What antique sources tell us about the workout routine
On the workout routine through the ages — Part 2 of 8
Unaware of any evolutionary perspective, ancient philosophers and physicians including precursors of modern medicine regarded physical activity as a remedy for various health issues of their times. Regular, but not too frequent. Brisk, but not too strenuous. The common ground was moderation — nothing in excess. However, no argument was provided to tip the scale for or against the workout routine.
If biological evolution did not supply a workout routine as an adaptation to address multiple health issues of the human body (see part 1 in this series) then cultural evolution must have produced it. The history of ancient civilizations provides sound documentary evidence in support of this proposition. We only have to look at contributions from Greece and Rome to establish the origins of what many years later people will be referring to as the workout routine. And following this direction we can derive a reliable account based on what we know about Pythagoras, Hippocrates, and Claudius Galenus — including their contemporaries.
Authentic writings of his authorship did not survive. It looks like Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 570–490 BCE) did not write at all. Moreover, some big chunks of his legacy are still disputable whether they can be credited to him or are rather a creation of others including those who came long after him. However, according to various ancient sources, he was the first individual from ancient Greece to advocate daily physical exercises for pure health reasons.
At age of forty, Pythagoras settled in Crotone (now Calabria in Italy) to establish a school and community of followers which became a center of his philosophical thought and activity with major contributions to be found today in mathematics (not only about right-angled triangles) or music. But this scientific coloring should not lead us astray. He was also deep into mysticism, esoteric teaching, and ascetic practices.
We cannot tell for sure but Pythagoras could have met the young Alcmaeon who lived and worked in Crotone at the same time. Alcmaeon was a physician and a natural philosopher who specialized in medical issues and was the first one to speculate about internal causes of illness. This potential personal connection could explain why Pythagoras focused on physiological harmony and did not blame supernatural powers to produce health issues, which was the default doctrine at his time.
Perhaps for the reason just mentioned Pythagoras advised his followers to adhere to a strict daily routine consisting of a balanced diet, recreation through reading and music, and physical activity — the latter including long and brisk walks, running, wrestling, boxing, and discus throwing. Pythagoras treated the daily routine as a means to restore the required body balance. His regimen included a subroutine which I think was nothing else but a forerunner of the workout routine we know and some of us follow today.
A century later arrived Hippocrates (460–370 BCE). We know from his writings that he was the first physician to devise a written walking exercise prescription for a patient who suffered from excessive food consumption. We cannot exclude it was indeed obesity. In general, Hippocrates was against all extremes and believed that physical inactivity leads to severe health issues, as did physical exercises that he regarded to be too strenuous for non-athletes. Above all, he was an advocate of moderation. And moderate physical activity was his advice for all patients who needed to recover from sickness and to preserve their health once recovered.
A younger contemporary of Hippocrates known by the name of Plato theorized a lot about body and soul. He eventually inspired the Roman poet Juvenal to coin the Latin phrase ‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ several centuries further down the road. This phrase is directly linked to the main tenet of Hippocrates. And it neatly puts the Greek ideal of physical and mental health into a nutshell. Such was the zeitgeist when Hippocrates and Plato walked the earth. No wonder Diocles who came shortly after and had direct access to the legacy of Hippocrates continued in a similar vein and advised children to visit the gymnasium twice each day for its workout routine to promote health (as part of education), whereas older individuals were encouraged by him to take moderate walks after meals to aid digestion.
Finally, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) arrived — a superstar among Plato’s disciples — who conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries and delivered lectures during brisk walks at the Lyceum. He is known for a multitude of speculative and non-empirical theories. Although most of them were refuted two millennia later, it looks like Aristotle made some bulletproof contributions to the earlier works of Alcmaeon and Hippocrates. In his writings, he shares the belief that moderate physical activity is a remedy for multiple health issues and disabilities.
Based on intensive cultural exchange the Roman Empire imported from Greece many philosophical and scientific beliefs. We know of several Greek physicians who began their practices in Rome in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. But the diffusion of Hippocrates’ body of thought and its further development took more time than one could expect given the benefits it provided because physicians were rare and the many athletic training professionals shared a different set of beliefs.
A milestone has been set by Claudius Galenus (129 — c. 216 CE). He was Greek by origin, an admirer of Hippocrates, and one of the most accomplished medical researchers of antiquity whose work remained unchallenged and influential until the 16th century. This precursor of modern medicine made physical exercises part of regimens that he prescribed to treat multiple diseases and health issues. He classified physical activity according to intensity whereas motor patterns had to be vigorous and cause labored respiration to be considered an exercise. And moderation was unconditional and definite if physical exercises were prescribed for health reasons.
In his treatise ‘The Exercise With the Small Ball’ Claudius Galenus suggests a preferred type of physical exercise, one which — beyond high variability and its capacity to deliver a full body workout — did not require a wealth of leisure time and was available to anyone (including groups) at no expense in almost any situation. Such ball exercises could easily complement leisure activities usually undertaken once or twice a week at communal baths (thermae), where open-air facilities were available for exercise purposes (palaestra). This suggestion indicates that although physical activity for health reasons should constitute a key element of our lifestyle, Claudius Galenus was far from dictating any workout routine.
We cannot reduce the ancient times to a few paragraphs. But we stand on firm grounds if we conclude that — back then — Hippocrates and Claudius Galenus took physical exercises to the sharp end of the medical progress. However, when the Middle Ages arrived almost all prior achievements have been overruled by scholastic ignorance and superstition.
Main source: Charles M. Tipton (2014) The history of ‘Exercise Is Medicine’ in ancient civilizations. Advances in Physiology Education, 38(2), pp. 109–117.
