The history of bodybuilding and fitness in the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There was a real cult of sports in the USSR. In the courtyards, yard athletes played the "sun" on horizontal bars, in apartments women mastered aerobics on TV, and in factories there was always industrial gymnastics …

Workout in Soviet style

The image of a Soviet citizen was inextricably linked with sports. Sports were in every courtyard, in every home, sports survived in basements and thrived on sports grounds.

In the USSR, in almost every yard there was a "hockey box", which in the summer turned into a football field, and horizontal bars with parallel bars were almost at every step.

On the other hand, adherents of bodybuilding, or as it was then called, athleticism, had to break into the basements of houses and equip underground "rocking chairs" there.

On the surface, ideologically correct athletes pulled themselves up on the horizontal bar, pumped the press on the wall bars. And in the basements, the first Soviet bodybuilders "rocked" with home-made barbells, dumbbells and other exercise machines made from everything that came to hand.

One way or another, sport was an integral part of the consciousness of a Soviet citizen. This was due to the widespread propaganda of the Soviet Union. Posters calling for sports, looked at workers engaged in industrial gymnastics, the day began with a radio program "Morning Exercise", and schoolchildren were forced to take the TRP norms. And anyway, what kind of man are you if you can't turn the "sun" on the horizontal bar.

Industrial gymnastics - "Five minutes of vigor"

Industrial gymnastics, like much in the USSR, was a voluntary-compulsory occupation. All workers, from milkmaids to welders, were forced to crouch and run on the spot under commands from the radio.

"Five minutes of cheerfulness" killed several birds with one stone. First, people became healthier and more resilient. Secondly, if you let the workers stretch out, then there will be less marriage. And of course, as Stalin said, "it is necessary to raise a new generation of workers capable of defending the country with their breasts from attacks by enemies."

After the publication in 1956, the decree of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Presidium "On the organization of industrial gymnastics at enterprises and institutions", everyone went in for sports, regardless of their wishes.

We approached the issue seriously. Doctors examined the premises for fitness for gymnastics - they studied the level of gas pollution and the serviceability of ventilation, methodological advice on industrial gymnastics was formed, and the active part of the workers issued wall ballots.

Before lunch or at the end of the shift, gymnastics was carried out at each enterprise for 5-10 minutes. The workers, without leaving the machine, performed physical exercises under the strict guidance of community instructors.

Local authorities also did not stand aside. Here is what is said in the secret instructions for conducting industrial gymnastics at the Yauza Radio Engineering Institute: "To avoid the collapse of the stucco molding, instead of the" run in place "exercise, perform the" run in place "exercise without the participation of the legs."

In the mid-80s, industrial gymnastics did not go away, on the one hand, they began to look through their fingers from above, on the other, it looked outdated after the appearance on television screens of rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics, or Soviet aerobics

For the first time rhythmic gymnastics appeared on television in 1984, and according to Alexander Ivanitsky, editor-in-chief of the main editorial office of sports programs of the Central Television, it "failed miserably." The Soviet citizen was not ready for change. For half a century, at the same time, the same voice performed exercises for the people, and the people were pleased. The first issue was greeted with a flurry of angry letters from pensioners accusing them of "antics" and imitation of the West.

But a little later, the creators of this program stumbled upon a videotape recording the lessons taught by the famous American actress Jane Fonda. They suddenly realized that just recently they had shown practically the same thing on the air.

Reorienting itself to a female audience and changing the broadcasting time, the program returned to television screens. It is worth saying that the Soviet program had the strongest methodological base. The program was developed by professionals from VNIIFK (All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture), and the program was broadcast by honored Soviet athletes.

And rhythmic gymnastics, which was increasingly called aerobics in the Western manner, swept the country. Beauties were encouraged to repeat movements after them to rhythmic music. The demand for gymnastic leotards, neon leggings and woolen leggings immediately increased. Moreover, the latter entered into everyday fashion, they were worn always and everywhere.

The music that sounded in the releases was similar in style to synth-pop. In 1984 the Melodiya company released the disc Rhythmic Gymnastics with music and the voice of an announcer who guided the process. The popularity of aerobics prompted the Display group to record the cult song Joy of Motion.

Later, rhythmic gymnastics came to naught, being replaced by other types of aerobics.

Hula Hup

In the wake of active sports in the USSR, many sports equipment were produced for practicing at home, even now many can find a Grazia health disc or a hula hoop metal hoop in their garage.

Its ideologically correct name is the hoop, this is how the announcers of sports events called it. In the 60s, everyone was spinning a hoop en masse. It was especially widespread after the release of the film "Welcome, or No Unauthorized Entry". After the scene where the heroine of the film deftly twists the hula hoop, the metal ring became the dream of every Soviet girl.

The name comes from the English language, Hula is a Hawaiian dance based on swaying the hips, and hoop is a hoop.

Hulahoop was played everywhere: at shows in the circus, at home in front of the TV and in city courtyards. Women saw the iron hoop as the solution to all problems associated with the figure. Plastic versions of the hula hoop appeared, and even with a grooved inner side. But some have said that the hoop loosens bones and leads to kidney disease.

Over time, the metal circle migrated to the balcony or behind the closet, and the most skillful ones converted it into a television antenna.

Grace

Another sports simulator, which was intended for body shaping, is a disc of health, aka "Grace". It consisted of two discs that were fixed on one axis and could rotate relative to each other.

The women were spinning half-turned, standing on the disk. The children sat on the disk and spun each other until their head dizzy. And the men found the most original way of using it: they put the TV on this disc and could easily turn it with the screen in any direction.

Gymnastic roller

As with the hoop and hula hoop, the gymnastics roller has gained popularity among the female population. Men worked more on the street, in the cities there were many outdoor exercise machines, horizontal bars, gymnastic rings. The women, having snatched a minute between household chores, were busy at home. True, only trained people could master the video, few people could master at least 10 repetitions.

Expander

Exclusively male simulator - expander, there were several types of them in Soviet times. Firstly, it is a wrist expander that was squeezed by all males. They were also of different types, the most common was the usual black or blue rubber "donut".

Each generation has used it in its own way. Grown men stretched their hands while driving, standing at a traffic light, or practicing at home, looking thoughtfully at the TV. Young people, and especially athletes, squeezed a rubber "bagel" everywhere: girls should see how athletic they are. But the boys, tired of squeezing the expander for strength, understood that it was quite possible for them to play football in the school corridor.

Wrist bands were different - the previously mentioned rubber, plastic and even metal. There were also hybrids - 1-2 kilogram dumbbells, separated in the middle by springs, a sort of dumbbell-expander.

Secondly, the resistance bands were stretchable, here the main users were older men. Those who were younger went to the sections, but the older generation studied at home or in the yard. In sports "sweatpants" and a T-shirt tucked into them, men stretched the projectile, alternating approaches behind the back and in front of the chest.

An expander is a dangerous thing, it can break out of the hands and cripple someone from the household, and it was necessary to keep it away from children. But the most unpleasant thing is that the springs, like a hellish epilator, tore the hair on the neck and back of the head of the athletes.