprisingly, these early sports were all based on practical, natural movement skills and were fundamentally related to the preparedness needed for war — the Greeks strove to best each other in running (sometimes with armor and shield), jumping, throwing (javelin or discus), and fighting (striking and wrestling).

The images above demonstrate the sports the Greeks trained for and competed in during their Olympics games. The events concentrated on natural movements, like running, and martial skills, like fighting.

Outside of military training and sports, Greeks, and later the Romans, celebrated the body’s beauty and strength and embraced physical training as a philosophical ideal and an essential part of a complete education. They celebrated the idea of having a sound mind, in a sound body. Physical culture started to rise beyond practical necessities to become a means to an end — an “art de vivre.”

 

The Dark Ages: The Rejection of the Body

Lasting from the 5th to the 15th century, the middle Ages were a chaotic period with a succession of kingdoms and empires, waves of barbarian invasions, and devastating plagues. The teachings of Christianity spread the belief that the primary concern of one’s lifetime was preparing for the afterlife. The body was seen as sinful and unimportant — it was a man’s soul that was his true essence. Education was overwhelmingly connected to the Church, and focused on cultivating the mind rather than training the body.

Under feudalism, the dominant social system in medieval Europe, only nobles and mercenaries underwent physical training for military service. Similarly to ancient times, their training centered on natural movements and martial skills.

The rest of the population were mostly peasants obliged to live on their lord’s land and work extremely hard in fields using rudimentary tools. Their “exercise” came through hard labor.

In the 1870s after the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans, the already budding nationalistic mood in France exploded. Physical education became a principal focus in French schools, as battalions of young men were trained to avenge the country.

In addition to these contributions to physical culture, Jahn invented the pommel horse and horizontal and parallel bars, and promoted the use of gymnastic rings. The physical culture festivals he sponsored attracted as many as 30,000 enthusiasts, but the essence and end goal of his gymnastics and calisthenics methods were above all practical and functional, not artistic. He advocated the practice of the traditional natural movements like running, balancing, jumping, climbing, and so on.

Well-informed of this German model, as well as the ancient tradition of athletics, Swede Pehr Henrik Ling developed principles of physical development, emphasizing the integration of perfect bodily development with muscular beauty. By contrast with the German system, this Swedish system promoted “light gymnastics,” employing little, if any apparatuses (Ling invented wall bars) and focusing on calisthenics, breathing, and stretching exercises as well as massage.

Swedish gymnastics had four categories: pedagogic, military, medical, and aesthetic. All movements had to be performed correctly and collectively in a freestanding fashion under a leader’s direction, which differed from the predominant, more mobile, strenuous, and practical German approach. Aspects of this method can still be traced in some modern programs of physical training.

In Scotland, the Highland Games began during the Romantic trend of the 1830s, and included traditional physical challenges distinctive to Scottish culture such as caber tossing, hammer throwing, and the stone shot put, along with running, wrestling, and jumping.

In England, Charles Darwin’s concept of “survival of the fittest” gave that country’s nascent physical culture movement a boost. Englishmen wanted to be strong enough to rise to the top of nature’s hierarchy. In 1849 the first English athletic competition was conducted at the Royal Military Academy. Scot Archibald MacLaren opened a well-equipped gymnasium at the University of Oxford in 1858, where he trained 12 army officers who then implemented his physical training regimen into the British Army.

It is also worth mentioning the Czech Sokol movement. Founded in 1862, this youth sports and gymnastics organization was inspired by the German Turnverein (Gymnastic Movement) and provided physical, moral, and intellectual training for the nation through fitness programs (mostly centered on marching drills, fencing, and various forms of weightlifting), lectures, group outings, and massive gymnastics festivals. This training extended to men of all economic classes, eventually to women, and ultimately to the entire Slavic world.