Drinking only beer and cider and eating no vegetables may not seem like the best advice to get in shape.
But in Georgian Britain, this was the advice for young gentlemen whose sedentary lives put them in danger of obesity and gout.
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises.
It provides instruction on physical activity and how to attain the 'highest condition' by drinking only cider and cold beer, and avoiding all other liquids save for a half pint of red wine after dinner....
How leaping and wrestling, drinking beer and eating dry bread helped men keep fit in the 1830s
This was the advice for young gentlemen living in Georgian Britain in 1834
The tips form part of health booklet, British Manly Exercises, by Donald Walker
A gentleman's diet should consist of lean meat, stale bread and biscuits, according to the work
By Victoria Allen Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail and Matt Hunter For Mailonline
30 December 2016
Drinking only beer and cider and eating no vegetables may not seem like the best advice to get in shape.
But in Georgian Britain, this was the advice for young gentlemen whose sedentary lives put them in danger of obesity and gout.
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises.
One of the actions thought to improve one's health in the book is 'balancing'
Skating was another form of exercise that young professional men should take up to stay trim, according to the newly revealed manual
As part of the regime, men are advised to gradually increase their exercise to 20 to 24 miles of walking and running a day, with leaping, vaulting, skating and swimming also deemed suitable
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises
It provides instruction on physical activity and how to attain the 'highest condition' by drinking only cider and cold beer, and avoiding all other liquids save for a half pint of red wine after dinner.
A gentleman's diet, according to author Donald Walker, should consist of lean meat, stale bread and biscuits. No vegetables are permitted and 'everything inducing flatulency must be carefully avoided'.
As part of the regime, men are advised to gradually increase their exercise to 20 to 24 miles of walking and running a day, with leaping, vaulting, skating and wrestling also deemed suitable.
The guide was published at a time when a middle-class man could not expect to live past the age of 45.
Held in the Special Collections at St John's College, Cambridge, where it can be viewed by appointment, it concludes: 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body.
'Therefore, whenever the gymnast feels tired, or falls behind his usual mark, he should resume his clothes and walk home.'
After diligently following these instructions, downing a series of odd mixtures and sweating profusely, Walker's 19th-century gentlemen were on their way to a summer body.
The guidebook, which claims to be the first to describe the procedures of rowing and sailing as exercise, gives instructions on how to exercise 'with a direct, immediate and obvious purpose'.
The booklet, held in the Special Collections at St John's College, can be viewed by appointment,
The guidebook gives instructions on how the middle classes should exercise 'with a direct, immediate and obvious purpose'
Each chapter begins with a different activity and an amusingly dry definition: running 'is precisely intermediate to walking and leaping', balancing 'is the art of preserving the stability of the body upon a narrow or moving surface', and climbing is 'the art of transporting the body in any direction, by the aid, in general, both of the hands and feet'.
While the working classes spent most of their even shorter lives engaged in backbreaking manual labour in either field or factory, many members of higher classes suffered health problems due to inactivity.
Walker aims to persuade readers that exercise had the potential to 'prolong life and improve its happiness' and could combat and prevent ailments; 'nay, it supersedes medicine by banishing disease'.
Walker recommends that 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body
Each chapter begins with a different activity and an amusingly dry definition: running 'is precisely intermediate to walking and leaping'
While the pre-Victorians will never be remembered for their concern with health and safety, the manual stresses the importance of gentle and consistent training to avoid injury.
Walker recommends that 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body. Therefore, whenever the gymnast feels tired, or falls behind his usual mark, he should resume his clothes and walk home.'
Popular 19th century medicines often contained poisons and opiates and the poor, unable to afford these treatments, relied heavily on quack cures.
Walker is keen to set his manual apart from this, stating that 'All exhibitionary and quackish preparatory exercises, as they are termed, are here excluded ... no tick-tack, cross-touch, kissing the ground, goats jump, spectre's march etc'.
And it notes that to improve the nation's health, 'education must be divided into two parts - physical and mental'.
