The emergence and development of athleticism. Part No. 1

Strength exercises have been known since ancient times. Rock paintings, legends, and fairy tales of peoples of various nations and religions tell us about people who possessed considerable, heroic strength, and that they could lift and carry extremely heavy objects.

Even 4000 years ago, competitions of ancient bodybuilders were held at the courts of the pharaohs. Weights in the form of projectiles, reminiscent of modern dumbbells, can be seen on frescoes, paintings of ancient Roman temples, mosaics and engravings.

Stone press, shot put, exercises with “halters”.

In the Middle Ages, artisans demonstrated their strength abilities: millers lifted cart wheels, brewers lifted barrels of beer, etc. To this day, the stone press remains a popular form of competition in some countries, and at the recently held shot put competition in the Swiss canton of Valais - the projectile was a huge stone weighing 100 kg.

On the pages of the fitness website you can find out that Athleticism, as a mass movement, originated in Ancient Greece. The cult of worship of the beauty of the human body, physical harmony and perfection was then raised to unprecedented heights. And this is with virtually no sports equipment! Sports equipment of that time, which were metal or stone cannonballs connected by handles (galters) - the prototype of modern dumbbells - were widely and universally used in cyclic training exercises, actively used not only for muscle training, but also in therapeutic and preventive procedures for correcting posture, forming a slender, harmonious, beautiful physique, strengthening and maintaining health. Descriptions of exercises with galters are found in numerous immortal works of Hippocrates, as well as students and followers of his teachings.

Russian heroes are the founders of Slavic athleticism.

Since childhood, we have all been familiar with numerous folk tales about the daring strength of our grandfathers and fathers, who unbent horseshoes and broke spears with their bare hands... As a symbol of boundless power and indestructibility, Russian heroes look at us from paintings by Vasnetsov and other famous artists. Their bodies of steel are an example to us of hard work, daily training and painstaking physical preparation...

At the end of the nineteenth century in Russia, France and Austria, the special development of strength began to acquire an organized and well-defined character in such sports disciplines as weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, javelin throwing, hammer throwing, shot put and lifting spherical weights. As an option triathlon there was such a popular combination: a) pushing stones, b) long press, c) free press...