Indian Club Exercise

 

By Sim D. Kehoe

A rare book from the 1800’s containing many engravings of Indian Club Exercises.
Publisher’s Introduction (partial, Nov. 30, 1866):
As a means of physical culture, the Indian Clubs stand pre-eminent among the varied apparatus of Gymnastics now in use. Their first introduction into this country dates but a few years back, at which time very little was known of the exercise, or its origin, other than the fact that it was practiced by several celebrated English athletes, who had attained immense strength and physical development thereby. As the name implies, the Indian Club is an institution of India. In sketches of Indian life, by missionaries and travelers, we have accounts of the various national sports and pastimes of the natives, in which mention is made of the swinging of heavy war clubs, of wood, in various graceful and fantastic motions; that the performers of this exercise exhibited great muscular development and herculean strength.