May 2009

on the 11th June 2011
Age: 48
Height: 185cm
Weight: 83.5kg
Bodyfat: 10%

How Dumbbells Got Their Name.

Dumbbells aren't shaped like bells and they are no dumber than a barbell bar. So why are they called Dumbbells. For the answer you need to go back to the 1700's, at that time the church lacked the technology to attach a cd player to an amplifier and blast what sounded like a real bell from the steeple. Bell ringing was a job done by a real person and it was a hard job.

The problem was that if you only rang the bells once a week you really didn't get in shape for the job, and when you needed to practise to get in shape you couldn't just ring the bells because the townspeople wouldn't know why you where ringing them, so the bell ringers began exercising using a hand held weight that looked the the aparatus used to swing a church bell, but without a bell and because no sound came out they referred to it as a dumbbell.