whilst the explosion in popularity of modern gym training may be a recent phenomenon, its fundamental roots can be traced back thousands of years, to ancient greece. during this time, athletes for public games, such as the olympics, would train at greek gymnasiums - interestingly, the word is derived from the latin gymnos, which means 'nude', as the athletes would train without clothes.

this ancient practice was, however, lost to the sands of time, up until about the 19th century when training gyms started springing up again - this was a natural reaction to less physically strenuous working conditions of the modern era - an explosion in popularity came during the second half of the 20th century.