The Untold History of the Back Squat Excerpt from the article: "Furthermore, although some individuals have traced the use of squatting for health purposes to the pre-classical era, in this piece we will content ourselves with beginning the investigation in the early nineteenth-century, a time generally agreed to have spurred on the modern interest in health and fitness. Though it would be foolish to credit one man with the invention of the squat, one school of thought has cited the Prussian gymnastic teacher, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn as one of the earlier proponents of the exercise. Opening his first gymnastic academies in the 1810s and coming to great fame in the 1820s, Jahn’s institutions combined nationalist fervor with vigorous exercise in a bid to create a formidable army for the Motherland. To read more, Google: Back Squat History + BarBend!

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