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IHPRA Newsletter
April 2008

Mass calisthenic is a powerful way to teach, practice, and demonstrate physical training using body weight or hand-held apparatus like medicine balls, weighted wands, Indian clubs, dumbbells, etc.
The methods, materials and motivators of calisthenic were widely known throughout the USA in the late-1880s, but physical training was denounced by around 1920.
Sports and games became the dominant feature of American physical culture, and physical fitness was pushed to the edge of the cultural landscape.
In recent years, the rediscovery of functional fitness has fueled new interest in classical mass physical training.

The Swedish system was well developed.	Click here to see it.	The German system was second-to-none.	Thousand practiced. Click here.	People of all ages practiced calisthenic.
This is Dr. William G. Anderson.	Teachers used platforms.	The skills were functional.	By the early-1900s the quality began to decline.	This is around 1913. Technical mastery was loosing ground.
This is the Univ of Iowa in around 1920.	This is the U of Iowa in 1927. Poorly done.	1930s.	Calisthenic had to be rebuilt during WWII.	Some schools tried to save it in the early-1950s.
Calisthenic is being rediscovered.	We have a long way to go.	These Marines are solid.	Rangers practicing mass inverted, brachiated, extension.	Georgia Youth Challenge instructors.