Sweat
A History of Exercise
-
-
4.7 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A New Yorker Best Book of the year
An Esquire Best Nonfiction Book of 2022
From Insomniac City author Bill Hayes, "who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did" (SF Chronicle)-a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise.
Exercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads from HIIT to spin classes to hot yoga to prove it. Exercise-a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics-was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, dissecting the dynamics of human movement.
Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek "art of exercising" through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. Though largely forgotten over the past five centuries, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise were pioneering, and are brought back to life in the pages of Sweat. Hayes ties his own personal experience-and ours-to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, giving us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"If I were to trace a line back in time to the beginnings of exercise, where would I land?" asks journalist Hayes in this candid study (after How We Live Now). Inspired by a trip to the library in which he found accounts of writers explaining their fitness routines, Hayes surveys "descriptions of exercises going back to the fifth century B.C." He finds a kindred spirit in Renaissance physician Girolamo Mercuriale, who, in a time when "cathedrals replaced gymnasiums as sacred sites" was fascinated by the reverence the ancient Greeks and Romans held for the human body, viewing it not just as a means for movement but as its own form of art. Hayes follows in his footsteps, collecting musings from Plato (who suggested that women should exercise "together with the men"), Greek physician Galen (who critiqued fitness trainers for masquerading as medical experts), Franz Kafka (who wrestled with his neighbor every night), and Jane Fonda. With an introspective eye and dynamic prose, Hayes keeps his investigation grounded in his personal search for meaning: "Libraries, like gyms, have always been a refuge for me." It's a great—if niche—introduction to an action-packed part of history.
