Hitting The Gym, Victorian Style: This Is How We Worked Out In The 1890s

If you thought the gym was a modern invention, think again: this is how fitness freaks worked out 130 years ago.

These amazing photographs show that we have been working out on exercise machines since the Victorian era.

The pictures feature the inventions of Dr Gustav Zaner, the man credited by many as the creator of the exercise machine.

Each photo shows one of his machine’s workouts for a specific part of the body.

Taken in 1892, the images are held in Stockholm’s National Museum of Science and Technology.

Dr Zander, a Swedish physician and orthopaedist, was among the first to recognise the link between exercise and health.

He believed muscles needed to be built up over time and created machines to mimic human movements.

Dr Zander worked on a version of the Gymnasticon, an 18th century workout machine, simplifying it for users.

But just as a gym membership costs money today, these machines were targeted at the wealthy, and spread across America in the early 20th century.

(Pictures: Caters)