“Weight training is the child of gymnastics. We sometimes forget that before strongmen lifted weights, they went to the palestra to race, vault, climb and practice all the other traditional forms of gymnastics. These early athletes gradually discovered that they could grow stronger and shapelier if they began lifting and working with weight. Gymnasts had trained with primitive weights the days of the ancient Greeks, but no one had created a rational system for using them. Like most endeavors, weight training was not an immediate discovery, rather it evolved over many years. But the quest for health, strength, and beauty received a dramatic impetus in the middle of the nineteenth century largely through the agency of an extraordinary man named Hippolyte Triat.” -Edmund Desbonnet, The Kings of Strength, 1911.
Gyms, health clubs, fitness centers, or whatever you want to call them, seem to have been born with gymnastics (at least in the modern era and the West, as both the ancient Greeks and the Indians had and have gyms that have existed for hundreds of years), in Denmark in 1799. The first private club was opened there, but the first public club likely wasn’t opened until Friedrich Jahn opened his first Turnverein in 1811, and it was that movement that spread bodybuilding, gymnastics, and gyms across the globe (as explained in the Jahn article).
Five years later, “an extraordinary Spanish immigrant named Francisco Amoros (1770-1848) appeared out of nowhere and convinced the French military to open a ‘normal school of gymnastics'” that operated until 1838 (Chapman). Amoros opened several such gyms, all of which were huge, drafty buildings filled with trapezes, ropes, beams, rope ladders, and masts filled with filthy sawdust that was never changed as mats. Seeing that the Amoros-inspired gyms were incredibly popular in spite of the horrific settings, a man named Hippolyte Triat stepped into the breach.
An orphan who’d been abducted by Roma and forced to perform at circuses in drag but had bought his freedom by saving a rich lady from a runaway horse, Triat has a story that seems ridiculous on its face, but times were pretty ridiculous then. The woman paid for his education at an aristocratic school, whereupon he went back to show business as a strongman for a few years until that Dickensian motherfucker took his love for showmanship and combined it with his love of fitness to found his first gym. Drawing upon his experience in vaudeville, Triat not only made lifting a spectator sport, but he invented the globe barbell, group fitness classes, and an ingenious way to finance his operation by preselling training sessions as “shares” in the gym (Chapman).
Rather than holding his exercise classes in a filthy warehouse, Triat held his training classes in opulent settings in gyms set in both Paris and Brussels that befitted the new middle class that generated all of his clientele. Spectators were encouraged to watch the proceedings from the balconies, while he and his instructors led groups of people through workouts involving globe barbells, set to music. If it had been any more modern in its intent, it would have been Les Mills classes inside of a Lifetime Fitness. Tragically, Triat fell victim to the predations of the faux tough guys of the right and had his gym and all of his painstakingly acquired and expensive equipment, plus the machines he built himself, confiscated when the right began cracking down on democratic agitators in France during the Franco-Prussian War.
Triat’s two main instructors were daughters of an eccentric inventor named Jules Allix, who was a leader in the Paris Commune who championed non-communist socialist views that mostly involved the rights of women. He was apparently banging Mathilde Allix, though I doubt that colored his opinions of letting the two use his gym for meetings during the Commune- I can’t imagine he thought the right would cut off their own balls simply to prevent chicks from voting. In any event, the psychos on the right jailed Triat for a year and stole all of his shit for promoting women’s rights, because their views simply mirrored those we hold today in the West.
“It was Triat who had introduced to France dumbbells, globe barbells and especially (we particularly insist on this) pulley apparatuses with every sort of combination. He had in a special room in his gymnasium at least 150 sorts of pulleys in order to work every part of the body and to deal with all cases of orthopedic and curative gymnastics” (Desbonnet).
Triat opened a gym location in Brussels specifically so he could monopolize on the liberal Dutch influence there and train women. And he didn’t simply advocate light lifting, either- his dumbbells and/or barbells ranged in weight from 3 to 200 pounds, and the man himself was incredibly strong and well-built. Standing 5’8″ and an astonishing 210 lean pounds, insanely massive by the standards of the day and even big for today- he would not have looked small standing next to John Grimek a century later. Nor would he have been embarrassed in the gym lifting with Grimek- “Triat himself had unforgettable strength, for he twice lifted a 91-kilo dumbell in his right hand and an 84-kilo bell in his left” (Ibid). Natty, with no refrigeration for food, no protein powder, no mass transportation, or any of the other shit we think of, he built a modern gym in a nascent lifting culture that barely existed, and lifted heavy enough to hang with dudes filled with dbol over a century later.
