What Working Out Looked Like 50 Years Ago

And we thought the shake weight was genius.

From circuit training to HIIT workouts, there's no shortage of fitness trends circulating the internet today. But in the 1970s, yoga and stationary bikes were some of the big trends taking over gyms everywhere. We're rewinding back five decades to give you a glimpse of what fitness looked like 50 years ago.

Gym-goers in 1970 are seen jogging around an upper track as others play basketball on the court below.

Have you heard of CrossFit? Back in the 1970s, Vita Parcours—an outdoor fitness trail that had various courses and exercises set up along it—was basically the CrossFit of this era.

A teacher at the Women's League leads an auditorium full of people in a movement class.

The body weight training exercise, popularized in the 1960s, consists of movements like push-ups, jumping jacks, and pull-ups that improve strength and endurance.

If you thought the shake-weight was inventive, you would have been amazed by the gadgets created in the 1970s for toning, strengthening, stretching, you name it. The device pictured was used in Germany for toning arms.

Thanks to all of the new fitness inventions, working out at home was easier than ever before. Here, British wrestler Jackie Pallo works on his strength training before a match.

The '70s had more of an emphasis on physical fitness than ever before, especially for children. Here, an after-school program teaches kids simple exercises they can do at home.

A sports writer gets his physical fitness reading taken at a clinic set up by two volunteer college students.

President Gerald Ford fits in time to exercise during his busy day in his home gym in the (you guessed it) White House.

This was the look in the 1970s—a grey matching sweatsuit. And, yes, this man is running in a pair of Converse All Stars. Our feet hurt just looking at him.

By 1970, every little boy was signing up for a Pee-Wee team, in the hopes of becoming the next Joe Montana.

Football players push their coaches on a scrum machine. This method of training is still used today, but the machines aren't made out of wood, like the one seen here in 1975.

The 1970s saw a boost in popularity for basketball, with all-star players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elvin Hayes, and Pete Maravich helping grow the sport's popularity throughout the decade.

A group of teenagers wait for their turn on an outdoor apparatus. Gymnastic equipment, like the parallel rings and balance bar, became popular in exercise parks.

Heavyweight boxer, Henry Cooper, uses the medicine ball for a killer ab exercise.

Italian actor, Renzo Montagnani, warms up for his workout on a stationary bike in 1971, which was just another fitness invention during the decade.

Are you having a middle school flashback? From the wooden floor to the paneled room divider, it doesn't seem like school gymnasiums have changed much over the past few decades.

Tennis reached its peak in popularity in the 1980s, after a huge boom during the '70s. As a result, everyday people started investing in rackets and tennis shoes.

You couldn't go to a park in the '70s without seeing a group partaking in aerobics or tai chi.

A group of men gather to flow through a yoga practice together in a local park.

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