This study objective was to compare texts produced in Brazil and France about the methods of gymnastics. For this, it performed a historical research limited in the 1900's to 1930's, where the sources were the writings of Georges Demeny and Fernando de Azevedo. It concluded that in the textual productions of the two writers existed the defense of the scientific gymnastics through a practice controlled and moderate. However the debate with other traditions has produced an eclectic gymnastics in both countries.
Gymnastics; History; Brazil; France