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History of Weight Training

The history of weight training dates back to ancient Greek Culture but in fact lifting weights has been part of man’s everyday life since time immemorial. Hippocrates is considered to be the first who described the principle behind weight training and wrote that "that which is used develops, and that which is not used wastes away”. Some texts provide that the Hercules that undergone weight training under the supervision of his teacher Chiron. This may be the reason of his superior strength above any other being.

Milo of Croton, a wrestler and military hero was credited to be the first to undergo progressive resistance training by carrying a new born calf on his back until it became a full grown cow. Accounts also show that in China’s Chou dynasty (1122-249 BC), weight training was part of the army’s selection and training process. Strength training had also reference to ancient Indian culture which includes rituals and ceremonies like drinking ceremonial hallucinogenic liquor called vajpeya meaning "the drink of strength."

It was during the 6^th Century that weight lifting of stones become popular sports and thus become the “age of strength”. The Olympic Games was created by the Greeks and weight lifting was one of the major event and became the most popular sport. The Greek physician and philosopher Galen describe its significance in his profound treatise Preservation of Health and mentioned some weight activities such as using the halteres, which is an early form of dumbbell. Roman poet Martial also mentioned some benefits of weight training as the Roman Empire develops formal weight training in its army. This may be one of the reasons of Roman Armies greatness in history.

In modern times, there has been very rapid development of equipments for weight lifting such as:

The Indian club, which came from ancient Persia, and were then called the "meels."
Clubbell, which is a development of the Indian club in the 19^th Century
The dumbbell and the barbell came in the later part of 19^th Century which was made of hollow globes to be filled with sand or lead shots
Plate-loading barbell which was developed in the end of the 19^th Century

Weight training’s popularity grew rapidly in the 20^th Century because of the advent of television and mass media as new exercise machine also came into the picture. Weight training became a part of the curriculum in certain universities in Europe in the mid 1950’s. In the 1980s, the bodybuilding movie Pumping Iron was released which made the weight training ever popular. Arnold Schwarzenegger was become the ultimate bodybuilding figure after the launch of the Mr. America. In the late 1990s, there has been significant increase of women taking up weight training, influenced by programs like Body for Life. Weight training has developed into different competitive sports like bodybuilding, weight lifting and power lifting.