If you thought the Shake Weight was degrading and ludicrous, see what ‘revolutionary’ gym equipment in the ’40s looked like.

In this old featurette from British Pathe, we see what looks (and sounds) like a segment from a classic news reel. The male narrator over describes in his sexist best, insisting that women still need to face the ‘Battle of the Bulges’ as World War II rages on. In an age of mechanization, some genius (surely a man) thought of making machines to rub women’s bodies to help ‘tone’ them into shape.

With names like ‘Streamliner,’ these machines look like something you’d use to squeeze out the last of the toothpaste.

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