Edwin Checkley
American athlete, physician, and the author of a book about strength-training
Edwin Checkley (1847-1925) was a British-born American athlete, physician, and the author of a book about strength-training. He was supposedly "one of the strongest men in America" in 1890.
01Life
Checkley was born in 1847 in London, U.K. He emigrated to the United States in 1871, settling in Brooklyn, New York City. He studied at the Long Island Medical College. By 1890, he had become a long-distance bicycle rider; for example, he rode from New York City to Chicago. That same year, he was "said to be one of the strongest men in America."
In his 1895 book, A Natural Method of Physical Training, Checkley advocated light bodyweight exercises without dumbbells. Nevertheless, the book inspired Alan Calvert, the founder of one of the first barbell companies in the world.
Checkley died in 1925.
02Selected works
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Edwin Checkley”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Edwin Checkley.png by Edwin Checkley, Public domain
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