{"id":184189,"date":"2024-09-30T09:02:03","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T14:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=184189"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T02:17:17","slug":"podcast-1026-5000-years-of-sweat-lost-workout-wisdom-from-the-history-of-physical-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/strength\/fitness\/podcast-1026-5000-years-of-sweat-lost-workout-wisdom-from-the-history-of-physical-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,026: 5,000 Years of Sweat \u2014 Lost Workout Wisdom From the History of Physical Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an age that doesn’t think too much about history, you might be forgiven for thinking that a culture of exercise only emerged in the 20th century. But the idea of purposefully exercising to change one’s body \u2014 what folks used to call “physical culture” \u2014 likely goes back to the very beginnings of time.<\/p>\n

Here to unpack the origins, evolution, and future of fitness is Dr. Conor Heffernan, a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University and the author of The History of Physical Culture<\/em><\/a>. Today on the show, Conor takes us on a fascinating and wide-ranging tour of physical culture, from the ancient Egyptians, who made their pharaohs run around a pyramid to test their fitness to rule, to the ancient Greeks who used their gymnasiums for both bodily training and intellectual philosophizing, to modern strongmen who became proto fitness influencers, and many periods and societies in between. We discuss how training practices changed over time, where they may be going next, and the evergreen principles from past eras that we could still learn from today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an age that doesn’t think too much about history, you might be forgiven for thinking that a culture of exercise only emerged in the 20th century. But the idea of purposefully exercising to change one’s body \u2014 what folks used to call “physical culture” \u2014 likely goes back to the very beginnings of time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,156,42380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-podcast","category-strength"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1026-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1026-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1026-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1026-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1026-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #1,026: 5,000 Years of Sweat \u2014 Lost Workout Wisdom From the History of Physical Culture | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/strength\/fitness\/podcast-1026-5000-years-of-sweat-lost-workout-wisdom-from-the-history-of-physical-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,026: 5,000 Years of Sweat \u2014 Lost Workout Wisdom From the History of Physical Culture | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an age that doesn’t think too much about history, you might be forgiven for thinking that a culture of exercise only emerged in the 20th century. But the idea of purposefully exercising to change one’s body \u2014 what folks used to call “physical culture” \u2014 likely goes back to the very beginnings of time. 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