Physical Culture Wrestling

Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture and Sport - Wikipedia

But its real beginning, as a sustained activity, dates from the ancient Greeks. The foremost warriors were the Spartans of Laconia, who endured harsh physical discipline to ensure that the finest physical specimens were produced. Spartans, in their efforts to toughen and exhibit their bodies, were also enthusiastic nudists.

The greatest Greek athlete, however, was Milo of Croton , who popularized progressive resistance training by purportedly carrying a calf daily from its birth until it became full-size. In the late 6th century bce he won wrestling championships at the Pythian Games seven times and at the Olympics six times. The classical embodiment of physical development was the mythical Heracles the Roman Hercules , son of Zeus , whose laborious feats and matchless physique served as a model for all subsequent physical culturists.

Finally, the Greeks employed physical culture as a form of preventive medicine and as a means of recuperating from illnesses and weaknesses. Physical culture became firmly and permanently implanted in Western civilization in part because of the many works of sculpture glorifying the body that the ancient Greeks left to posterity. The ideal of physical beauty has remained an important thread through the history of the physical culture movement. The humanistic tradition continued with the Romans but with more-elaborate facilities and greater emphasis on training for warfare and gladiatorial combat.

Early history

Baths replaced gymnasiums as venues for public exercise, and the philosophic component waned. During the latter stages of the Roman Empire, with the widespread acceptance of Christianity , a spiritual even ascetic ideal came to prevail. Exercise, no longer pursued for health and fitness, was chiefly a by-product of medieval combat or hard work in manors and monasteries. Human representations in artworks of the Middle Ages were abstract and otherworldly. It was only with the Italian Renaissance that interest in the aesthetic development of the body was revived in Western civilization.

The later scientific treatises of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey employed the works of the 2nd-century Greek physician Galen of Pergamum to advance medical knowledge. Externalization of this renewed physical awareness into exercise and fitness activities had to wait until the 18th century, though even then it was limited to sporadic developments in northern Europe. In addition to teaching modern languages, science, and vocational subjects, it marked a true renewal of physical culture, with an emphasis on such activities as wrestling, running, riding, fencing , vaulting, and dancing.

He invented horizontal and parallel bars and sponsored periodic physical culture festivals that attracted as many as 30, enthusiasts.

In Sweden similar principles of physical regeneration, though with less nationalistic fervour, were developed independently by Per Henrik Ling , who emphasized the integration of perfect bodily development with muscular beauty. He invented wall bars, beams, and the box horse. Activities distinctive to Scottish culture, such as caber tossing , hammer throwing , and the shot stone put , along with traditional running, wrestling, and jumping events, constituted the Highland Games that began during the Romantic swell of the s and later led to the sport of track and field.

By the midth century, national physical culture movements were also emerging in England and France. In the first English athletic competition was conducted at the national military academy at Woolwich. In an enterprising Scot, Archibald MacLaren, opened a well-equipped gymnasium at the University of Oxford , and in he trained 12 sergeants who then implemented his training regimen for the British Army. Another inspirational influence for Britons was the Muscular Christianity movement, a reconciliation of Western religious doctrines with the need for national physical regeneration.

In physical culture pioneer and strongman Hippolyte Triat established a huge gymnasium in Paris where aristocrats joined spirited youth in pursuit of fitness. In the s physical education became a principal focus in French schools, where battalions of healthy young men were trained to avenge the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. A great teacher and publicist, he eventually established hundreds of gymnasiums with many thousands of pupils. These kinds of cultural groups often sponsored national dances, songs, language revivals, and traditional athletic contests.

The Gaelic Athletic Association closely coincided with the Irish literary and political renaissance in the late 19th century. Everywhere people seemed to develop a fitness culture rooted in their ethnic or national identity. By this time, European physical culture traditions were taking root in America, particularly among German American immigrants. More attractive to midth-century Americans were various non-exercise treatments, cures, and dietary schemes designed to encourage overall health and well-being.

Naturopathy , including such practices as hydrotherapy , electrotherapy, herbal medicine, nutrition , massage , and homeopathy , drew on the Hippocratic notion of the healing power of nature and the capacity of the body for regeneration. One early health reformer was Sylvester Graham , a Presbyterian minister who preached temperance and advocated a vegetarian diet, sexual restraint, and water bathing treatments. He is best known as the inventor of graham crackers, made from whole-wheat flour.

Ellen White , an advocate of vegetarianism and hydrotherapy, was a founder of the Seventh-day Adventists , a religious group that embraced naturopathy and claimed to enjoy better health than the general population. In he and his brother William also devised a flaking process for ready-to-eat cereals. Along with associate Charles W. Post and quixotic nutritionist Horace Fletcher, the Kelloggs brought about greater dietary consciousness and fostered the beginnings of the health food industry. In Mary Baker Eddy , once a sufferer from poor health, believed that she had experienced physical regeneration through spiritual revelation.

