The Fascinating History of Strength Training

By Amy Sunshine

Strength training serves numerous purposes and provides various benefits. Unsurprisingly, its history covers a similar variety of origins, purposes, and development. In fact, the history of strength training can largely be understood through examining how societies throughout history valued the same sorts of things that define strength fitness to this day, covering such categories as aesthetic, spiritual, and practical benefits. From athletic competitions in Greek antiquity to military training in the middle ages to the ways that some specific weight training implements matched the modes of production of their original eras, the history of strength training has followed a fascinating, winding path. 

Ancient Foundations (Literally)

The oldest and most basic form of strength training involves lifting heavy stones. Perhaps the oldest historical record of stone lifting is a 5,000 year old Chinese text that includes a passage about soldiers being required to pass lifting tests. In his Commentary on Zecheriah, St. Jerome writes about long-standing stone lifting competitions for young men that occurred in 4th century Judaea. Many countries have their own histories and traditions of lifting stones, with some continuing to the present day. In Greece and Scotland, there is evidence of lifting stones from old competitions, inscribed with their weights and the names of the competition-winner who lifted them, being used as cornerstones in Castles. The purposes of these competitions and habits vary across cultures and time but some existing examples come from the Scottish version of the tradition, called manhood stones and used to “settle disputes between rival clans, as a way to train for battle, … as a way to build strength,” and used as a form of pre-employment testing in which potential hires demonstrated they were fit enough for a job by lifting a manhood stone.

Greek Competitions and the Aesthetics of Bodybuilding

The culture and society of ancient Greece put great emphasis on physical fitness and strength. Descriptions of athletic competitions appear in Homer’s Iliad, serving as funerary games and showing the importance of fitness to the military culture of the age. In his Memorabilia, Xenophon quotes Socrates as saying, “It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.”

Ancient Greek culture valued strength training in part because it valued the aesthetics of a strong body. Perhaps the best example of this is the ancient Olympic games, which began in the 8th century BCE. One of the great heroes of those competitions was the wrestler Milo of Croton who won 32 wrestling competitions in the 6th century BCE. An interesting part of his legend is the way that he essentially pioneered the practice of progressive strength training by “carrying a calf daily from its birth until it became a full-sized ox.”

Class Divides in Exercise Practices of the Middle Ages

The ancient Olympic games ended in 393 CE when the Roman emperor Theodosius I forbade the celebration of pagan cults. But the traditions of physical training continued into the middle ages, transforming in some ways to represent the culture and beliefs of that era. Among the notable features of this era of training is the way that different classes of people trained in different ways to meet their needs and what was expected of them.

Medieval knights trained from an early way to optimize their bodies for warfare. They emphasized strength training in order to develop a “knightly body [that] has thickness of the shoulders and of the back with a broad chest that show us worthiness and heartiness a strong back.” This allowed them to carry the heavy weapons of their day such as lances. Meanwhile, common people engaged in exercises that promoted suppleness and flexibility in order to better perform the kinds of tasks like fieldwork and mining that required frequent stooping and bending.

The religious culture of the middle ages placed emphasis on physical fitness, with monks often engaging in weight training exercises, holding and carrying stones, practicing martial arts and weapons skills, and even engaging in breathing exercises that somewhat resembled pranayama yogic principles. One of the more interesting aspects of the fitness habits of medieval monks is that some of them believed that it made them more resistant to the Black Death, presaging the scientific links between exercise and immune health that would be documented centuries later.

Modernity and the Return of the Aesthetic

The late modern period of the 19th century brought back some of the aesthetic traditions of strength training that had proliferated in Ancient Greece. The first modern Olympics occurred in 1896, reviving the Greek tradition as a new, international event. As it progressed into the 20th century, it would come to represent (for good and for ill) many of the ideals of modern internationalism. Weightlifting was contested at that first modern Olympics,making strength training an integral part of the new, international concept of athletics.

The modern sport of bodybuilding emerged around the same time, with the first American physique contest staged in New York in 1903 by physical culturalist Bernarr McFadden. This forerunner of such events as the Mr. Universe and Ms. Olympia competitions harkened back to Socrates’s ideals of physical strength and precipitated the sort of strength training that emphasizes aesthetic markers of strength.

The Tools of Strength Training

The earliest strength training tools were the aforementioned lifting stones, which eventually evolved into Ancient Greek halteres, a sort of proto-dumbell. Dumbbells themselves arrived at their familiar form by the early 17th century. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the name comes from their similarity to devices used to ring church bells but without the bell, hence the term “dumb”—i.e. “silent—bell.

Kettlebells find their origin in Russian metal weights used to measure the weight of crops in the 18th century. They were used by circus strongmen for performances and in Russian athletic competitions by the 19th century. This transition from a practical agricultural tool to an implement of entertainment and competition demonstrates how much of strength training and bodybuilding as a sport serve to simulate the necessary strength of productive work.

The barbell was invented in the 1850s by Finnish exercise enthusiasts who found the dumbbell to be insufficient for all of their exercise needs. Swedish physician Gustav Zander invented the first mechanical exercise machines in the 1870s as part of his theories of “mechanotherapy.” These forerunners of later machines such as the Nautilus and Bowflex fit within the traditions and ideology of the industrial revolution that were contemporaneous to their development.

Conclusion

A contemporary, postmodern response to this history would be to deconstruct its progressive, narrative thrust. It is a necessarily limited, incomplete history that could not possibly be as coherent as any attempt to document it would make it seem. Of course, we can also literally deconstruct it in the sense of taking the parts that are most useful to us from a practical perspective in our own efforts to engage in strength training. I can help you use the elements of strength training to reach your own fitness goals. To book a complimentary phone consult and discuss further, click here.