The History of Exercise is Weirder Than You Think
Bill Hayes
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The History of Exercise Is Weirder Than You Think — Bill Hayes, Author of Sweat
Bill Hayes spent four years chasing the history of exercise across ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, Kansas City, and the Vatican — and somehow ended up writing the most entertaining book about working out that's ever existed. Drew and Alex sit down with him to find out what he learned.
What we get into:
Gloyos — ancient Greek athletes would scrape the sweat and oil off their bodies after competing, funnel it into a jar, and sell it at the gymnasium for medicinal purposes. Warts. Hemorrhoids. The price depended on how good the athlete was. Christiane Amanpour interviewed Bill on CNN and said nothing had ever seemed so gross to her. She was correct.
Exercise began as war training — tenth century BC, not that different from what we do now. Running, endurance testing, strength work. Sparta was the only place that let women train. The Olympic Games formalized competition in the eighth century BC and athletes became cultural heroes — which is why their sweat was worth buying.
Bill's dad was a West Point swimmer, Korean War vet, Purple Heart recipient who lost an eye in combat. Bill chose poetry over a military career — an act of rebellion he's pretty honest about. But his dad dragged him to the Spokane Athletic Club every Sunday after church, and that's where the love of exercise started.
Girolamo Mercuriale — a Renaissance physician who wrote the first systematic text on exercise, De Arte Gymnastica, in 1569. Bill tracked down a transcription of his manuscripts in a library in Kansas City, Kansas, that hadn't been checked out in 35 years.
The Vatican Library story — Bill had a Guggenheim Fellowship and letters of recommendation and still got interrogated in a small room because he didn't have a PhD. He got in. Everything he needed was already in Kansas City.
Staying in it across a lifetime — injuries, aging, motivation, and the underrated importance of rest. Bill has herniated discs, a severed rotator cuff, and is still going. The answer isn't finding the perfect program. It's just not stopping.
Mentioned in this episode:
Sweat — Bill Hayes
Girolamo Mercuriale, De Arte Gymnastica, 1569
Isthmia, Olympia, Delphi, Mycenae — Bill's Greek road trip following the original athletic circuit
The Metropolitan Museum of Art — has a strigil and Gloyos pot on display if you want to see it in person
Long and Strong — the Mops and Moes training program on TrainHeroic →
Views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent any official organization.
