The celebration of the human body through muscular development was one of the ideals of ancient Greece, with their creation of both the Olympic Games and the gymnasium. The ancient Greek ‘gymnasion’ functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games as well as a place for socialising and engaging in intellectual pursuits. Indeed the word gymnasium comes from the Greek term gymnos meaning naked, with athletes being naked when in competition, a practice said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of competitors bodies. Weight-training, as a general athletic activity, was initially practiced as a means to gain strength and measure power in ancient Egyptian and Greek societies. These activities would primarily use stones of various sizes and weights (a practice that would occur, in one form or another throughout history) in their quest for bodily transformation. Physical culture (distinguishable from bodybuilding per se due to the lack of specific physical display as an end goal) can be traced back to 11th century India where stone dumbbell weights, known as Nals, were lifted by those wanting to develop their bodies to enhance health and stamina to help overcome the challenges of daily life. Gymnasiums were commonplace in India during this period and by the 16th century, weight- training is thought to have been India’s national pastime. However, there was to be a long period between the 16th century physical movement in India and the beginning of bodybuilding (defined as training and dieting to develop ones body specifically for exhibitive purposes) as we know it today. Looking at history it is interesting to record early observations on what came to be known as ‘exercise science’; “if we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health, “ Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) “those movements which do not alter respiration are not called exercise,” Galen (129-210 A.D.) “take exercise: for whilst inaction weakens the body, work strengthens it; the former brings on premature old age, the latter prolongs youth,” Cornelius Celsus (circa1060) Back to the “exercise is deliberate and planned movement of the human frame, accompanied by breathlessness, and undertaken for the sake of health or fitness...” Hieronymus Mercuralis (1530-1606) By the start of the 20th Century, interest in exercise was renewed following the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, studies on muscle size and further encouraged by Dudley Future Sargent, MD, Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University who, while teaching a class in applied anatomy, Greg Doherty believes that when we introduced exercise testing. consider the future of fitness we first Concern over military recruits failing to pass physical examinations in both World War 1 and 2 led to the organisation need to review the past of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory from 1927 to1947, while A.V. Hill and Otto Meyerhoff were awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology for their work on muscle metabolism. Yet many misconceptions grew around exercise. Through the 1930s and 1940s it was believed that weight training would slow an athlete and most athletic coaches banned weight training while it was also thought that high volume endurance training was bad for the heart. Through the fifties and into the sixties, exercise was not thought to be useful for older people and endurance exercise was thought to be harmful to women. But the second half of the 20th Century also saw progress with the launch of the Journal of Applied Physiology in1948, the US-based National Athletic Trainer’s Association in 1950, the American College of Sports Medicine in 1954, the US President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1955 and the publication of John Bunn’s Scientific Principles of Coaching Roman women at exercise - in the 3rd Century A.D!. Mosaic from the in 1955 which outlined the proper application of the mechanics Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily. of motion to physical activities.

20 Australasian Leisure Management January/February 2007 rehabilitation study in conjunction with efi Sports Medicine recently, which supported the benefits of incline plane training for rehabilitation. The GTS uses a cable and pulley system and a free- motion glideboard to encourage functional training with eight different levels of resistance and more than 250 strength training, stretching and Pilates exercises. Compared to traditional circuit training regimes where weights have to be adjusted and sweaty seats wiped clean, Gravity users can quickly move from arm curls to shoulder presses to squats without ever getting off the machine. Many clubs offer small group personal training on the GTS for less than the cost of a single personal training session, making Through a shift in emphasis from losing body-fat as training techniques personal training more accessible and performance testing to fitness testing and and new developments in exercise affordable for club members. physical activity for health we reach the equipment advanced. Gravity is changing the way gym present day and the challenges of In 1974, Tom Campanaro, Chief aficionados and personal trainers think applying our knowledge to increase the Executive of efi Sports Medicine, about traditional functional training. number of people who engage launched the first ‘Total Gym’ a machine According to the American College of regularly, preferably daily, in physical that Campanaro, then a competitive Sports Medicine (ACSM), functional activity against a backdrop of rising body builder, developed to encourage training, including core stability levels of obesity and inactivity. ‘functional exercise’, a technique that exercises play an important part in The 20th Century also saw the rise of recreates the movements we perform helping reduce injuries by training strength training, from circus style everyday with and against gravity. multiple muscles to work together, ‘strongmen’ which led a fashion for Subsequently, a wide range of industry making it easier to perform daily dumbbells and barbells as common suppliers go on to develop fixed axis activities by using the body as an training tools to the development of early isolation ‘machine training’ equipment. integrated whole. body building machinery. 1891 saw the Today, I believe that exercise has Greg Doherty is Chief Executive of first official weightlifting competition and, come full circle, with ‘back to basics’ Auckland-based Highest Quality by the early 1900s Bernarr Macfadden functional training using dumbbells, Health & Fitness, suppliers of a range (often known as the ‘father of physical cables and Swiss balls on the rise. of products and services to improve culture’), began selling his popular chest What excites me about this trend is health, well-being and fitness, for use expander and went on to become one ‘incline plane training’ - a dynamic rolling by the general public and the fitness of the greatest physical identities in the glideboard on a set of rails that can be or health professional. Products/ early 20th century. In 1921, Macfadden adjusted to a variable incline. Equipped brands supplied include Airex Mats, helped to push another major with a bi-lateral pulley system and squat AOK Health, Bosu, C.H.E.K Institute, protagonist for the physical movement, platform the apparatus, allows a full range Duraball Pro, DuraDisc, Fitness Charles Atlas, into the spotlight. of movement of extremities in the three Works, Fitter, GNLD, GRAVITY, Polar, Atlas (whose real name was Angelo cardinal planes. And the idea is nothing Qlink, Total Gym and VitaZone Bars. Siciliano) became internationally popular new, having been first patented in For details contact Greg Doherty on and, through his standing as an expert on Germany in the mid 1800s. 0800 552 8789 (in New Zealand) and physical development, acquired the rights The Gravity Training System (GTS) has 1800 552 8789 (in Australia) or visit to a mail-order course called ‘dynamic brought incline plane training to the 21st www.hqh.com. tension’, an exercise system developed century with a commercial product for a by Macfadden 20 years earlier. time efficient, functional training workout. As the bodybuilding movement Gravity is designed to work arms, progressed into the 1930s, adherents chest, legs, back and abs in a quick and were becoming more interested in effective 30-45 minute session using developing balanced physiques and only body weight as resistance. Performed on the GTS unit, Gravity offers functional training, working multiple muscle groups at the same time, and core stability exercises in non- intimidating group workouts: group strength, personal training and Pilates. The newly introduced Gravity Youth series caters for the growing need to work with children and young people in a fun and effective manner. For trainers there is versatile programming for semi- private personal training, semi-private Pilates and post-rehab. The American Physical Therapy Association ‘Hey Skinny’. Selling Charles Atlas’ body building. conducted a ground-breaking

22 Australasian Leisure Management January/February 2007