When Fitness Went Global

The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century

Why do exercisers around the world use the same movements, machines and models to define their fitness habits? Or, put simply, why does a squat or downward dog often look the same in New York as it does in New Delhi? Fitness, exercise and physical culture is a key part of our modern lives, but has this always been the case? In When Fitness Went Global, Conor Heffernan shows how the nineteenth century was critical for the development of the modern fitness industry, and how the globalization of physical culture was entangled in, and spread by, concepts of nationalism, gender, race, empire and medicine.

From yoga and gymnastics to Indian club swinging and Jiujitsu, When Fitness Went Global follows some of the most popular fitness practices from around the world as they were exported on a global scale during the long nineteenth century. Examining how this came about through imperial networks, military education, new print culture, faster trade networks and changing ideas about the body, it explores how beautiful bodies were linked to notions of national strength and imperial might. Discussing how both local and international understandings of exercise were negotiated, it asks why some practices became global while others did not, and shows how fitness was revolutionised during the nineteenth century.

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