# When did people start "working out"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636 "2014-01-13T05:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/21 "2014-01-14T11:22:40Z")
[A whole bunch of workout booklets and fitness courses](http://sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/compindex.htm) for the masses were in international circulation in the late-1800’s - early 1900’s; surely a benchmark in it’s own right. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/22 "2014-01-14T11:40:48Z")
:smack: I thought Forrest Gump invented jogging. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/23 "2014-01-14T12:34:00Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Sometime after most of us stopped working farms all day, which was a workout in and of itself. Car culture also contributed to the need to set aside time specifically for exercise and car culture (driving everywhere instead of walking) really peaked in the 50s and 60s, about the same time fast food started becoming ubiquitous. > … Int the 1870’s, the YMCA started locating gymnasiums near major train stations to serve the crew members between shifts. Train culture, as well a car culture, contributed to the need to work out! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/24 "2014-01-14T12:37:41Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > [A whole bunch of workout booklets and fitness courses](http://sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/compindex.htm) for the masses were in international circulation in the late-1800’s - early 1900’s; surely a benchmark in it’s own right. During the period about 1895 to 1915, Theodore Roosevelt was a central figure in promoting vigorous outdoor activities for a healthier body (and mind). While I don’t think he did much “working out” in the sense of exercise with no other purpose (e.g., hunting; or, preparing for a sport, or for military action), I do think he sometimes manufactured an excuse for exercise (e.g., exploring Brazil’s River of Doubt), when his primary purpose was really the workout itself. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/25 "2014-01-14T12:39:52Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > :smack: I thought Forrest Gump invented jogging. No, but he was at the forefront of every phase and movement of his time. Jogging and Ping Pong were just becoming big in the seventies. Ping Pong is due for a comeback! ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/26 "2014-01-14T13:55:20Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > During the period about 1895 to 1915, Theodore Roosevelt was a central figure in promoting vigorous outdoor activities for a healthier body (and mind). While I don’t think he did much “working out” [snip] You’re quite right, but what I find most interesting in terms of the modern working out / gym culture is all that material in my link, put out by various retired Vaudeville strongmen, champion weighlifters and proto-bodybuilders, which, unlike the efforts of Teddy, really were all about getting bigger muscles through “futile” exercise with weights, straps, posing etc., with titles such as _Treloar’s Science of Muscular Development_ (1904) and _Physical Culture by Means of Muscular Resistance & Breathing Exercises_, both published in 1904. People have been busting their balls off at the gym to look good naked ever since, worlds apart from cross-country marksmanship and canoe expeditions. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/27 "2014-01-14T13:55:41Z")
I’m reading the _The Bully Pulpit_: _Theodore Roosevelt_, _William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism_ [Doris Kearns Goodwin] currently and most Teddy fans know how as a child he started working out to overcome his asthma. He went to a gym at first and then his father built a gym in the house\*. I figure the gym was built around 1870. Meanwhile Taft as a young man; recently engaged; wrote to his future wife about how she has inspired him to go to the gym. This would be around 1885. > [@JKellyMap](#): > > During the period about 1895 to 1915, Theodore Roosevelt was a central figure in promoting vigorous outdoor activities for a healthier body (and mind). While I don’t think he did much “working out” in the sense of exercise with no other purpose (e.g., hunting; or, preparing for a sport, or for military action), I do think he sometimes manufactured an excuse for exercise (e.g., exploring Brazil’s River of Doubt), when his primary purpose was really the workout itself. Actually Teddy was known for daily swims and really fast walking. At first he boxed and wrestled a bit and then after an eye injury switched to jiu jitsu. \*I’ve seen it in fact, I visited the house last year. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/28 "2014-01-14T14:08:51Z")
[Bernarr Macfadden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernarr_Macfadden) had a lot to do with it in the US with his _Physical Culture_ magazine, before Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/29 "2014-01-14T14:33:39Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The term “jogging” jumped by a huge amount after about 1967: > > [Google Ngram Viewer: jogging](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=jogging&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cjogging%3B%2Cc0) Some people credit Jim Fixx and his best-selling book, The Complete Book of Running, with starting the running/jogging craze in 1977. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/30 "2014-01-14T14:48:17Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Bernarr Macfadden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernarr_Macfadden) had a lot to do with it in the US with his _Physical Culture_ magazine, before Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne. And by 1903, _Physical Culture_ [had monthly sales of over 100 000 copies](http://www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden3.html) - things were well on their way. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/31 "2014-01-14T14:57:45Z")
Fixx may have caused a significant increase in the popularity of jogging as a standard exercise, but it was already known in the 1960’s. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/32 "2014-01-14T15:02:49Z")
Earlier, and far more culturally important than Teddy, was [Eugen Sandow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Sandow), the world’s most perfectly developed man. The video of him on that Wiki page was taken by Edison’s team in 1894. Florenz Ziegfeld put Sandow on what was the emerging vaudeville circuit, where he dazzled crowds with feats of strength. But his real importance was in his outfit: his lack of one. In an era when vaudeville was squeaky clean and the nude showgirls Ziegfeld would make his trademark were still decades in the future, Sandow posed in the skimpiest briefs anybody had ever seen in public. Both men and woman never showed flesh in public; even bathing costumes covered almost the whole body. Male nudity on stage was as explosive as female nudity would become. Ladies were reported to faint just from touching his muscles. Sandow was one of the handful of top stars, playing before thousands, maybe millions over all. He coined or popularized the terms physical culture and bodybuilding, opened a series of gyms, started the world’s first bodybuilding competitions, and proselytized the sport and field in ways that all the later names like Bernarr Macfadden, Joe Weider, Charles Atlas, and Jack LaLanne would slavishly copy. It’s all older than people remember today. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/33 "2014-01-14T15:54:20Z")