When Jahn found himself jailed for his progressive teachings (one of which was hilariously later co-opted by fascists to create the Hitler Jugend), Jahn’s followers fled almost en masse to the United States, where they appear to have opened the first public gym in America, the Cincinnati Turnverein, in 1848. His gyms were intended to spread the love of egalitarianism, democratic values, and serious physical fitness across the globe, and they handily achieved their goals, in spite of the fact that Jahn himself was under house arrest in Germany as a democratic agitator in spite of the fact he was an ardent German nationalist, a decorated war hero who played a major role in defeating Napoleon. As the right is wont to do, however, they looked past all of that stuff and jailed him simply for failing to advocate beating your wife or a Jew rather than a heavy bag when preparing for a fight.
Though situated in what is a relatively backwater city now, Cincinnati was apparently quite the place to be in the mid-19th century, and as the sixth largest city in the country occupied the spot in American minds that Philadelphia does today (as the current 6th largest city). As such, the Cincinnati Turnverein was a locus for democratic badassery, championed by sitting US President Taft at its outset, and the Turners provided all of the private security for Abraham Lincoln during his political campaigns (though they were not part of his security team when he was killed- that was the fault of a shitty cop from Boston who was always either drunk or asleep on the job).
The Turners’ motto was “Frisch, Fromm, Froehlich, Frei” (fresh, pious, merry, free), and the Turners really placed emphasis on the last word- freedom for everyone from every kind of political oppression.
And they weren’t just located in Cincinnati- the same year the Cincinnati Turnverein was founded, another Turnverein popped up in New York, a third was chartered in Lousiville, KY in the same year but not officially recognized until 1850, a fourth was founded in New Orleans in 1851, and two more New Orleans locations followed shortly thereafter.
“Most of these ’48ers settled in the north and Midwest. The few that did come down South felt like misfits — their views didn’t align with the antebellum times. The turnverein was their community. Then there were the German immigrants who were already here, and excited to join the turnvereins for purely social reasons, to have a place to meet other Germans, speak German, and just be German.
‘They had a bar inside, of course,’ says Louis Mayer, whose grandfather, Gustav Frederick Mayer, was one of the earlier members of the turnverein. ‘If you have Germans you’re gonna have beer. You’re definitely gonna have that'” (Tripod).
And the people of Cincinnatti clearly loved the Turners, as they shelled out cash by the boatload to support them. “The second main venue for the Turners was the Stadium that was constructed in Government Square. The platform was 40′ wide and 180′ long. It was here where Turners and other prominent amateurs gave nightly exhibitions of athletic skill. This included exhibitions of the ladies classes from the different Turner Societies.
Cincinnati businessmen realizing the importance of all these visitors to the city contributed around $75,000 [$2,167,697.80 in 2021 dollars]($12,000 for the Stadium construction alone) [$346,831.65 in 2021 dollars] for this Turnfest” (Turner).
Three years later, Muscular Christianity got in on the deal, but as people who are intensely angry for Jesus 24 hours a day are wont to do, they had a bit more emphasis on social terror, abstention from alcohol, and hatred of sex. Where the Turners were staunch Abolitionists who fought exclusively for the North in the Civil War and served as bodyguards for Lincoln, muscular Christians occupied the anti-American, pro-slavery, anti-women sphere. Esteemed history professor JA Mangan describes Muscular Christianity almost as a highly contagious mental illness, arguing that “Christianity became a universal religion largely as a result of the popularity of Muscular Christianity and modern sports. It was far from merely a religious position; its inherent male-centeredness, homophobia, sexism, and sports ethic are still at work” within Western society (Titterington). Though many of the muscular Christians in America had fallen in love with George Barker Winship’s health lift machine and exercises like it (what was then called “heavy gymnastics”), the gymnastics craze and its associated tough guy image lent itself nicely to a bunch of limp-wristed tryhards who wanted to foist their beliefs on their very obviously better built and educated gymnastic peers.
