postal insurance scheme.
Fast forward 70 years, and daily
A brief history of the home workout
1920’s America
Radio broadcast home workouts first emerged in America around a
century ago.
Walter Camp, a fitness coach who is hailed as the „father of
American football‟, was called upon during World War One to
keep the troops in shape. His solution was the ‘daily dozen’:
twelve handy exercises to promote fitness and weight loss. When
the soldiers came home, a fitness craze ensued and the workouts
were monetised, with phonograph records of the exercises being
made and sold.
Soon after, these workouts began being broadcast on the radio.
“It was designed so you could do it in your home. It was designed
so even if you lived in an apartment, you could have 15 minutes of
exercises … and go into the world feeling physically fit.” says
Professor Donna Halper, who lectures in communication and
media studies at Lesley University. These broadcast bursts of
exercise, explains Donna, inaugurated morning workouts, as
radio programmes had been largely aired at night until the early
20s.
1930’s Japan
Japanese officials who were in the USA at the time heard these
sponsored broadcasts. Soon after, a Japanese equivalent was
established. Moves were called out with military precision over an
incongruous soundtrack of gentle tinkling piano music.
Whereas in the States, the workouts were completed in solitude, or
at most with family members, in Japan it was a much more
communal affair. Groups of friends would gather to exercise
together and before long, stadiums were filled with fitness
fanatics.
The exercise regimes were even used as a political tool and
disseminated in Japan‟s colonies, explains Professor Kerim Yasar:
“It was exported to Taiwan and South Korea. It was part of an
effort, I think, to inculcate Japanese ways of doing things on these
colonised populations.”
Kerim explains that by the 1930s, when Japan was at war in Asia,
the exercises were used in the military. After Japan‟s defeat, the
American occupation authorities warned Japanese broadcasters
that these regimented communal exercises had militaristic
undertones and were reminiscent of the authoritarian government.
Yet by the 1950s, the workouts were started up once again by the
exercises are still being broadcast at 6.30 on Japanese radio, with
some 10 million participants.
1950’s Britain
In terms of format, the workout broadcasts of the fifties weren’t
too different from today: an enthusiastic trainer would offer
encouragement and instructions to the beat of a musical
accompaniment. Yet the toe-tapping tunes in question were
provided by a piano and organ.
Eileen Fowler presented a popular exercise slot on Radio 4‟s
„Today‟ programme. Her goal was to make exercise fun and
accessible and her radio career progressed onto making fitness
records and television shows.
The space for fun fitness had been carved out some 20 years
previously by Joe Murgatroyd on Radio Normandy. His morning
broadcast for a British audience, „Laugh and Grow Fit‟ encouraged
silliness amongst his listeners, who would carry out exercises
accompanied by cheerful songs performed by Joe and his wife.
Derrick Evans explains that his role as Mr Motivator had a
similar purpose, “It‟s not just exercise, it‟s entertainment,” he says.
Limber in lockdown
Online video tutorials and live workout classes on a video link may
be experiencing something of a moment, but radio fitness
broadcasts are still thriving too.
Terry Keen, host of radio fitness programme ‘10 Today’, was
inspired by the ever-popular rajio taisō (radio calisthenics) of
Japan. His show gets its name because it comprises 10 exercises in
10-minute sessions. These largely static exercises are to help older
people improve their mobility and balance in a secure
environment.
Terry‟s initial plan was to produce televised workouts, but this took
an unprecedented turn, he explains. “The idea was it was going to
be a video option, and we‟d back that up with the radio broadcasts,
which were a bit more explicit, a bit more descriptive.”
But Terry soon realised his audience were happier with a radio
broadcast, “maybe they didn‟t like looking at a video and trying to
concentrate and do two things at once. But if you‟re listening to the
radio, then you sit and listen and concentrate, don‟t you? So the
radio broadcasts were really welcome.”
But what adaptions have to be made for radio? Terry finds himself
using much more visual language, giving descriptive names to
moves which build an image in the audience‟s minds before
they‟ve even had the step-by-step instructions.
He says: “It takes the intimidation factor out of it. Instead of
saying, „we‟re going to do a biceps curl‟, you can say „we‟re going
to reach for our shoulders‟. People accept that much more.”
Even Walter Camp, the OG radio instructor working a century ago,
gave his exercises names, such as the curl, the roll, the grind, the
rotate.