A look at the history of fitness training, featured in Australian Leisure Management magazine, January/February 2007 issue.

Greg Doherty believes that when we consider the future of fitness we first need to review the past.

The celebration of the human body through muscular development was one of the ideals of ancient Greece, with their creation of both the Olympic Games and the gymnasium. The ancient Greek ‘gymnasion’ functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games as well as a place for socialising and engaging in intellectual pursuits. Indeed the word gymnasium comes from the Greek term gymnos meaning naked, with athletes being naked when in competition, a practice said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of competitors bodies.

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