But in Georgian Britain, this was the advice for young gentlemen whose sedentary lives put them in danger of obesity and gout.
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises.
It provides instruction on physical activity and how to attain the 'highest condition' by drinking only cider and cold beer, and avoiding all other liquids save for a half pint of red wine after dinner....
How leaping and wrestling, drinking beer and eating dry bread helped men keep fit in the 1830s
This was the advice for young gentlemen living in Georgian Britain in 1834
The tips form part of health booklet, British Manly Exercises, by Donald Walker
A gentleman's diet should consist of lean meat, stale bread and biscuits, according to the work
By Victoria Allen Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail and Matt Hunter For Mailonline
30 December 2016
Drinking only beer and cider and eating no vegetables may not seem like the best advice to get in shape.
But in Georgian Britain, this was the advice for young gentlemen whose sedentary lives put them in danger of obesity and gout.
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises.
One of the actions thought to improve one's health in the book is 'balancing'
Skating was another form of exercise that young professional men should take up to stay trim, according to the newly revealed manual
As part of the regime, men are advised to gradually increase their exercise to 20 to 24 miles of walking and running a day, with leaping, vaulting, skating and swimming also deemed suitable
As the latest new year diets are drawn up for 2017, researchers at Cambridge University have uncovered a manual from 1834 entitled British Manly Exercises
It provides instruction on physical activity and how to attain the 'highest condition' by drinking only cider and cold beer, and avoiding all other liquids save for a half pint of red wine after dinner.
A gentleman's diet, according to author Donald Walker, should consist of lean meat, stale bread and biscuits. No vegetables are permitted and 'everything inducing flatulency must be carefully avoided'.
As part of the regime, men are advised to gradually increase their exercise to 20 to 24 miles of walking and running a day, with leaping, vaulting, skating and wrestling also deemed suitable.
The guide was published at a time when a middle-class man could not expect to live past the age of 45.
Held in the Special Collections at St John's College, Cambridge, where it can be viewed by appointment, it concludes: 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body.
'Therefore, whenever the gymnast feels tired, or falls behind his usual mark, he should resume his clothes and walk home.'
After diligently following these instructions, downing a series of odd mixtures and sweating profusely, Walker's 19th-century gentlemen were on their way to a summer body.
The guidebook, which claims to be the first to describe the procedures of rowing and sailing as exercise, gives instructions on how to exercise 'with a direct, immediate and obvious purpose'.
The booklet, held in the Special Collections at St John's College, can be viewed by appointment,
The guidebook gives instructions on how the middle classes should exercise 'with a direct, immediate and obvious purpose'
Each chapter begins with a different activity and an amusingly dry definition: running 'is precisely intermediate to walking and leaping', balancing 'is the art of preserving the stability of the body upon a narrow or moving surface', and climbing is 'the art of transporting the body in any direction, by the aid, in general, both of the hands and feet'.
While the working classes spent most of their even shorter lives engaged in backbreaking manual labour in either field or factory, many members of higher classes suffered health problems due to inactivity.
Walker aims to persuade readers that exercise had the potential to 'prolong life and improve its happiness' and could combat and prevent ailments; 'nay, it supersedes medicine by banishing disease'.
Walker recommends that 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body
Each chapter begins with a different activity and an amusingly dry definition: running 'is precisely intermediate to walking and leaping'
While the pre-Victorians will never be remembered for their concern with health and safety, the manual stresses the importance of gentle and consistent training to avoid injury.
Walker recommends that 'No exertion should be carried to excess, as that only exhausts and enfeebles the body. Therefore, whenever the gymnast feels tired, or falls behind his usual mark, he should resume his clothes and walk home.'
Popular 19th century medicines often contained poisons and opiates and the poor, unable to afford these treatments, relied heavily on quack cures.
Walker is keen to set his manual apart from this, stating that 'All exhibitionary and quackish preparatory exercises, as they are termed, are here excluded ... no tick-tack, cross-touch, kissing the ground, goats jump, spectre's march etc'.
And it notes that to improve the nation's health, 'education must be divided into two parts - physical and mental'.
