The dumbbell, a type of free weight, is a piece of equipment used in weight training. It is usually used individually or in pairs, with one in each hand.
The forerunner of the dumbbell, halteres, were used in ancient Greece as lifting weights[1][2] and also as weights for the ancient Greek version of the long jump.[3] A kind of dumbbell was also used in India for more than a millennium, shaped like a club – so it was named Indian club.[4][5] The design of the "Nal", as the equipment was referred to, can be seen as a halfway point between a barbell and a dumbbell. It was generally used in pairs, in workouts by wrestlers, bodybuilders, sports players, and others wishing to increase strength and muscle size.
The term "dumbbell" or "dumb bell" or "dumb-bell" originated in late Stuart England. In 1711 the poet Joseph Addison mentioned exercising with a "dumb bell" in an essay published in The Spectator.[6]
Although Addison elsewhere in the same publication describes having used equipment similar to the modern understanding of dumbbells, according to sport historian Jan Todd, the form of the first dumbbells remains unclear.[6] The Oxford English Dictionary describes "apparatus similar to that used to ring a church bell, but without the bell, so noiseless or ‘dumb’", implying the action of pulling a bell rope to practice English bellringing.[7]
By the early 17th century, the familiar shape of the dumbbell, with two equal weights attached to a handle, had appeared.[8] There are currently three main types of dumbbell:
halteres halter.
Media related to Dumbbells at Wikimedia Commons
