by Low Lai Chow in New Trends on Tuesday 29 January 2013

We recently found these ads for crazy vintage exercise gadgets, and now, thanks to The New Yorker, we have even more crazy documentation to add to the list: historical photographs of physical exertion. Mechanical tummy massages? Boxing with kangaroos? Swinging babies by their feet? Masquerade golf? Balancing on one leg while making the bed? Underwater ping pong? Yep, mankind has been there.