It was for this reason that the YMCA was formed as a chain of gyms that acted as military outposts in heathen lands, the first of which was founded in 1851 by
“a group of evangelicals from several Boston churches founded the first Young Men’s Christian Association in the United States. Modeled on the YMCA in London, the chapter intended to safeguard young men who came to Boston from the vices of city life. It offered a safe gathering place, opportunities for exercise and socializing, Bible-study classes and prayer meetings. Future evangelist Dwight Moody, who arrived in Boston in 1853 from his family’s farm in Northfield, wrote home about the Y, a place where he could read ‘all the books I want free’ and hear ‘smart men from Boston lecture.’ In 1896 the Boston Y opened an evening institute for working men, the forerunner of Northeastern University” (First).
This movement had profound effects on the populaces of the UK and the US, and in spite of the negative effects on the lives of the women and non-whites who were excluded from virtually everything and against whom the muscular Christians were warring, it had the effect of spreading fitness throughout the land using the church as its primary means of advertising, a novel concept in a time before sports news, radio, television, and the internet.
“While gaining in acceptance, sport and exercise had become charged with moral implications, and heralded for their virtuous, character-building influence. In Great Britain, followers of utilitarianism and Evangelism were beginning to view physical culture and competitive play as ‘tools to help further their goals of establishing a rational, orderly, productive, and sinless society.’ Sport had in fact become an “activity of duty.” The public schools, especially, helped evolve ‘an ethos that had replaced the old feudal ideals or suffused them with new concepts of civic virtue.’
[Muscular Christianity, which] had once been considered a sinful waste of energy and time became a tool to promote health, to strengthen the military, to ‘maintain purity and moral rectitude in adults,’ and to offset what was seen as the looming effeminizing of the country’s future, masculine, elite.
Not surprisingly, during this period systematic training, physical fitness, and muscular development also became a major component of military life in Great Britain.
Across the Atlantic, sport also became ‘a moral force,” especially when it supported virtues like self-discipline, physical development, progress, and control. During the 1880s, taking care of one’s physique through sport and physical activity became a prerequisite of living a life worth living, and the body – the resting place of the soul and the mind – was increasingly appreciated as a temple that the righteous were “obliged to maintain […] as a worthy sanctuary.” Support for the new ideal of “Muscular Christianity” was ubiquitous, and outspoken supporters like President Theodore Roosevelt ‘hoped to energize the churches and to counteract the supposedly enervating effects of urban living'” (Todd).
As a stark counterpoint to the evangelical fervor and general hatred toward humanity in Boston, the New Orleans Athletic Club was founded in 1872, making it at least the fourth gym in that city of 191,000 people. The reason for this was ostensibly also the arrival of hordes of German immigrants, who fit in poorly in the French-dominated city of New Orleans. Surrounded by their eternal foes, the German people of New Orleans congregated around their gyms, which led to the creation of one of the most beautiful training facilities to ever be built.
Another driving force in the fitness craze sweeping the nation at the end of the 19th century was William Muldoon, heavyweight wrestling champion of the world and world-renowned personal trainer for his efforts in getting an exuberantly obese and viciously drunk former world champion bareknuckle boxer John L. Sullivan in shape to fight Jake Kilrain in the last-ever bareknuckle fight under London Prize Rules (which I covered in the Empire Diet series). Capitalizing on his very public success with Sullivan, Muldoon formed a health camp called Olympia in New York state in 1900, which promoted a combination of his hardcore fitness regimes with a healthy diet and the establishment of habits and routines which the trainees could take home and continue on their own .
William Muldoon (1852-1933) was a badass in his own right (which I covered a bit in the Fustigation Fury article on catch wrestling), but he is important to us because he was so foundational in the concept of physical fitness in America. He began as an Irish youth practicing Highland Games activities, then was introduced to the French Army’s physical fitness regime when he joined the French Army to fight against the remaining Turners and their countrymen in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
While in France, Muldoon was told that if he trained for it, he had the potential to become the best Greco-Roman wrestler in the world. He fulfilled that promise in 1880, when he became the world champion Greco-Roman wrestler, defeating Highland Games and all-round athletic legend Donald Dinnie and wrestling legend, all-round athletics legend, and overall Aussie badass William Miller, who was also Col. Thomas Monstery’s strength coach at the San Francisco Olympic Club.
