Indian Clubs: The Next Fitness Craze?

I’ve seen them all, and even done a lot of them. Rebounding: jumping around on the mini-trampoline.  Jogging.  Step exercise. Skip roping, although that’s never become really mainstream popular.  Inline skating. Boxercise. Taebo kickboxing with Billy Blanks.  Power Walking.  Yoga.  Pilates.  Not to mention watching all the wondrous exercise contraptions that can be seen promoted on late night TV.

But I figure the next fad, or maybe the one after, is going to be Indian Clubs.

They look like bowling pins, or juggling clubs, and for adults in the light club category may weigh from five to 10 pounds.  They are whirled or swung around the body in a variety of patterns.  The idea is to build strength and resilience in the upper body.

I’m occasionally running across references to Indian Clubs on the Web on martial arts and exercise equipment sites.  The clubs may well be turning into one of those darn meme things.  What was old is new again.

I’m intrigued as much by the cultural history of Indian Clubs as I am by their potential for exercise.

At the end of the 18th Century, British military officers stationed in India were impressed by the strength and fitness of the Indian police and soldiers.  The British discovered that the Indians’ excellent physical condition was based on training with a variety of clubs.  The training was traditional, based on centuries of practice.  (In fact, the tradition remains alive in India today.  One anthropologist in the 1990s noted that a modern Indian wrestler practised his swings with a 176-pound club.)

The British army decided to adopt Indian Club training as part of their physical regimen in the early 19th Century.  However, they modified the training to concentrate on the light-weight clubs for flexibility and quickness.

A man named Donald Walker introduced Indian Club training to Europe and North America in 1834 through his book, British Manly Exercises.  (Now there’s a great book title.)

He followed up that bestseller with a book for the ladies which included Indian Club exercises: Exercises for Ladies Calculated to Preserve and Improve Beauty.

In 1864, Sim D. Kehoe, a New York equipment manufacturer, began making clubs.  He promoted them by sending them to prominent people in hope of a positive endorsement.  Ulysses S. Grant wrote from Washington to thank Kehoe for a set.

In 1866, Kehoe published The Indian Club Exercise, a well-illustrated system of exercise for both men and women.

This was the beginning of the era of the “Physical Culture” movement in Europe and North America.  Indian Clubs were the essential symbol of this movement which was intended to provide physical and spiritual uplift to the masses.

The movement became an important cultural force and endured until well into the 20th Century.  Indian Club exercises were included in the US Army’s training manual in 1914.  US President Calvin Coolidge, besides riding a mechanical horse and pitching hay for exercise, also liked to use Indian Clubs.  Club swinging was a part of the Olympic games in 1932.

For a charming peek into a bygone era, take a look at Thomas Edison’s 1904 film clip of junior Indian Club exercisers.

Okay, you’re charged up.  You would really like to try these exercises for yourself.  But where can you get a pair of clubs and try to follow Kehoe’s book above?  There are places on the Web to order wooden Indian Clubs and even instructional tapes on the subject, but that may be unnecessary.  Tom Black in his article The Secret World of Indian Clubs gives some historical background and describes how to make heavier clubs (around 10 lbs.) from hollow plastic baseball bats from a department store, sand and epoxy.  They sound a little heavy to start with… I plan to look for smaller toy bats and build them around five to seven pounds at first. I may look strange, standing out in a playing field somewhere, twirling and swinging, but I’ll be having fun.

(Note:  Jan Todd’s article on the history of barbells, dumbells and Indian Clubs is a fascinating look at this part of human culture. That’s my source for a lot of the historical background. )

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