An Olympian Read
The history of exercise is a surprisingly complex one, as chronicled in this month’s recommended read
In around 400 BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates (aka “the Father of Medicine”) wrote that, “Eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.” This was a fact well understood in Ancient Greece. Every town had at least one gymnasium—some public, some requiring gym membership— and athletes’ sweat was a muchprized commodity, selling for the equivalent of thousands of pounds and used, somewhat unglamorously, for the treatment of haemorrhoids (there were also, of course, the Olympic Games).
But then came the rise of Christianity when exercise became associated with paganism and so fell out of favour. Only with the Renaissance was it rediscovered, along with much else from the classical world. In 1569, an Italian doctor called Girolamo Mercuriale published The Art of Exercise, a book full of advice that’s still recognisable today: “We in no way dispute that exercise can sometimes be hard and, when it is being performed, unpleasant. But good health is not incompatible with some discomfort.”
Taking Mercuriale as his starting point, Bill Hayes fascinatingly traces exercise’s gradual evolution into the multibillion-pound industry it is now—by way of some genuine scientific breakthroughs and several passing crazes. He’s especially good on the growth of bodybuilding from the early 20th century to
Arnold Schwarzenegger; and on how aerobics conquered the world in the 1980s when Jane Fonda did wonders for both female fitness and the sales of VCRS. He also throws in plenty of his own experiences, including as the long-time partner of the psychologist (and swimming obsessive) Oliver Sacks.
Here, though, we go back to the 19th century when, for the first time, women were about to become a major part of the story:
with your feet—but so too were extremely large front wheels paired with small back wheels, which meant your feet were far above the ground. Commonly known as ‘high wheels’ or ‘penny-farthings’, these models could be ridden at faster speeds—an obvious advantage—but were also less stable.
The real breakthrough didn’t come until the 1880s, with the introduction of the ‘safety bicycle’, so called for being safer to ride than the high wheelers they quickly replaced. Safety bicycles came with two spoked wheels of roughly equal size—short enough that a rider’s feet could touch the ground—and closely resembled the bicycles we ride today. They prompted a dramatic shift in how bicycles were used and by whom. These were no longer considered dangerous toys for men and boys— novelties, really—but increasingly