Resistance Training History

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Athletics: From mythology to fact
Bridging past to present, the concept of resistance training to improve athletic performance has been prevailing since the times of the Ancient Greek Olympians when exercises were performed with stones and metals (Ormsbee et al., 2011). In the ancient Mediterranean world, sports began with mythology. Thesus, the son of Aegus and Aethra, was recognized to developing three sports: weight lifting, wrestling and gymnastics. From mythology to fact, Philostratos (A.D. 170–249) recommended cross training by weight training, wrestling with animals and endurance running. Beyond these three sport trainings, the concept of resistance training was first attributed to the Greek athlete Milo of Croton. “It is said that Milo
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Accounts state that Milo reveled in demonstrating this lifting feat and that he could carry the adult bull with ease” (Grivetti & Applegate, 1997) However, the modern scientific study of resistance training had only started with the work of Delorme and Watkins after the Second World War (Ormsbee et al., 2011). In 1944, Dr. Thomas DeLorme and his team of orthopedic surgeons were experiencing difficulties using the lengthy rehabilitating protocols on the seriously injured soldiers involved in the war. Whilst most physicians of that era advised that weight lifting should be avoided because extreme effort was believed to be not desirable nor good for the heart; Delorme, with the determination of finding a faster curative method for beds to be made available to other soldiers, reasoned a new rehabilitation technique referred to “Progressive Resistance Exercise”. The seemingly miraculous cure helped legitimize strength training and contributed to the foundation of the science of resistance training after proving its marked success. DeLorme’s heavy resistance protocol …show more content…
In the early decades of the 3rd century, the philosopher Pythagoras is said to be the first to institute dietary changes among athletes and train them on a meat diet (Laks, 2013). The first paper that questioned the best diet of athletes dates back to 1936 during the Berlin Games where Schenk writes that Olympic athletes focused on meat by getting an average of half a kilogram daily. Like Shenk, Mary Egle discussed the food pattern of Olympic athletes in 1937 and identified that athletes focused on protein rich foods primarily (Grivetti & Applegate, 1997). The theme of athletic nutrition has long been and remains a