Found in a French textbook bearing the inscription Jean
Peter, Grenville College, Ballarat , May 1st, 1900, is
this piece of pre Federation ephemera , an early Coles
Book Arcade, Melbourne, catalogue ,
which mentions the Colonies and offered the most complete combined developer ,
invented by the
renowned muscle man, Eugen Sandow
, billed as the greatest living
authority on physical culture .
The developer , which combined a rubber wall exerciser
, dumb bells ,chest expander and heavy
weight lifting apparatus,
could be used by the whole family. It recommended
five or 10 minutes use daily by businessmen . In
the case of
ladies, it would reduce the waist , deepen the chest , drive away
dyspepsia and insomnia and give the user the beautiful roundness of limb
and figure so much desired. Children, it said, would be fascinated
by the rubber chords. Cyclists ( of both sexes) and athletes would also benefit.
So what happened to healthy
Australians ? On the brink of
becoming a nation
as a robust federation ,
the accent was on health and fitness
. Nowadays obesity is rampant , a majority of schoolkids are overweight , yet there
are gymnasiums all over the place
and TV is loaded with adverts offering all kinds of gadgets to tighten muscles, improve health , make you
look like a dreaded
celebrity , attract the opposite sex, prevent dandruff and bankruptcy. Then there are the endless junk food adverts , TV, couch potatoes , a government subsidised chocolate factory in Tasmania .