Sandow had a huge impact through his physique (far from the Greek ideal, in fact) and the publicity, but mostly as an inspiration, not as a fitness source, as evidenced by his [utterly useless yet shamelessly marketed spring-loaded dumbbells](http://sandowplus.co.uk/S/Dumbbells/dumbbells.htm). It seems Sandow was (understandably) less interested in promoting fitness than in promoting himself as the world’s most perfectly developed man, and raking in the profit. It is the slightly later trainers and authors who actually provided the common folk with useful training resources, ie. methods of progressive resistance training with real kettlebells, dumbbells and barbells, complete with motivational gems like “Weakness is a crime - don’t be a criminal.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/34 "2014-01-14T15:56:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I was going to say this. Absolutely right. It’s 19th century, not 20th century. People are off by a hundred years. > > Both the YMCA, which started in London (1851 U.S., YWCA London 1855; YMHA 1854, YWHA 1888) and the [Turner Movement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turners), started in Germany in the early 19th century and hitting the U.S. around mid-century, emphasized physical fitness for all. If you guessed that [muscular Christianity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_Christianity)started in the same period, you’re right. > > By 1900, all sizable cities had gyms of varying kinds. They emphasized boxing, swimming, gymnastics, throwing heavy balls, and indoor sports. Bicycling was absolutely huge in the late 19th century, and I mean Internet huge. The movement to pave roads started for bicyclers before there were cars. This was mostly a middle and upper class movement, and still is, although the percentage of the country who are middle class has gone up so much that at first glance it seems universal now and an oddity earlier. Cycling for leisure was big among the working classes in the industrial cities of late 19C Britain. It was not so much for exercise as to get out of the (literal) smoke and into the countryside. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/35 "2014-01-14T16:23:57Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > Cycling for leisure was big among the working classes in the industrial cities of late 19C > Britain. It was not so much for exercise as to get out of the (literal) smoke and into the countryside. …to enjoy a nice smoke, surely. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/36 "2014-01-14T16:30:19Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Sandow had a huge impact through his physique (far from the Greek ideal, in fact) and the publicity, but mostly as an inspiration, not as a fitness source, as evidenced by his [utterly useless yet shamelessly marketed spring-loaded dumbbells](http://sandowplus.co.uk/S/Dumbbells/dumbbells.htm). It seems Sandow was (understandably) less interested in promoting fitness than in promoting himself as the world’s most perfectly developed man, and raking in the profit. > > It is the slightly later trainers and authors who actually provided the common folk with useful training resources, ie. methods of progressive resistance training with real kettlebells, dumbbells and barbells, complete with motivational gems like “Weakness is a crime - don’t be a criminal.” 🙂 I’m a cultural historian: I don’t care if it worked as long as people noticed. But if you’re going by how worthwhile his stuff was, remember that he was competing against radium ointments and worse. He’s a gleaming shaft of light by comparison. 🙂 But thanks for the info and links to that period. Good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/37 "2014-01-14T17:13:44Z")
> [@runningdude](#): > > Int the 1870’s, the YMCA started locating gymnasiums near major train stations to serve the crew members between shifts. Train culture, as well a car culture, contributed to the need to work out! I’m sure that’s true to some extent, but in the 1870s, more people lived on and worked farms than lived in cities and worked cushy office jobs sitting on their butts. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/38 "2014-01-14T17:15:21Z")
And I maintain that, as far as the cultural history of “when did people start working out” is concerned, Sandow, although important, was not nearly as important as many seem to think 🙂 His pioneering impact is in the professional bodybuilding realm, ie. public display of physique, rather than what people did or did not do for their health and strength. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/39 "2014-01-14T17:24:19Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > And I maintain that, as far as the cultural history of “when did people start working out” is concerned, Sandow, although important, was not nearly as important as many seem to think 🙂 His pioneering impact is in the professional bodybuilding realm, ie. public display of physique, rather than what people did or did not do for their health and strength. Agreed. But there are virtually no fields in which the creators were as important as the legion of followers. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636/40 "2014-01-14T17:33:02Z")
Slightly off topic: There’s a reason we call exercise weights “bells”, dumbbells and barbells, though they don’t ring. [http://www.word-detective.com/121603.html#dumbbell](http://www.word-detective.com/121603.html#dumbbell) > [@](#): > > Back in the days when church bells were rung by hand, a good deal of practice was needed to develop the strength and skill to handle the ropes and pulleys of the heavy bells. Apprentice bell-ringers practiced with an apparatus called a “dumb-bell,” in which the actual bells were replaced with non-ringing (i.e., silent or “dumb”) weights. > > In the 18th century, compact versions of these “dumb-bells” became the first popular home-exercise machines. And when handheld weights became popular a bit later, they too came to be known as “dumb-bells,” at least partly because the standard method of exercise involved swinging the weights back and forth. Weights mounted on each end of a steel bar later became known as a “bar-bell,” any connection to the ringing of church bells by then having been largely forgotten. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-working-out/678636.md?page=3)