What are some methods of getting in shape used by ancient civilizations? Thinking of Greeks mainly here.
I was thinking bodyweight stuff in addition to lifting random shit and carrying it places, along with running. Question is, how often and for how long? I don't buy into reps/sets... every day until I feel exhausted?
I heard a intense buttfucking regiment helped them make major gains
>What are some methods of getting in shape used by ancient civilizations?
gladiators used to squat logs, or so i heard.
they wrestled, ran, put oils on their bodies, ate clean, and never had sex
Buy a calf and lift it every day. As it grows bigger, you will too. Plus you'll have a cool ass lifting bro. Or a shitload of steak
I feel like this is a biblical story.
still kek'd
yes, cheap, replaceable and versatile. and they made them heavier or lighter by adding iron bands.
you were on spot until the last bit
Long marches followed by HIIT on the battle field.
Follow that with bulking and sex on spoils of war.
Repeat until rule over the civilized world is established.
Veeky Forumstorian here.
Wrestling, as has been mentioned, was one way in which people trained. Depending on what city state you were affiliated with, there were some more options available to you.
Spartans did a lot of training, sleeping, eating, and pillaging. There was skill training as part of the regimentation. I mean, you could fucking kidnap someone and their sheep in the dead of night and make them a slave as long as you weren't caught. There is also the intensive physical labour related to daily farm work, complimented with most likely not being in a caloric surplus.
The Greeks also loved to throw shit. Shotput, javelin, and discuss were events in the original Olympics. I'd be curious if they ever had anything like hammer throwing. Throwing shit uses a lot of your posterior chain to the max.
I know little about plebian training, so it's something I'd need to look in to.
Someone should make a YouTube channel for something like this. Kinda like that primitive technology channel except is solely about ancient exercises from different cultures.
I wanna go Mongol mode
Expand on the sheep stealing slave bit?
There is a legend about a Greek warrior who carried a newborn calf on his back down the road every day. As the calf grew bigger, he became stronger.
You're thinking of the movie holes bro. Madam Zeroni
While this is also from Holes, they more than likely based it of a true story.
en.wikipedia.org
Soldiers had completely different rules in many city states. Some allowed their soldiers to murder, rape, kidnap, and steal so long as they weren't caught. It wasn't exactly stealthy, because if they could kill some wandering band of nomads that was practice. It was honestly, at its core, related to conquering others as part of training.
It's called Agoge my guy.
Full hoplite armor & shield & spear carry, alternate slow march and dash under 35C mediterranean sun.
Guaranteed one step above otter and god tier stamina and athletic skills. You won't look like the juice monsters Veeky Forums lusts over
not the same fag but
basically spartan culture was full manmode.
They went out of their way to make things uncomfortable. They slept on the ground, they didn't advance their quality of life, they believed in just being more of a man about it.
I'm not sure about the whole slavery and sheep deal but I've heard about a portion of their training where they're not given food.
They're forced to provide food for themselves, and stealing is one of the viable, acceptable options.
It's not that stealing was accepted, spartans had high ethics and morals, it's that they encouraged slight of hand and all the skills that go into a successful heist. Ultimately these would help you in battle. So as long as you didn't get caught stealing, everything was fair game.
Thanks for the replies. How can I apply these techniques to my life? Running is definitely easy enough. Other than that it seems like the best option is getting objects to carry and/or throw every day.
Go find a throwing coach and follow their workout routine.
One of my friends competed in Rio for shotput, and her coach was a great guy. Had a lot of the other throwers do a fuck ton of squats, cleans, push press, bench and sprints. Condition work was box jumps, core work, lunges, bulgarian split lunges, and DB push pressing. Oh, and of course, 1-2 hours of throwing 4-5 times per week.
Basically, do some plyometric work, eat well, lift hard, and don't make excuses.
p.s., fuck Augusts.
the Greeks were most likely dyels since
a) they most certainly did not eat enough to gain such incredible mass as depicted on statues
b)they would have to be on roids to look like the statues
This seems like a good idea but it seems unlikely the Greeks did things like bench press. The idea still applies, though - lift stuff, move it around. The condition work sounds plausible though.
Or maybe they were doing something right and we've overengineered fitness to the point of it becoming unrecognizable.
Greeks ran, they trained their long distance runners and sprinters by having them run on sand. Most of the Greek city states were build on or near the beach for easy access to trade so it made this easier. They also made their public gyms have sand floors for easy access. They also had alternate versions of these races where contestants wore and carried full military gear.
Greeks also trained in boxing and wrestling, both became part of the ancient Olympics.
Boxing is often forgotten tho, probably because there isn't much information available about it, they wore hand wraps and there were rules against wrestling moves etc. A very limited version of MMA also popped up and was practiced in the ancient Olympics it included a mix of boxing and wrestling and also included kicks, the only rules were no biting or eye gouging.
Training for this stuff was probably just repetition, however if you're a member of the warrior class this is what you're pretty much all you do every day.
Historically this was something only the aristocracy could do. The average labourer and farmer didn't have the time for it. In ancient Greece the warriors, the guys with the shield and the spear were the nobility. We tend to have an image of a guy on a horse giving orders to his serfs to fight but especially in ancient times if a guy had armour and a weapon he was a member of the nobility.
Early Rome only allowed the nobility to fight in their armies too, for the Greeks/Roman/all ancient nobility giving weapons to and training to your slaves and peasants was idiotic.
The inclusion of the common people in the military is another discussion that I almost started rambling on about.
centurion method claims to be this, but in reality it's more like crossfit without a gym plus a bit of WE for good measure
as far as I know there's no record of full on workout routines from greek or roman times, but we do know that they boxed and wrestled, ran (often sprinting), participated in throwing sports (javelin, discus etc). we do know that they also lifted weights, although they would have been more similar to dumbbells than barbells (look into halteres)
It didn't matter because they had naturally high testosterone. They lived way simpler
>The girls were also encouraged to help the males by humiliating them in public and by criticizing their exercising
doing sports you enjoy
its always combined cardio, resistance training and FUN which everyone there forgets by having autistic training routine and diets they hate
you can implement lifting to improve your ability to make it even better but lifting just for the sake of bodybuilding/being stronger for nothing is waste of life
This
I heard that the core skills back then were running, jumping and throwing so they trained to get better at those and their purpose was preparation for combat.
So to be classical you would need to measure your progress based on your sprint or cross-country times, your vertical and horizontal leaps and your throwing distances. In addition you would also learn a martial art and all your strength would really be meant for becoming better at fighting.
because I want this thread to survive a bit longer in case anyone has any more information, here's the pdf for centurion method. I've only skimmed it, but like I said it seems to be full of WE WAS
web.archive.org
Wrestling naked with other men, basically any exercise but naked and only with other men.
Ancient Veeky Forumstorian reporting.
Ancient sport was basically to show that you were ready for war and the best man to defend your city or country or tribe - whether on land or sea. Therefore the sports were the following:
Running, including the dreaded 'hoplite race', which was in full bronze armour and arms.
Rowing.
Wrestling and boxing, particularly the fierce Olympic version, with practically no rules (pankration).
Horse and chariot racing.
Hunting, mounted and on foot.
Javelin and discus (my pet theory is that discus comes from bits in ancient poems where dudes literally kill each other with thrown stones).
A few other funny ones, including long jump - not sure what the idea behind that one was, maybe for clearing ditches and jumping into the fight? There's a ditch in the Iliad.
Archery comes up in the Odyssey as a sport, but I'm not aware of it being a mainstream athletics event.