“Olympia was located on Muldoon’s West Chester County farm. It was the first health spa frequented by the rich and famous. President Theodore Roosevelt sent his Secretary of State Elihu Root to Muldoon for a regimen to restore Root’s health.
One of the other politicians, who sought treatment at Olympia, was former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Joseph H. Choate. The September 15, 1906 edition of Goodwin’s Weekly out of Salt Lake City, Utah describes the regimen that Choate experienced.
On Choate’s first night, everyone went to bed at 9:30 p.m., which was the typical bed time at Olympia. The maid began to knock on certain doors at 6 a.m. She did not knock on Choate’s door but he figured that he was up, so he dressed and went down to breakfast.
Muldoon bellowed at him, “Did I knock on your door?” When Choate protested that he was not tired, Muldoon sent him back to bed until he was called for at 7 a.m. Choate then went through a series of hard exercises with a medicine ball before breakfast. He then had to ride a horse and take a long walk up a hill. Keep in mind that Choate was 74 years old at the time.
On the same evening, Choate cleaned his plate with the exception of his potatoes. He asked for more beef and was told by Muldoon that he could have seconds once he ate his potatoes. When Choate stated that he did not like potatoes, Muldoon replied, “Then no more beef.” Choate finished his potatoes.
Choate quickly adapted to the routine and within the first week, he felt that his health was being restored. He found the medicine ball exercises getting easier. Even at 74, he could now run up the hill instead of just walking up it.
After several weeks, he felt that he was healthy enough to go back to work. Choate’s complexion and endurance improved from the regimen. Muldoon agreed. “You are in pretty good shape now.” Choate ruefully remarked, “I should be.” While Choate may not have “enjoyed” the treatment, it restored his health, which is why he came to Olympia [and he went on to live another nine years, dying at the age of 85 in a time when the average life expectancy for a man was somewhere between 36 and 39]” (Zimmerman).
As a stark counterpoint to the evangelical fervor and general hatred toward humanity in Boston, the Olympic Club was founded in the brand-new city of San Francisco in 1860 by a pair of artists who also happened to be the best gymnasts in California, the Nahl brothers.
“On May 6, 1860, 23 charter members founded the San Francisco Olympic Club, turning their informal gymnastics training sessions, held in the backyard of Gold Rush artists Arthur and Charles Christian Nahl, into a lasting institution. In the 1800s, the membership roster included such names as Mark Twain, William Randolph Hearst, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, James G. Fair and John Mackay, as well as athletes such as “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, winner of the world heavyweight title in 1892.
Pioneering Olympic Club champions include swimmer J. Scott Leary, the first American to swim 100 yards in 60 seconds, and shot-putter Ralph Rose, who won six Olympic medals and held seven national AAU titles. The club sent 23 athletes to the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, the largest delegation from a club. Football was king during the 1920s, and the club celebrated undefeated seasons in 1925 and 1928, even with schedules pitting its squad against local college teams” (Olympic).
Recently arrived from New York by way of the now-state of Hesse (which was then essentially nothing but a mercenary factory), the Nahl brothers put as much distance between themselves and the Franco-Prussian War as they could. Having spent considerable time in Paris, the two were clearly influenced by the gymniarch movement started by Hippolyte Triat, and both the décor of their club and its training facilities were heavily influenced by the Frenchman. They immediately hired the inimitable Col. Thomas Hoyer Monstery, whom they had almost certainly met through Adah Menken as part of the Bohemian movement in both cities, to teach his favorite subjects- combat sports and swimming. A few years later, Monstery was joined by Australian strongman and all-round athlete William Miller, whose background in strength athletics also mirrored the teachings of Triat (and complimented the training techniques of Monstery) nicely.
