Well, we’ve gone far too long without a look back at the history of the iron game in the mid twentieth-century. With the whole world struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, here’s hoping that you dear readers of FOUNDATIONS OF IRON and your loved ones are in good health. With businesses closed down and people everywhere having to stay home and unable to go have a workout at the local gym, there has been a huge surge in sales of home fitness equipment, to the point that many retailers and distributors are constantly running out of their stock, and consumers must keep checking their preferred sellers’ web sites frequently to see if anything new becomes available.
Home weight training equipment has been a large part of the fitness industry for many decades. Fitness empires such as York and Weider would typically have their own magazine publishing operations, dietary supplement lines, sponsored events and contracted stars in weightlifting or physique, and mail-order sales of barbells, dumbbells, weight plates, benches, and related miscellany. Let’s take a look at some vintage ads for these home exercise goods.
Today, we feature several illustrated advertisements from the Feb-March 1962 issue of Peary Rader’s long-running Iron Man magazine. If only this stuff was available at these prices today!
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