The Original Body Builders: How Greek Halteres and Celtic Gabal Stone Lifts Built the World's First Strongmen

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fad workouts have been with us for decades, but they go back much further than we realize. Long before CrossFit, Zumba, P90X, Tae Box, Jazzercise or Jack LaLanne, we had 19th century strongmen. These mustachioed showmen were the first global fitness influencers. They hauled trunks of weights onto steamships, toured the world, then sold exercise equipment through the mail. The most famous was Eugene Sandow, who broke chains, and created with his own body a "manned cavalry bridge" where he would lie down while men, horses, and a carriage were driven over his body. He even fought a lion in front of an auditorium and won, although the lion was almost definitely sedated.

Today’s guest is Connor Heffernan, author of “When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century.” In this episode, we discuss:

Ancient Egyptians were basically doing CrossFit thousands of years ago. They trained with swinging sandbags that look exactly like modern kettlebell flows.
One of the first exercise practices to experience globalization was Indian club-swinging. Indian club-swinging, originating from the heavy training clubs used by Indian wrestlers and soldiers for centuries, was observed and adopted by British military officers stationed in India during the early 1800s.
Early diet culture was a carnival of quack science. Victorian fitness magazines were filled with miracle tonics, starvation cures and pseudoscientific meal plans. Many of our “new” diet trends are rebranded versions of schemes first marketed with sepia portraits and dubious testimonials.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Looking for a simple way to stay rooted in God's Word every day.
0:03.6	The Daily Bible Devotion app by Salem Media gives you morning and evening devotionals
0:08.2	designed to encourage, inspire, and keep you connected with scripture.
0:12.5	Plus, you'll enjoy Daily Bible trivia and humor, a fun way to learn and share a smile while
0:17.4	growing in your faith.
0:18.6	Get the Daily Bible Devotion app for free on both iOS and
0:22.4	Android. Start and end your day with God's Word. Search for the Daily Bible Devotion app in the App Store
0:28.3	or Google Play Store and download it today.
0:35.7	It's going to hear with another episode of the History Unplug podcast.
0:39.1	Fad workouts have been with us for decades, but they go back much further than we realize.
0:43.4	Long before CrossFit, Zumba, P90X, Tai Bo, Jazzerciser, Jack La Lane, we had 19th century
0:49.3	strongmen.
0:50.5	These moustachioed showmen were the first global fitness influencers.
0:53.6	They held trunks of weights on the steamships toward the world, then sold exercise equipment through the mail.
0:59.7	The most famous of these was Eugene Sandow, who broke chains and created with his own body a man-cavalry bridge where he had lied down while men, horses, and a character driven over his body.
1:10.0	He even fought a lion
1:11.0	in front of an auditorium and won, although the lion was almost definitely sedated. In today's
1:15.8	episode, I'm speaking to Connor Heffernan, author of When Fitness Went Global, The Rise of Physical
1:20.8	Culture in the 19th century. We discuss how ancient Egyptians were basically doing CrossFit
1:25.7	thousands of years ago. They trained with
1:27.7	swinging sandbags looked exactly like modern kettlebells. We also look at how one of the first
1:32.0	exercise practices to experience globalization was Indian club swinging. This originated from
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Unplugged, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Unplugged and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.