In the post WWII decades it was rare for American men or women over the age of 30 – outside of work – to partake in any physical activity more strenuous than yard work, bowling, golf, or light calisthenics. 2 It is easy to forget that as simple a practice as jogging had to be invented. First, while physical fitness practices have become ubiquitous within the contemporary urban environment, we know surprisingly little about how these practices came to be so embedded. Thinking about how jogging first emerged as a mass physical fitness practice in America – and how it was routinized as habit – is worthwhile for at least three reasons. In particular, they focus on how the prosaic act of ‘jogging’ was put together as a routine habit – one that could be easily learned and put into use without direct expert intervention. The following pages offer a short account of the emergence of jogging as a mass physical fitness practice in America. Women and men joggers of all ages and shapes populate city walkways, parks and sidewalks such that their presence goes largely unnoted. These days the jogger has become a ubiquitous urban figure – in North American, European, and Antipodean cities at least. However, this modest 250 word pamphlet, so brief that it fails to even outline the benefits that the prospective jogger might expect from her or his new exercise activity, is arguably a good candidate for marking the birth of jogging as a mainstream mass physical fitness activity in America. Repeat until you have covered a mile or two, or three.’ Jogging, it further assured its readers, can be done ‘anywhere’ and by ‘anyone – six to 106 – male or female.’ Requiring nothing more than that the jogger ‘wear a pair of comfortable shoes with thick, moderately soft soles’ the pamphlet signed off with a jaunty ‘Good jogging to you!’ 1 It is difficult – perhaps impossible – to find a single text or moment when most new mass practices of any kind are invented. Jog until you are puffing, then walk until your breathing is normal again. ‘Start with a short distance then increase as you improve. ‘Jogging is a bit more than a walk,’ the pamphlet explained. Sponsored by the Oregon Heart Foundation and The US National Bank of Portland, The Joggers Manual set out the basic principles of a new of form of physical exercise, jogging. In 1963 a four-page pamphlet appeared in Oregon banks.
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