As far back as the 1910s, men and women were conscious of their health and fitness. Their ankle-length attire and sharp suits didn’t hold them back: they took to early exercise bikes, weights and carefully-considered stretches with gusto.
Women took to weight training with enthusiasm. They swung bowling pin-shaped dumbbells around their heads with no discernible routine, and yanked on resistance machines as quickly and as strongly as they could manage.
Other women preferred gentle stretches. Nowadays, we mostly view stretches as a means to warm up or warm down, but in the 1910s, they were seen as a serious form of exercise that could reap specific end results. Namely, developing and improving the hips and, believe it or not, easing constipation.
The former was achieved by propping themselves up on their hands and feet before raising one leg at a time, as high as they could. The latter wasn’t quite as strenuous: it involved pulling one knee up, hard, against the body, before doing the same with the opposite leg.