Like many of my colleagues, online learning has been something of a mixed experience. Entire courses have been completely redesigned, I’m often left lecturing in my spare bedroom and I live, almost constantly, in fear of my two dogs taking over a lecture owing to their indignation with our mail carrier. Students, I’m well aware, are facing all of these pressures and then some. There has been then, a temptation, to simply fall back into tried and tested habits so that I, and the students, can simply survive the semester. I will admit, somewhat shamefully, that such a thought...

There was a time when Indian club swinging was one of the most fascinating, and even popular, elements of gym culture. Originally brought to Western Europe and the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, when it was transported from the East India Company, club swinging involved swinging lightweight clubs around the body in a variety of different exercises. As in all else, human nature meant that club swinging soon became a competitive sport in Great Britain and many of her colonial subjects. Therein lies the focus of today’s post. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth...

Continuing my dive into the backcatalogue of Health and Strength magazine is today’s discussion of an important, at least in my eyes, cover from the early 1920s. The cover features T.W. Standwell from, Dublin, Ireland. Standwell was one of the first Irishmen to appear on the cover of Health and Strength despite the fact that Irishmen had long appeared in articles, contests and advertisements. Given that my own research is broadly interested in Irish physical culture perhaps biases me to this image but for those interested in physical culture, and weightlifting, the cover holds interest. At the time of publication,...