Of note is the fact that the women of San Francisco had to build their own club near the Olympic Club in 1912, as they were apparently barred from entering (though this might only pertain to the social club aspect, as they held extremely early women’s golf events). If they simply barred women altogether, none of the super-tough misogynist members seems to have taken it up with Col Monstery as he was training people there, as he trained at least one actress in the fighting arts at the time there at that time- highest paid actor of the 19th century and badass swordswoman Adah Menken. Nevertheless, that spirit of Dutch egalitarianism was extinguished completely upon his departure, and it wasn’t until 1990 that women were allowed in, after a lengthy lawsuit alleging racial and gender discrimination.
Another opulent, non-Christian sausagefest popped up shortly thereafter in Louisiana- the New Orleans Athletic Club was founded in 1872, which was at least the fifth gym in that city at that time. Though New Orleans boasted only 191,000 inhabitants as the ninth largest city in a country that really only had two real cities, the German immigrants who’d flocked there congregated around the turnvereins, as they allowed the Germans to be truly German in a sea of Frenchmen. The New Orleans Athletic Club was not a turnverein, but it boasted the same amenities as one in its pre-1912 incarnation, and then blew every facility in the country out of the water for amenities and opulence save for perhaps the San Francisco Olympic Club when they moved into their current, amazing Gilded Age building.
“The Club was conceived in the youthful mind of J.C. Aleix, who, together with other young men, had seen the swanky Hammersley’s gymnasium on St. Charles Street, decided to build a gym of their own in the back yard of the Aleix’s home. They were enthusiastic young gymnasts eager to encourage among the young men who lived below Canal Street an opportunity to gain the many physical advantages which gymnastic exercises offered and master the technique of horizontal and parallel bars.
The two gymnastic apparatus were built by hand of oak and installed at the home of J.C. Aleix. From that, the 2nd day of September 1872, the Club continued to grow. J.C. Aleix became the first president. Dues were fixed at 50 cents monthly. A 35 cent assessment was levied for a bucket of water and dipper when the occasion demanded it” (NOAC).
From that extremely modest setup, the members collaborated to create a beacon to fitness buffs in the area.
“The object was to develop the body by sufficient gymnastic exercise including fencing and boxing. The Club adopted as its motto, Mens Sana in Corpore Sano (a healthy mind will exist in a healthy body), and old gold and black the colors, which were used by the members in all gymnastic engagements. The winter months passed and the gymnasium remained in the back yard of Mr. Aleix’s residence. Devoid of proper facilities and accommodations, especially in inclement weather, a committee formed May 21, 1873 to find a suitable home for the Club somewhere in the territory bounded by Poydras, St. Louis, Rampart and Magazine Streets. Arrangements commenced for an old building, floor covered with sawdust, at the comer of Rampart and Bienville Streets to become the Club’s domicile. By September 5, 1873, every member had signed as security for the rent.
The INDEPENDENT GYMNASTIC CLUB, with financial assistance of influential friends, moved into its new quarters in October 1874. Weights and pulleys, dumbbells, Indian clubs and other apparatus, mostly second hand, were placed on the walls and racks of the gym. Fifty young men were members. Dues were 75 cents a month [$16 in 2021 dollars]” (NOAC).
And lastly, we have what was arguably the first bodybuilding gym in America- Professor Attila’s Athletic Studio and School of Physical Culture.
“The forefather of personal trainers, master trainers and strength coaches, as well as a physical culture legend, Leo Durlacher – better known as Professor Attila – appears to be the first fitness professional to build a business model around personal training. Attila established his first personal training gym in Brussels, Belgium, in the 1880s, opened a second gym in London in the late 1880s, and finally founded Atilla’s Athletic Studio and School of Physical Culture in New York, U.S, in 1894. His personal training gyms introduced several modern-day pieces of equipment including… the Roman chair, and the Roman column” (Tharrett).
He didn’t just stop there, however- he created modern progressive resistance training by adapting the hollow globe barbells and dumbbells used by strongman performers into gym implements.He originated his famous Five Pound Dumbell System which was later adopted by Sandow, Desbonnet, Strongfort, and was used as the basis of the military gymnastics by the British German, French, Turkish, Bavarian and Italian armies. He also introduced the plate loading barbell, universally used today.
