Napoleon can be partly blamed for Gen Z's weightlifting obsession—here's why
More than one-quarter of young adults in Britain now say their gym memberships matter more to them than vacations or eating out.
The rise of weightlifting among Gen Z in Britain has been linked to former French leader Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Prussia in 1806. This event inadvertently sparked the modern fitness industry. Prussian man Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, angered by the Prussian men's physical weakness compared to the French, opened a Turnplatz—a gymnasium where young men engaged in exercises like running, jumping, climbing, wrestling, and vaulting.
Jahn also invented the parallel bars and horizontal bar, which further popularized the trend. This movement gained traction across nations, including England, where the first outdoor gymnastics school opened in 1825. The underlying principle of Jahn's system was that strong nations needed physically strong troops, which became a rallying cry for various gymnastic and calisthenic systems for men and women during the 19th century.
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