Last week, we looked at the importance of physical fitness in the ancient world, namely in the ancient Persian Empire, ancient Athens, and
ancient Sparta. I could continue talking about fitness in the ancient world –
the Romans, for example, encouraged a high level among the general populace, or
at least that part of the populace that was eligible for the military draft,
i.e. citizens aged 17 to 60, but instead, I wanted to skip ahead in time to the
Middle Ages. We’re still in Europe, because as everyone knows, that’s the whole
world.
In the Middle Ages, as during Neolithic times, many people
didn’t need to work out on purpose. In the chaos that followed the collapse of
the Roman Empire, the average person spent his or her time tending to
livestock, farming, and fearing God, all of which activities are great for the
physique. They also walked a lot more than we do today, and had to engage in
strenuous physical activity to do almost anything – cooking, shopping,
repairing their hovels, you name it.
 |
| As we can see in this Pieter Bruegel painting. |
While the peasantry didn’t need to work out, that doesn’t mean that other members of society didn’t understand the importance of a physical fitness regimen. Aristocrats, knights, and those training to be knights undertook physical fitness regimens such as those outlined in contemporary fencing manuals, like Hans Talhoffer’s.
 |
| A page on grappling from one of Talhoffer's manuals. |
In the earlier middle ages, the warrior class relied on
strength training by lifting large stones, wrestling, jousting, and riding to
get in shape. A popular
exercise was voltige, which helped knights develop control
over their horses by practicing jumping in and out of the saddle, or onto and
off of a table. By the 1200s, wooden horses replaced real ones in this
exercise, and as time went by, the practice of voltige became more and more of
an art form in and of itself, until, over the centuries, it evolved into what
you might now recognize as the gymnastics pommel horse.
 |
| Here, gymnast Alberto Baglia demonstrates more physical prowess than I will ever possess. |
Jean Le Meingre, (aka Boucicaut), who was the marshal of France
during the reign of Charles VI (aka Charles the Mad),
formed a martial society for the defense of the wives and daughters of absent
knights, called L’Emprise de l’Escu vert a la Dame Blanche, the Order of the
Green Shield of the White Lady. Members of this order followed a fitness
regimen that included walking and running long distances to build endurance, “leaping
onto the back of a horse,” jumping over horses from the side, “striking numerous
and forcible blows with a battle-axe or mallet,” and, while dressed in a full
suit of armor, “turn somersaults” or “dance vigorously.” Boucicaut also asked
his soldiers to “climb up between two perpendicular walls that stood four or
five feet asunder by the mere pressure of his arms and legs, and…reach the top…without
resting either in the ascent or the descent.” That was probably harder than
jumping over a horse while wearing a full suit of armor, although I think I can
see why they switched to using wooden horses. Would you stand still while a
fully-armored knight jumped over you? What if he landed on you? How many horses
did they go through, do you think?
Knights and warriors weren’t the only ones who valued
fitness in the middle ages. A
fifteenth-century letter from a physician to his sons, university students
in Toulouse, gave the men instructions for daily exercise. On rainy or
otherwise inclement days, the doctor advised his sons to exercise indoors by climbing
“the stairs rapidly three or four times,” practicing swordplay with a heavy
stick until winded, and jumping. On nice days, the doctor advised walking each
morning and evening; in cold weather, they should “run on [an] empty stomach,
or at least walk rapidly.” This activity would balance the humors; running in
the winter would restore the body’s “natural heat,” while exercising until
winded served to expel noxious fumes from the lungs.