“Professor Attila was one of the first proponents of progressive resistance training for women, and also of using resistance training to combat the effects of aging. Professor Atilla built his reputation by serving as a personal trainer to some of the world’s most prominent athletes and dignitaries of the time, among the most notable being Louis Cyr (a Canadian strongman and onetime world’s strongest man), Gentleman Jim Corbett (one-time heavyweight boxing champion), Eugene Sandow (possibly the most famous strongman of all-time), Cornelius and Alfred Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, Jr, John Philip Sousa, Alexander III, Czar of Russia, and King Edward VII of England. In 1926, Professor Attilla sold his New York club to Sig Klein, who operated the studio for another 50 years as Sig Klein’s Studio of Physical Culture” (Tharrett).
Attila was the originator of many of the exhibition feats of strength and barbell exercises which have become standard. He was the originator of the Bent Press, having taught this famous lift to Sandow and Strongfort. Others have learned the style from these two strongmen.
And if you’re curious about how we got from clubbells and ladders and pommel horses to the situation you see in your gym now, where machines outnumber barbells by an order of magnitude, there is a reason for it, and it’s not a stupid one. As explained by the former owner of Doug’s Gym, which promoted itself weirdly as the first gym in Dallas and the oldest continuously operating gym in America (it’s neither, as it was founded in the middle of the 20th century, and there was a Turner hall there at least as early as 1880).
“The lack of modern accoutrements may sound uninviting to the Fitness First newbie, but it’s a standard Doug feels duty-bound to uphold. “’In the 1950s everybody in the gym business had a place like mine,’ he says. ‘Then they got swamped. The owners simply couldn’t take the time to show all the people the free weight exercises. As a result it was much easier to get them using machines. The machine was invented to get more people in the gym with a minimum amount of obstruction. If the volume had never come to this business you would have never seen a machine. That’s all it was – mass production for mass profit.’
Doug plunked down a grand to buy National Health Studios in 1962 and changed the name to Doug’s Gym. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to another gym that has cambered bars,” says Scott, referring to barbells that have a curve in the center, allowing for a deeper range of motion on exercises such as a bench press. “And the pulley machines don’t have cables; they have chains, like a motorbike,” says Jake Morgan, a fitness model and personal trainer. “For the lat pull-down, there’s no seat. You just have to sit on the floor.” Dumbbells range from 10 to 100 pounds (if you like your units metric, you’re in the wrong place). There are fixed barbells that stand on end against the wall, squat racks, medicine balls, cables, benches, and chinning bars. Machines are few and far between. Don’t bother looking for a treadmill – cardio here means hitting a heavy bag, or simply walking laps around the gym floor”(Clay).
SUPPORT THE STRENGTH SPORTS UNDERGROUND AND A ROGUE ACADEMIC HELLBENT ON FORCIBLY EDUCATING EVERY PERSON WHO’S EVER LOOKED ASKANCE AT A BARBELL. I AM THE TOM BRADY OF PHYSICAL CULTURE HISTORY, BUT BASICALLY UNPAID. HELP A MOTHERFUCKER OUT.
Sources:
Chapman, David. Hippolyte Triat Introduction. Iron Game History. Sep 1996. 4(1):3-10.
Desbonnet, Edmond. Hippolyte Triat. Reprinted from The Kings of Strength. Iron Game History. Jul 1995. 4(4):13-18.
Clay, Harry. What you can learn from American’s oldest weight room. Men’s Health. 8 Feb 2016. Web. 9 Apr 2021. https://www.menshealth.com/uk/building-muscle/a755703/what-you-can-learn-from-americas-oldest-weights-room/
First YMCA in the United States organized in Boston. Mass Moments. Web. 9 Apr 2021. https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/first-ymca-in-the-united-states-organized-in-boston.html
Freedman, Peter. After 55 years of whipping people into shape from its second-story perch in downtown Dallas, the decidedly old-school Doug’s Gym will shut its doors for good this weekend. Central Track. 27 Mar 2018. Web. 9 Apr 2021. https://www.centraltrack.com/the-oldest-gym-in-dallas-and-in-america-is-closing/
NOAC history. New Orleans Athletic Club. Web. 10 Apr 2021. http://neworleansathleticclub.com/about-noac/noac-history/
The Olympic Club facts. Olympic Club. Web. 10 Apr 2021. https://www.olyclub.com/press/
Tharrett, Stephen. History of health clubs: How gyms have evolved through the ages. https://www.lesmills.com/us/clubs-and-facilities/research-insights/audience-insights/history-of-health-clubs-how-gyms-have-evolved-through-the-ages/
Titterington, David. Muscular Christianity and the colonizing power of modern sports. Medium. 15 May 2017. https://davidtitterington.medium.com/muscular-christianity-and-the-colonizing-power-of-modern-sports-1aa8051b7ec8
Todd, Jan & Hemme, Florian. Beyond the hack squat: George Hackenschmidt’s forgotten legacy as a strength-training pioneer”. Iron Game History. Aug 2013.12(3):1-18.
