Not So New

I remember looking at stability balls and thinking 'wtf?'. They looked to me like those giant rubber balls with the handle that kids straddle and bounce around on. I always wanted one of those. Weird new trend, I figured. 

Not so much, it turns out. The Swiss Ball, or balance or stability ball, was invented in 1963 by an Italian man, for use in physical therapy. 

The TRX suspension training system? Yes, it was developed by Navy Seals, but in reality, they're just portable gymnastics rings. 

Medicine balls go back even further. Their prototypes were in use by Persians and Greek wrestlers 3,000 years ago. 

Kettle bells were originally a standard 35kg weight used by Russian farmers in the 1700's to weigh crops, but turned out to be a useful way to demonstrate strength at festivals.  

And dumb bells? They're so named because villagers noticed that the guys who pulled the ropes to ring the big church bells were in great shape, but it would have been rather annoying to have bells ringing all day, so they wrapped the clapper to make it dumb. Talk about your functional training!

I just think it's funny that so many things we think are new are really not. And that so much of the cool stuff takes so long to reach North America, where we think we know it all.