William Blaikie and Physical Fitness in Late Nineteenth Century America – Iron Game History – July 1992 Copy of IGH0203c.pdf

Most Americans think that the concern over our collective lack of exercise began with the jogging boom of the early 1970s. This assumption is off by more than a hundred years. In the late nineteenth century a group of health reformers advocated exercise for Americans. One such reformer was William Blaikie. His book How to Get Strong and How to Stay So, published in 1883, told Americans about the health benefits of regular exercise.