TriPod. How the Germans brought gymnastics to New Orleans. WWNO New Orleans. 28 jan 2016. Web. 9 Apr 2021. https://www.wwno.org/podcast/tripod-new-orleans-at-300/2016-01-28/how-the-germans-brought-gymnastics-to-new-orleans
Turner society. Cincinnati Views. Web. 10 Apr 2021. http://www.cincinnativiews.net/turners.htm
Zimmerman Jr, Ken. William Muldoon and his health farm. Ken Zimmerman Jr. 19 Nov 2018. Web. 9 Apr 2021. https://kenzimmermanjr.com/william-muldoon-olympia/
I’ve always enjoyed your historical essays of weightlifting days of yore and the people who engaged in it as well as created long lasting systems that have lasted the strands of time – but I think I’ve had enough of your anti-white lies and the rest of your ‘tin-pan alley’ bullshit world view — to each his own – all the best
I’ve no idea why you guys leave such passive-aggressive comments, especially when none of you can factually dispute anything in any article. But never fear- I am sure on of those thieving fucks in the right wing life coach community will republish my shit without the facts.
The great irony is that I simply present the facts as I find them- I had no idea every bit of innovation and cultural change in the lifting community was diametrically opposed to your existence. If you know of a right winger who did shit worthwhile in the lifting community, feel free to inform me of their existence. Muldoon is usually held up as a Muscular Christian, but I can’t find any actual evidence of this- it seems he just capitalized on a trend.
All of your “anti-white lies,” huh? Wooooooooooooow. Just wow. I live in the South, so you would expect that I would be used to intentionally cultivated ignorance, but that is a pretty exceptional level. Wonder what our above übermensch took so much offense to? Can you imagine being so fragile that a well cited article about the history of gyms in America makes you feel racially oppressed? Sorry fella, but your personal weakness is a greater threat to your race than an article about some shit that happened 200 years ago. He should probably do something about that. Blast some Screwdriver and cry on Stormfront or whatever about the mean muscly blond haired blue eyed guy writing about historical events and settings. At least Rant, Sally, and Steve weren’t this pathetic. Does it make you nostalgic for the days of quotes that said “First. Steroids?”
Anyway. Another good one. Keep them coming, please. The deep dives, the rants, the actual training stuff, it’s all gold. We don’t all read through a veil of impotent ignorance.
I think the Paris Commune was far more radical and threatening than you are depicting. https://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2021-03-18/1871-2021-vive-la-commune
The French authorities seemed to think so. On May 21, the French army entered Paris. There was no centralized organization for the defense of the city. Everything was still organized on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, including the dispersal of weapons and ammunition.
Barricades and cannons were set up around the city. For eight days the people of Paris fought in the streets, bravely defending their new order. On May 28, 1871, the Communards took their final stand in Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
Having defeated the Commune, the capitalist government wreaked a hideous revenge. The rich returned from Versailles to watch the slaughter of the Communards and cheer. They wanted to teach the workers of the world a lesson. They went on a bloody rampage, searching for anyone with powder on their hands, a sign that they had fought for the Commune.
They executed 30,000 people and imprisoned another 45,000, including 500 children! They exiled 30,000. Altogether Paris lost over 100,000 people. The streets were piled high with rotting bodies from the slaughter. Disease spread rapidly. Big sections of working-class neighborhoods were on fire. The vengeance against the working class was so deep that it put France behind economically for decades. That is how far the capitalists were willing to go to punish the workers for daring to take power.