There has been a lot of technological advancement over the past few decades and the fitness industry has not missed out on joining this bandwagon. I thought of curating a list of fitness equipment that were introduced by companies in the early development of fitness culture to their current iterations. I was reading a blog post Evolution of Fitness Equipment by Athletic Business (https://www.athleticbusiness.com/fitness-training) and found it very interesting which led me to more research on the topic to Shape’s The Fitness Industry: Through The Years (https://www.shape.com/fitness/fitness-industry-through-years)
The Stationary Bike
In 1968 a simple stationary bike, the first of its kind was created by Dr. Keene Dimick. It was called the Life-cycle Stationary Bike. It was priced around $4000 at that time and it launched the successful brand today as we know it Life Fitness .
The basic concept of stationary equipment have not changed a lot today, just a lot of frills are being added like TV, Internet, Connectivity with you phone to listen to music, view activity data among others. Life Fitness’s Integrity series provides all these features and more.
Resistant Cable Machines
The first resistant cable machine was introduced in 1970 at the Mr. America contest in Culver City, California called the Nautilus® Blue Monster developed by Arthur Jones. It forever changed the way people exercise and became one of the center attraction in a gym.
The Resistant Cable Machines today have undergone a lot of research and development in terms of aligning to human movements. In 2015 Nautilus® introduced the Inspiration™ line of cable machines.
The Treadmill
The first treadmill was introduced in 1975 by Woodway. It had a unique design where the sided were covered by green carpet and the runway which was made up of aluminum slats was covered with fake grass to give the feel of running on grass.
The 4Front line of treadmills by Woodway are far from the original design. They come with a touch screen terminal, Internet, Entertainment unit, Workout routines and many more. It has a patented ball-bearing and slat surface which gives a smooth and noiseless workout which I can personally vouch for.
Rowing Machine
Model A Indoor Rower was developed in 1981 by Concept2 founders Peter and Dick Dreissigacker in their aim to develop a winter training device for rowing.
In the late 2009 Concept2 developed an indoor skiing machine called SkiErg. It is used by many skiing enthusiasts to practice skiing movements and also working on their arm muscles.
Leg Extension
The first Leg Extension machine was introduced by Keiser in 1978 which was one of its kind – using pneumatic resistance instead of iron. Its founder Dennis Keiser applied for a patent on the technology of compressed air variable resistance which is still being used in its latest models.
The Leg Extension machine by Keiser, the Air250 Leg Resistance features a lot of customization in terms of cushioning for back and legs along with various level of resistance with a push of a button.
Incline Trainer
In his quest to introduce high-end treadmills in the fitness world, CEO Frank Trulaske of True® Fitness Technology Inc. launched three treadmills in 1982.
The company’s Alpine Runner Incline Trainer features an incline range from -3 to 30 percent. It has added the Virtual Technology to its programmable workouts to create an illusion of climbing places like Eiffel Tower and even Mount Everest.
StairMaster
In 1984 a path-breaking piece of innovation was introduced named the StairMaster®. The early design was though flawed but a complete design was again released called StairMaster 6000.
The Redesigned Gauntlet®(2013) integrated a combination of strength and cardio workouts. The design offers wider steps and 3 different console options.
Exercise Bike
In 1995, a market leader in recreational bikes partnered with Mad Dogg Athletic, Schwinn® introduced the Johnny G Spinner line of exercise bikes which were developed by Johnny Goldberg.
In 2013 Schwinn® created a feel of outdoor biking by bringing in technology called the Carbon Blue belt drive system in the line of AC Performance Plus.
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