User:RyanJack01/History of physical training and fitness

1700s–Today
Modern society focuses more on fitness than any other time period. The 1790s was when this breakthrough finally emerged. The first gym machine was created only a few centuries ago in 1796 by Francis Lowndes, called the Gymnasticon. Although technically this can be considered a weightlifting machine, it was created for medical benefits and was targeted toward gymnasts. This sparked the evolution of gyms and the equipment they contain. Gyms started with just free weights but have started using machines as they work more effectively. Gyms have created an environment for fitness-tailored sports such as bodybuilding and powerlifting, which are fairly new in the grand scheme of fitness.

Ballistic Training Exercises


 * Throwing the javelin
 * Power-clean
 * Box jump

Plyometrics Training Exercises


 * Hurdling
 * Vaulting
 * Squat Jump
 * Lunge

Calisthenics Training Exercises


 * Climbing whether it be bouldering or rock climbing
 * Push-ups
 * Chin-ups
 * Sit-ups
 * Walking and balancing along narrow beams.
 * Gymnastics, including parallel bars, the gymnastic horse, and Olympic rings.
 * Pole vault
 * Bodyweight squats, and one-legged bodyweight squats (pistols)

Strength and weight training


 * Gym Machines
 * Free Weights (kettlebell, dumbbell, barbell)
 * Cable Exercises
 * Band Exercises
 * Body Weight Exercises

Games and sports played for fitness


 * Wrestling
 * Rock Climbing
 * Fencing
 * Gymnastics
 * Quoits
 * Tennis
 * Cycling
 * Bodybuilding
 * Powerlifting

Common Training Focuses
The main training focus shared across all historical periods is achieving good general health through physical fitness. The most obvious visual sign for a person achieving this was looking 'in shape'. In other words, the body's muscular proportions are in the correct ratio to each other, having good posture in general, and not carrying too much or too little fat.

When physical training was used to prepare for athletics or warfare, the focus was predominantly on agility, speed, explosive power, and endurance. There was little attempt to emulate the hardiness and physical strength of the peasant or manual labourer, because the kind of strength developed by those roles was considered too slow and unagile for competition, be it in athletics or war. For this reason, exercises that required powerful, dynamic movements were more frequently recommended than those that required slow-moving strength i.e. ballistic training and plyometrics more so than heavy weight lifting.

Representations of athletes and warriors typically have very similar body proportions: a large developed torso, large or very large gluteal muscles, and a build that overall looks muscular, athletic, and robust. The commonality of this body shape for people throughout history who have undergone physical training means it was a build that was the result of, and reciprocally supported the further achievement of, the training goals of agility, speed, explosive power, and endurance.

Athletes, especially in Greece and Rome, tended to be thicker set than warriors who were in general leaner. This was partly due to athletes being able to depend on regular meals and sleep patterns, and warriors having to be prepared to be deprived of these. Thus, it was easier for an athlete to maintain a more muscular frame, whereas it was an unnecessary and difficult task for a warrior involved in campaigning. The relative proportions of the build were however similar which shows there was a belief in optimum physical proportions that could place someone in the best situation to achieve a variety of tasks. On this subject, the historian E. Norman Gardinier notes that while in Ancient Greece there were variations in the builds of the athletes based upon the event they specialised in, these variations were slight and there was a universal standard of development which was the result of universal forms of athletic training. He goes on to argue that for this reason statues of athletes would be made with a sign of the event they specialised in, otherwise, it would be too difficult to tell them apart based on their physical development alone. For similar reasons of attempting to achieve the optimum body proportions for moving in a fast, agile, and powerful manner, people throughout history, who have undertaken physical training, tend to be of similar proportions.