8/29/2016 0 Comments Physical Culture: What is it?If you’ve looked around the site then chances are you’ve definitely seen the term “Physical Culture” thrown around quite a bit. Some of you may be wondering just what in the world it is, though. To put it simply, physical culture was a strength and health training movement that began in the U.S., England, and Germany nearly 200 years ago. It included many different systems and schools of methodology. Physical Culture is, in fact, the movement that many modern fitness systems grew out of today. The most famous of which being bodybuilding. But many modern systems can be traced back to Physical Culture in some form or another. Though this post is meant to be an introduction to physical culture, I will have many posts in the future that draw on the similarities between modern systems and their ‘ancestral’ counterparts from the old days. One such example that comes to mind almost immediately is Street Workout. Street Workout is another name for the system of calisthenics training that originated in the U.S., in the inner cities of New York. I may be biased here but I’d venture to say that it was somewhere in the Five Boroughs, and probably in Brooklyn (I’m being completely biased with that specification). Street Workout practitioners go by many names. The most popular being “Bar Athlete” and “Bodyweight Athlete”. If you’re familiar with it, then you know that the focus is on developing functional muscle mass that makes you as athletic as you will be aesthetic. Street Workout can indeed be compared to the calisthenics training of old. With Physical Culturists not only focusing on using calisthenics as an exercise methodology, but developing incredible skill as well. This is probably due to the heavy influence gymnastics and gymnastic training had on fitness and athletics up until relatively recent times. As a result, many physical culturists were huge proponents of such training methods and could demonstrate some pretty impressive gymnastic/bodyweight skill. Nowadays we see Bar Athletes demonstrating circuit workouts and “sets and reps” workouts, as well as demonstrating some pretty impressive “gymnastic” skills and freestlye moves. This isn’t really anything new, though. As Physical Culture in the turn of the century is where the lines between calisthenics and gymnastics truly begin to blur. Another important aspect of Physical Culture is Strongman training. This is not to be confused with today’s version. Strongman back then simply meant someone who competes in strength athletics. When we see the Physical Culturists of old we often see them holding barbells over their heads. To put it simply, it was just things like this which qualified someone to be touted as a strongman - lifting/pressing/moving impressive loads of weight in impressive ways. Though today’s iteration is a bit more diverse in terms of events and feats, make no mistake, it grew out of Physical Culture. In fact, Strongman sort of splintered off from what it was back then into today’s iteration, and weightlifting. Basically, in the 20th century we saw strength athletics being codified into what we have today. Powerlifting can be seen in its’ modern form as far back as the 1950’s. Olympic Lifting didn’t nearly resemble what it is today until about the early 1930’s. What about Bodybuilding? Bodybuilding as we know it today can be traced to the Aesthetics movement (within Physical Culture) and a man by the name of Eugen Sandow. Eugen Sandow is the namesake of the coveted trophy awarded to winners of the Mr.Olympia bodybuilding championship. Eugen Sandow was a turn of the century strongman and physical culturist. When it came to aesthetics he focused on achieving ideal Greek proportions and emulating Greek statues. He is considered by many to be the father of modern bodybuilding. Another aspect of Physical Culture that is quite noteworthy is Muscle Control, but that in and of itself requires a full article to really understand and truly appreciate. So now that you’ve got a bit of a crash course in Physical Culture, I hope you understand it’s connection and relevance to fitness today. Expect many more articles that draw specific connections from the good old days to modern times. And with that, I leave you with a video from one of my chief inspirations (and probably the first “Legend of Physical Culture” I’ll profile) - the Great Otto Arco.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Shredded ShamanLifelong athlete and martial artist. I'm on a mission to bring back the good old days of Physical Culture and make this fit lifestyle a lot more enjoyable. Archives
October 2022
CategoriesAll Bodyweight Calisthenics Cardio Celeb Workouts Dumbbells HIIT Martial Arts Metabolic Conditioning Powerbuilding Resistance Bands Shredding Superheroes Suspension Training Weighted Calisthenics Workouts |