Lifting and Stretching

In Europe and India at the end of the 19th and during the 20th centuries physical fitness became an expression of national pride and was promoted as method of improving moral character and national superiority. The movement, called Physical Culture, was pursued in Sweeden, Germany, France and especially Great Britain. In India, especially in Mysore, Calcutta and Pune, anti colonialists adopted Physical Culture and  gave it an Indian identity by combining weigh lifting and calisthenics with Hatha Yoga.  By the mid 1900s several Indian gyms practiced weigh lifting and yoga. 

BYCH Hot Yoga practitioner Dawn 

Interested in more detail about the real history of yoga? Information presented here comes from "Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice" By Mark Singleton