Physical Culture Historians

Huge news: I am very pleased to announce what is certainly my most significant historical discovery to date: the long-lost fitness manual of the legendary Babe Ruth, which includes his exercises with a bat!

This treatise is a compilation of the wisdom, experience, and technical knowledge that Ruth gained, as part of his famous “come-back” in the 1920s. After a sub-par season (his worst as a Yankee), an ailing and overweight Ruth collapsed twice and had to be hospitalized. Determined to regain his health, Ruth enlisted the help of a well-known fitness guru, and engaged in a spartan regimen and comprehensive course of holistic exercise. Following this treatment, he went on to have an incredible season, and led the Yankees to sweep the World Series. Ruth immediately compiled these exercises, along with the additional health wisdom he had gained, into a sequential, twelve-chapter series. While containing the regimen of the top celebrity athletic champion of his day, Ruth’s treatise was not primarily intended to be used by other players, but for the common man and woman. He hoped it would benefit all Americans, and the people of the world.

This book, lost in obscurity for nearly a century, contains approximately sixty exercises—some of them calisthenic, others utilizing a baseball bat with various grips—as well as his detailed thoughts on diet, body structure, posture, physical education, the mind-body connection, the “Ten Rules of Health”, and his personal philosophy of training. My new publication has also been annotated and supplemented with photographs and illustrations, and, in the appendix, includes an additional thirty-three exercises used by Ruth, or prescribed by his instructor, that appeared in obscure articles during the period. It is available on Amazøn today!

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1 month ago | [YT] | 55

Physical Culture Historians

It’s that time again!

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

Physical Culture Historians

This cartoon has my stamp of approval.

2 months ago | [YT] | 33

Physical Culture Historians

Thank you ‪@tuerkefechi‬ !

5 months ago | [YT] | 5

Physical Culture Historians

Fantastic review of our new book, from Tommy Joe Moore, a British boxer, martial arts instructor, and author, who taught self-defense to Special Forces in Ukraine.

5 months ago | [YT] | 7

Physical Culture Historians

I am very pleased to announce my new book, the first ever written on the 18th century stage gladiators! Although everyone today is familiar with the ancient Roman gladiators who fought to the death in the Coliseum, very few are aware of the resurgence of bloody gladiatorial combat that took place in 18th century Britain, in which the so-called “Masters of the Noble Science of Defence”, full of fire and bravado, demonstrated their expertise with sharp broadswords, daggers, shields, quarterstaffs, flails, two-handed swords, and other antiquated weapons before rabid audiences, while risking brutal mutilation and sometimes death for fame, glory, and prize money. Despite the immense popularity they enjoyed during their heyday—which lasted for almost a century—the gladiators have received little attention from scholars and historians, confined instead to a mere chapter in the back of Victorian-era fencing histories. This release—the product of nearly two decades of research—is the first book devoted to the lives, writings, and techniques of the 18th century stage gladiators, whose ranks included a number of women (the “Mistresses of the Science of Defence”), fighters of African descent, Native Americans, as well as numerous Irish, Scots, Welsh, and English. This text not only contains the largest number of firsthand accounts and challenges pertaining to the gladiators ever compiled, but also includes the writings of the gladiators themselves (including treatises on technique), a selection of essays, poetry, and songs from the period, a chapter on bare-knuckle boxing (a deadly form which finally superseded gladiatorial combat during the mid eighteenth century), obscure accounts of gladiatorial combat in New England and South America, as well as more than sixty engravings, sketches, and paintings from between the years 1680 and 1770. Available thru Amazon, B&N, and international booksellers.

5 months ago | [YT] | 50

Physical Culture Historians

A little historical gem for those who enjoyed our previous "Iron Wand" exercise video. Pictured at right is the creator of that exercise, Turner director Richard Pertuch, in an article about the 1900 Philadelphia Gymnastic Festival, which that exercise was specifically created for. This is from a German language article in the Washington Journal, June 9, 1900.

10 months ago | [YT] | 24

Physical Culture Historians

Outstanding lecture on Physical Culture history in the USA. Watch it!

10 months ago | [YT] | 4

Physical Culture Historians

Outstanding lecture presentation on the history of physical eduction and what we have lost, by Dr Ed Thomas. Watch it!

1 year ago | [YT] | 9

Physical Culture Historians

Historical Spanish saber fencing demonstration between my teachers, Maestro Jeannette-Acosta Martinez and Maestro Jared Kirby, at the Grand Assault of Arms.

1 year ago | [YT] | 9