When setting up a home gym, the best place to start is with a varied set of hex dumbbells, as their versatile shape will allow for a wide range of different exercises to be done with them.

Of course, they can be used for the classic bicep curl, but they can also be used for bench presses and overhead presses, as well as adding resistance and challenge to other exercises such as squats and lunges.

If you are just starting out with building muscle and only want to commit to one piece of equipment, dumbbells allow you to train every part of your body through an almost uncountable number of exercises.

It is such an essential part of so many workout routines that it has existed long before any modern idea of fitness or physiology. It did not originate in the modern gym but in the Ancient Greek gymnasium.

This may not be entirely surprising, but what can be somewhat unusual is that dumbbells were not originally designed for fitness, but to help people fly.

Launch Of The Halteres

Whilst fitness has existed since human beings have in some form or another, the link between exercise, health and education was established in Ancient Greece, and with that came the start of physical training as we recognise it.

The predecessor of the dumbbell was the haltere, a carved stone piece of equipment that looked like a cross between a dumbbell and a kettlebell.

Various halteres have been preserved, weighing somewhere between 2kg and 9kg, and the early physician and writer on fitness subjects Antyllus even described three primary exercises that very closely resemble three common exercises seen in many dumbbell routines.

The Ancient Greeks had bicep curls, lunges with the halteres held by outstretched arms, and an exercise described as a “dead-lift” that is vaguely described but sounds similar to a modern dumbbell deadlift.

However, whilst they were eventually a common exercise tool, that was not what they were originally used for. Instead, they were used to propel their bodies further.

The Ancient Olympic Games featured a long jump event, but it is believed that, unlike the modern event, the running start was replaced by using a pair of weights to swing forward.

A 2002 study suggested that the halteres added around six inches to a three-metre jump on average, although this would naturally vary based on technique, strength, the weight of the halteres and so on.

However, they were also used as part of drill exercises to build physical strength and as part of training exercises.

The original semicircular shape may have been chosen because it resembles the types of round shields used by gladiators of the era.

One of the most important single figures for the focus on fitness and the use of halteres for this purpose is Galan, another Greek physician who trained gladiators in Asia Minor.

He developed a set of exercises, possibly the three that Antyllus would also note, and given the connection between athletics and war that was found in the ancient world, it stands to reason that Olympic events were designed around drills that would also build up muscle strength needed for combat.

When Ancient Greece was conquered by the Romans, the latter co-opted a lot of the former’s inventions and customs, which included the halteres themselves, as well as the concept of progressive overload.

The Ancient Greeks would often tell the story of Milo of Croton, the most famous wrestler in Ancient Greek history, who allegedly got his almost Herculean strength by carrying a calf from the day it was born until it became an ox, caring a full-sized one through the Olympia stadium as a demonstration of his power.

Progressive overload was far less possible with the halteres due to the rather inconsistent weights they had, but the concept ultimately proved to be highly influential to modern fitness regimes and is the reason why people often buy adjustable dumbbells with plates that they can keep adding to.

The Romans took this part, but with a focus less on fitness for the sake of improving mental and physical health, and more as part of a civic duty. You support the Republic in war by fighting and in peace by preparing for war.

This push, largely developed by the Roman general Gaius Marius as part of a power play to gain political control, helped to develop a fitness regime that is not far removed from elite fitness routines commonly practised today and all originating from a stone that helped people jump a little bit further.