SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
Twelve years ago, writer and photographer Bill Hayes was in a San Francisco gym, climbing aboard the StairMaster for a cardio workout, when he paused for thought. “I looked around the gym and saw all these men and women lifting weights, stretching, doing chin-ups and situps. And I thought, how did we all end up here? If I were to trace a line back in time, where would I land?”
That question took Hayes from the gym to the San Francisco Public Library, searching for a book that would tell him. There was nothing to be found.
Several years later, he began researching his own, the newly released Sweat: A history of exercise. By then, Hayes was living in New York and the partner of Oliver Sacks, neurologist and bestselling author, who suggested that he begin his research in the New York Academy of Medicine’s rare book library. There, he came across a volume, dated 1573, called De Arte Gymnastica by Girolamo Mercuriale. That book sent him on an expedition covering 2000 years and three continents and led to Hayes, now 60, learning to be a boxer, qualifying as a personal trainer and even trying out running in the nude.
Along the way, he learnt of the many ways modern workouts are based on ancient wisdom. Even during a time when human biology was fundamentally misunderstood, classical civilisations realised the importance of regular physical activity, building gymnasiums where the goal was to keep fit both physically and mentally.
“There was an intuitive understanding that exercise was good for your body and your mind,” explains Hayes. “Gymnasiums existed in almost every city in the Greek and Roman empires. They weren’t open
