We explain everything about the history of gymnastics, its development from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modernity to the present day.
Origin of Gymnastics
Gymnastics is an activity that tests human physical abilities through a regulated series of exercises in balance, strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance.
In some of its forms, gymnastics is a competitive sport. This group includes, among others, aerobic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, and trampoline gymnastics. These last three disciplines are also part of the Olympic Games.
The term gymnastics comes from the ancient Greek word gymnós, meaning “naked,” since in Greece athletes exercised without clothing. The place where these exercises were practiced was the gymnasium. It was precisely in ancient Greece that gymnastics developed as a sport.
As a general physical activity, gymnastics has existed since prehistoric times: the acquisition and development of physical skill was central to survival, for which knowing how to attack and defend was essential.
Later, physical exercise diversified into different practices such as swimming, wrestling, rowing, horseback riding, and archery. These practices, initially carried out for military purposes, were also performed for competitive purposes and were integrated into religious rituals. You must read about Phobia once.
Gymnastics in Antiquity
Gymnastics as a sport emerged in Greece around the 8th century BC. However, the methodical practice of physical exercises dates back much further. Several surviving examples from Crete, China, and Egypt depict people performing various athletic activities. Some of these examples date back to 2000 BC.
For the ancient Greeks, gymnastics was part of a set of practices aimed at promoting physical and mental health, which, in turn, was framed within an ideal of human beauty. These practices took place in places designated for the physical preparation and training of children and young people: gymnasiums.
Gymnastics included some activities that are now considered separate sports, such as boxing, wrestling, and athletics. The Olympic Games, established in 776 BC, included them among their events, along with other exercises.
Gymnastics played a central role in Greek education. In Sparta, it was subordinated to preparation for combat. In Athens, however, it was part of a comprehensive education, in which physical education was accompanied by instruction in art and philosophy.
The Romans, heirs to Greek culture, adopted the Spartan conception of gymnastics, according to which it was primarily a means to achieve a military objective. Soldiers were instructed in physical preparation to enhance their effectiveness.
Physical training was also essential for gladiators, the centerpiece of the Roman circus. Furthermore, the Romans did not share the Greek idea of the educational value of gymnastics, to which, in any case (and along with its military importance), they assigned a “hygienic” value, linked to health. Maybe you should definitely read about Coward once.
Gymnastics in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
In the Middle Ages, gymnastics declined in importance due to Christianity’s rejection of the cult of the body practiced in ancient Greece. However, in traveling artistic troupes, acrobats, jugglers, and tightrope walkers continued to perform certain exercises, such as somersaults and other acrobatic activities.
During the Renaissance, in the context of the revaluation of Greek culture that characterized the period, interest in gymnastics resurfaced. In 1569, the Italian physician and educator Hieronymus Mercurialis (1530-1606) published De arte gymnastica, considered the first treatise on sports medicine, in which gymnastics is discussed in relation to health maintenance.
A few years later, in 1599, the Italian acrobat and tightrope walker Archange Tuccaro (1535-1602) published Dialogues on the Exercise of Leaping in the Air, a book containing more than 80 engravings illustrating 50 acrobatic exercises.
Gymnastics in the Modern Era
Modern gymnastics emerged in the 18th century, with the Enlightenment. In 1762, the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), one of the leading representatives of the Enlightenment movement, published the pedagogical treatise Emile, in which he advocated physical activity as part of education. The work catalyzed a profound reform in European education at the time.
The influence of Rousseau’s ideas was especially significant in Germany, where schools called Philantropinum were opened, encouraging outdoor gymnastic activities. From one of them emerged the man considered the precursor of modern gymnastics: Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths (1759-1839), who directed one of these schools in Schnepfenthal.
Muths’s thinking is captured in his 1793 book, Gymnastik für die Jugend (“Gymnastics for Young People”), in which he classified natural and artificial gymnastics, that is, utilitarian and non-utilitarian. The former focused on physical health, while the latter focused on the aesthetic aspect of gymnastics, similar to modern artistic gymnastics.
Natural gymnastics was thoroughly developed by the Swede Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839), founder of the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm in 1813. But the father of modern gymnastics was the German Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), founder of the Turnverein movement, a sort of association of gymnastics clubs in Berlin. Jahn took the first steps in the systematization of artistic gymnastics.
His advanced conception of gymnastics was recorded in the book Die Deutsche Turnkunst (“The German Art of Gymnastics”), published in 1816, which he co-authored with his assistant Ernst Eiselen. The first German gymnastics festival (Turnfest) was held in Coburg in 1860, following Jahn’s school.
In 1881, the European Gymnastics Federation, the forerunner of today’s International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), was founded in France to oversee the practice of this sport, which was included in the first modern Olympics in 1896.
The FIG organized the first international gymnastics competitions for men (1903) and women (1934), thus establishing gymnastics as a competitive sport of global reach.
History of Gymnastics in Mexico
In Mexico, there are antecedents of gymnastics dating back to pre-Hispanic times. Like many other ancient peoples, the cultures that inhabited what is now Mexico practiced physical activities for military, ritual, and recreational purposes.
Some sources attest to the Aztecs’ gymnastics and acrobatic practices. The acrobats, known as mayotuncuepani, performed various physical skill exercises together.
Modern gymnastics was developed in Mexico by European immigrants. Some of them were immersed in pedagogical theories that promoted gymnastics as part of a comprehensive education.
In 1848, Frenchman Jean Chadafaut Turin (Juan Turín in Spanish) opened the first gymnasium in Mexico City. Turin, considered the pioneer of modern gymnastics in the country, taught classes in several schools and incorporated gymnastics into the army, following the French military model.
The first attempts to incorporate gymnastics and other sports into education date back to 1861. However, it wasn’t until 1888, when the Federal Law of Primary Education was passed, that gymnastics became mandatory in all schools.
In 1890, the Gran Círculo Central de Gimnástica Mexicana, the first physical education association in Mexico, was created. A few years later, in 1902, the Mexican Gymnastics Academy was founded, which trained teachers to teach gymnastics in schools.
Mexico officially participated in Olympic competitions for the first time at the Paris Olympic Games in 1924. The Mexican Olympic Committee had been created the previous year. In 1933, the Mexican Sports Confederation and the National Council of Physical Culture were established.
These three institutions, along with the National Gymnastics Federation (currently the Mexican Gymnastics Federation), founded in 1926, were fundamental to the development and dissemination of competitive gymnastics in Mexico.
References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, ensuring reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- “Gymnastics” on Wikipedia.
- “Gynastics” on Wikipedia.
- “Gymnastics” on Britannica.
- “The History of Gymnastics, Where and How It Started” on Curious History.
- “A History of Gymnastics, From Ancient Greece to Tokyo 2020” on Smithsonian Magazine.
- “History of Gymnastics in Mexico” on UNEGimnasia.