Eventually the body, and even sex, would be approached in a more open manner. Meanwhile, more physically challenging approaches to fitness were coming to the fore, brought on in part by the mass emigration of Germans after the Revolutions of The first American turnverein gymnastics club was founded in Cincinnati in What popularized physical culture most, however, was the National Police Gazette , which sold 2,, copies weekly by Edited by Richard K.

Fox, it offered a steady dose of sporting excitement, along with articles on crime, scandal, and gossip. The Gazette also aroused working-class passions by sponsoring world championships in everything from wood chopping to water drinking, and it featured the exploits of pugilist John L.

Fox virtually invented sports pages. His efforts were complemented by the garish entertainments of Coney Island , which provided a healthy outlet for the teeming immigrant masses, much as spas appealed to their social betters. Frolicking on the sunny beach, tackling daring rides, and marveling at the physical oddities in sideshows were exhilarating experiences for the urban proletarians.

Eager audiences thrilled to physical culture exhibitions in countless pleasure parks, fairs, circuses, and vaudeville houses across the nation. By emphasizing training for all students at Harvard University , not just the athletically inclined, Dudley Allen Sargent virtually founded the discipline of physical education. As director of the YMCA Training School now Springfield College , Gulick ordered assistant James Naismith to develop a game that would occupy students during the winter months when it was too cold to play rugby or gridiron football in Massachusetts.

Hence, in December , Naismith invented basketball. It provided a fitting complement to baseball , already a national pastime since the s.

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Gridiron football was legitimized by another physical culturist, Walter Camp , who, in addition to his spectacular success as a player and coach —92 at Yale University , was a prolific writer and promoter of the sport. It became a household phrase and was copied by countless fitness gurus in succeeding generations. One of the greatest misconceptions about physical culture in the modern era was that it was meant for men only.

Early efforts to incorporate European gymnastics into a liberal education were instigated by Catharine Beecher , scion of a New England family that had a tremendous impact on American mores in the 19th century. Later reformers, such as Dio Lewis, a Boston educator, sought to liberate women from corsets and other restrictive garments.

Lessons In Wrestling and Physical Culture: Illustrated

Lewis introduced a system of stretching exercises that utilized rubber balls, beanbags, hoops, and rings to develop eye-hand coordination. Colleges such as Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hood led the way in promoting collegiate sports for women, although only on the intramural level. Arguably the healthiest and most liberating experience for women came from the introduction of the safety bicycle in the s, which also encouraged dress reform and greater self-confidence.

Although the Gibson Girl, and later the flapper, exemplified the independent spirit of the new woman, swimmer and vaudeville and movie star Annette Kellerman epitomized the physical culture ideal. This is a daily thing they do not take many days off. Their training regiments are very strict as well as their diets.

They consume a diet slightly higher in fat because of the amount of work they are putting into their daily training. As stated before these wrestlers use a variety of tools that are not often seen here in the west. They have far more ways of training that could outlast any article I could write. I am only a passionate onlooker on how important other cultures are. The wrestlers of India are no different. They know nothing else but becoming better.

Physical Culture Shock: Indian Wrestling

They are willing to do whatever it takes to dot hat, and they train accordingly. Outside of learning how effective a mace, or clubs, or any tools these fantastic athlete use. We can take a page out of there book of work ethic. These athletes know that there is only one way to be the best and that is through training. Not through social media posts, or false portrayal of hard work. Now they get up early every day, get all the job done that they need to, eat their food, rest when needed, and go to sleep ready to repeat it all tomorrow.

The athletes in this nation train in what is called an Akhara. This is much like the zurkhaneh of Iran. The only difference being that the Akhara is generally outside with sand pits for wrestling. Like the athletes of Iran, the India wrestlers depend on a whole lot of upper body rotation strength.

That is because when you are throwing an opponent in wrestling the muscle associated with that movement must be strong and ready to handle a variety if odd angles. The Gada handles this exceptionally well.

The Physical Body: Indian Wrestling and Physical Culture

With the long shaft creating the immense force as the head travels down the muscles of the core, upper back, shoulders, and grip must be strong enough to bring the mace back to the starting position. The culture in India is totally different than what the outside world believes it to be. Inside this country rests one of the deepest-rooted physical cultures on this planet. They are very connected to how their bodies should be and how they can get the most out of the littlest amount of tools.

The Wrestlers of this nation show up every day ready to work hard in order to become the best they can possibly be. We could not ask for more than that for any of the youth growing up here in the west! Home Training Physical Culture Shock: