“Their Training Knowledge Was Terrible”: Rare Footage of Women-Only Gym From 1961 Baffles Fitness World

Ever wondered what gym and fitness routines looked like back in the 1960s when they slowly started gaining popularity among women? A picture of what these gyms looked like has now emerged after a clip was shared by the IFBB Pro coach, Greg Doucette.

Women’s fitness has always been seen as less intensive and lacking than the standardized male ones in the past. Now that a clip from 1961 resurfaces, many were surprised at the kind of fitness routines that the women were engaging in at the gym.

Doucette says gyms are better now

Greg Doucette shared a video of what a women’s gym looked like back in 1961. The video displayed numerous women, all dressed up and wearing heels, trying to work out with the equipment they were provided with. Although the equipment was not substandard, the lack of their know-how was quite visible.

Doucette wrote in the caption of his post, “We now have Better gyms than last time. Video from @history.folder“ However, that is not the only difference between the present and the past, with better gyms, came better fitness trainers to guide people on how to use the gym and how to train better, a component which was missing in 1961.

Although the clip aroused much humor and bafflement in the fitness world, many also accepted how diet played a crucial role in maintaining the physique of many back then.

Fitness enthusiasts think that it was the diet that worked

One of the fans stated how their training knowledge wasn’t that great, but they had a better diet than many in the present and wrote, “Their training knowledge was terrible. But the population looked better than because they had a real food diet. Not processed junk.” Another Instagram user pointed out the flawed exercise shown in the video where the supposed lat pulldown was completely different than how it should be. “Ah yes the lat pulldown into the Tricep Pushdown a classic exercise,” they wrote. Another fan had a simple question, “Why are they dressed up?”

One of them also applauded that the machines shown in the video were actually better than what one would expect from that era, “I’m surprised the machines are actually pretty good, except for the bs massage rollers.” One even emphasized on how diet can help a person manage their physique to almost 70%, “This goes to show diet is 70% of it, cuz as you can see they had very little knowledge of weight lifting or training in general but everyone back then looked healthy, no one was overweight bc not everything back then was junk food.”

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Although women’s gyms back in the day were not as great as they are today, the progress that has happened within a few decades shows major improvement. What do you think of the workouts shown in the video? Let us know in the comments below.

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