Gymnastics, Evangelical Intent, and the Workout Routine
On the workout routine through the ages — Part 5 of 8
I have written here, here, and here about the different, mainly mundane reasons people — until the mid-19th century — adhered to workout routines. It took not long and even spiritual and religious concerns were brought forward, too. They should establish a link between man, moral virtue, and physical exercises. The imperative was to solve social problems of a new kind. And the workout routine was an effective means for the evangelical agency and its efforts to preserve young people from various immoral temptations that waited for them, especially at places where the Industrial Revolution was in full swing.
The Industrial Revolution took off in Great Britain around 1760. In the beginning, it was largely dominated by radical technological changes in the textile industry. Everything else went into change mode when the steel industry and railroad networks started to kick in. The unprecedented economic growth correlated with the growing number of factory workers who suffered from occupational diseases. Soon statistics turned into a social problem.
Against this quick and dirty backdrop, it is easier to understand why during the first half of the 19th century a theological shift among Protestants occurred, particularly towards Christian socialism — a mixed religious and political doctrine. This shift fueled cultural trends as diverse as Muscular Christianity. The idea behind this trend was about making physical exercises an integral activity of a strenuous worker’s and faithful believer’s lifestyle to let athleticism steel a solid moral spine.
The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London in 1844 with a focus on education and prayer. This explicit evangelical intent was soon blended with Muscular Christianity to improve the spiritual, mental, and social conditions of young men who arrived at new industry hotspots from all over the country. The association’s mission was to preserve them from alcohol, gambling, and brothels which all were regarded to be alarming symptoms of economic change.
It happened that overseas visitors of the Great Exhibition learned the new concept in 1851. And the first YMCA branch in the United States opened in Boston already the same year. Across the water, more secular activities had been developed than in Britain, but serious concerns arose about the role of physical recreation. In 1860 a resolution settled the dispute and all YMCA branches across the states were required to build gyms. Boston was the first one to resurrect the principles of Muscular Christianity — in 1869. Earlier attempts failed because of the Civil War.
Seven years later, in 1876 the devout Baptist Robert J. Roberts (1849–1920) was given the job of a gym superintendent at the YMCA in Boston where he already worked for a while as a gym assistant to teach gymnastics. At this time he enjoyed some local recognition, not only because of his clearly defined physique which let him act as a model at Boston’s art schools. Roberts was also a founding member of the West End Boat Club, an instructor and record breaker in underwater swimming, and a frequent visitor at George Barker Windship’s (1834–1876) gym — a physician who graduated from Harvard, an ambassador of weightlifting, and the inventor of plate-loaded dumbbells — where he lifted weights and trained gymnastics.
Roberts took over the YMCA gym with 49 members. He knew that too many of them were either incapable or unwilling to attend the workout classes they taught there. In his eyes, heavy equipment, feats of muscular strength, and overexerting acrobatic stunts were the domain of vaudeville stars, circus artists, touring strongmen, boxers, wrestlers, and other professionals. His gym, so Roberts, should instead educate its members so they can build their physiques in harmonious and symmetrical proportions — without strain and with health being the only purpose. Therefore, the gym he envisioned could not be a place where one wasted time and energy or sought amusement, or showed off. He was convinced that it must be a place where young Christian men work out their bodies to do work in life that is right in God’s sight. And this is precisely the context when Roberts coined the term ‘bodybuilding’ which later grew into a whole subculture and industry.
In his second year as superintendent, the member count increased to 300. Based on careful study and thorough testing on the gym floor Roberts developed a series of exercise practices that anticipated the modern group fitness workouts we know today. The axioms of his approach required that all exercises had to be safe, so everyone could attend, short, easy, and as near recreation as possible, beneficial to the full body, and pleasing to foster mental recuperation. Only light and simple equipment were employed. His signature dumbbell drill was a group class where members followed the instructor’s gospel through a 20-minute sequence of bodybuilding exercises. His class was scheduled every evening with up to 50 people doing the full body workout.
In addition, Roberts preached a strict workout routine. “Do not let a day go by without working your body to a sweat and washing it” — was his advice. Otherwise, he claimed, man is nothing more than half alive and keeps committing slow suicide. Even though he believed that people do best if they exercise daily at a regular hour, he was also an advocate of moderation (“little and often”). In general, one should visit the gym three or four times a week for a 40-minute workout. On other days outdoor activities — walking, cycling, swimming, or rowing — would do the job. Roberts devised stretching and breathing exercises as home drills to be followed every morning and evening. All these single parts when put together made the workout routine comply with his rule of thumb: “take exercises as regularly as your meals”.
In 1885 there were already more than 100 YMCA gyms up and running across the country, with half of all members being enrolled in gym classes. In mid-1887 Roberts joined the faculty at the YMCA School for Christian Workers in Springfield, Massachusetts (it was renamed in 1954 into Springfield College) to serve as a teacher of teachers at the department of physical education for two years. There he turned his body of thought into a YMCA standard and it was only a matter of time until all YMCA gyms adopted his doctrine.
But fundamental change was already underway. From the very beginning, Roberts was against all competition for ethical reasons. The YMCA officials did not share this point of view and favored team sports — especially basketball and volleyball. These two disciplines were invented at YMCA at the end of the 19th century and they eventually replaced gymnastics in terms of popularity to push Roberts’ firm conviction into an outsider’s position.
Main source: B. Deane Brink (1916) The body builder Robert J. Roberts. Association Press, New York.
