I'm working on the Victorian population challenge in one of my current neighborhoods. One of my head of house sims needs to build a body skill to be promoted and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to build his body skill (without cheats) without buying an exercise machine since it wouldn't really look right with my Victorian theme. Any suggestions?

Swimming or yoga, though I'm not sure either goes with your theme. I'm assuming your not using TV's or radio's either so the workout option wouldn't help you. Although now I think about it there is a punching bag available in the downloads section and they certainly boxed in the Victorian times, maybe that would help you.

It's possible to build body skill with jump rope - while it'd look a little strange for a grown man to do that (even in modern Sim-times) I would've thought it'd stay in keeping with the era.

The other option is a swimming pool - assuming he wears an old-fashioned swimsuit...

ooo I think I'll go with the punching bag might even do a recolor mwahahahaha although the jump rope idea isn't bad for the kids, hmm but I don't think I can isn't it exclusive to AL? Oddly enough I took him to a swimming pool in a community lot but he didn't gain any skill O_o

Sims don't build skills on community lots in an unhacked game - you need a "community skilling" mod for that to happen.

As for the jump rope thing, I think you're right that it's an AL feature. I like the punching bag suggestion though; and the downloadable one looks great in-game.

Actually, although we think of yoga as very modern, Victorian times are modern in this regard, in that doing exercise routines was fashionable. It's true that they generally did calisthenics and weights, but the exotic Eastern arts from the far-flung parts of the empire had a certain cachet, so if you can't find any Victorian-look weight machines (they ought to be tossing barbells around) yoga should be perfectly acceptable.

Having your own swimming pool would be pretty darn swanky even for the richest people, so without the community lot skilling hack you're out of luck there.

Bowling, which comes with Night Life, builds body and a very rich Victorian might have a private skittles alley. Freetime also gives us jogging and football tossing, both manly Victorian passtimes. And if you could find a CC stereo that looks like a Victrola, you could work out to it.

Hmmm...I thought "recreational swimming" was a somewhat popular, growing trend in Victorian times. Wouldn't they have "changing tents" on the beach? Or am I thinking of another time?

The Victorian era was so long that it encompassed quite a bit. I think the big trend you might be thinking of might be just a bit post Victorian and more turn of the century.

It depends on where you were (she says as the thread goes further afield). Swimming and bathing were near enough the same thing in a lot of places, where you had clean water and warm weather - nude swimming in the San Antonio River was common for both sexes until the late 50s, when people started building canvas bathhouses, which floated on the river to attached to anchored barrels. People living or vacationing near the ocean, if they had a suitable place to do so, swam when it was warm enough, all over the world.London had to wait for indoor public swimming baths before it could be a common pastime there.

Your sims can always keep fit by swimming at public venues; it just won't help with body points. Which is actually in line with both Victorian thinking and, to a certain extent, physical reality. Aerobic sports like swimming, bicycling, and track (bicycling really took off in the 80s and 90s) were for overall health and vigor; to build muscles, you did anaerobic and isometric exercises. Calisthenics were an in-between case.

By the way, the real trouble is getting body points and fitness for Victorian female sims! Even allowed exercise, like horseback riding, swimming, and walking, were problematic for them because of the clothes. Trying to stay pale was easy; trying to stay thin and pale was hard. Gymnastics were still a rebellious hobby into Edwardian times.

Peni, is there anything you dont know?

My times table. I can't keep numbers in my head for more than a few seconds at a time, unless they get engraved there by repetition. I can add a column of figures a dozen times before I get two results that match, and my total'll still be wrong.

I've only given one sim a mathematics major, and that was Gabriella Newson, because she's a genius.

There are tutes around on how to make a swimmable lake/pond