Today, when we see people exercise, they are usually listening to music, whether they are in the gym and are running on the street. But it’s not from now. The ancient Greeks and Romans also did (but not with headphones).
Several studies have already shown that listening to music during physical activity can help to make the most of the training.
Somehow the ancient Greeks and Romans already knew it, long before modern science supports it… and the existence of the headphones.
As reported by an article in his speech to the people of Alexandria, the Greek writer I gave chrysostom (40-110 AD) complained of a phenomenon that constantly saw.
Dio wrote that people liked to listen to music in their daily activities. According to him, the song could be found in court, the conference room, in the doctor’s room and even in the gym.
“Everything is done to the sound of music […] People get to the point of using songs to follow their exercise, ”wrote Dio.
But exercising to the sound of music was not a new thing in your time.
A habit with over 2,000 years
This practice has been recorded in the old Greek and Roman worlds since the most remote times and in the poems of Homero (about 800 BC).
There are many representations of professional athletes training or competing to the sound of music in ancient Greek vessels.
In a vase painting of the 5th century ac, a group of athletes trains while one Musician Toca or Aulosa type of old tube instrument.
Young people exercise to the sound of an aluma player (an ancient wind instrument)
The former writer Plutarch of Queronéia (46-119 AD) tells us that music was also played while people fought or practiced athletics.
Athenian writer Flavius Philostratus (about 170-245 AD) gives us clues about the reason.
Why do exercise to the sound of music?
In a book on Gymnastics, Flavius Philostratus wrote that the song served to stimulate athletes and that their performance could be improved by hearing music.
However, science has proven that this is true.
One, which involved 3599 participants, showed that listening to music during exercise had many benefits, such as reducing fatigue and effort perception and improving physical performance and breathing.
Singing and trumpets to accompany
Since old people had no electronic devices, they found other ways to exercise to the sound of music. Some had music played by a musician during his exercise routine. Others sang while exercising.
Singing while playing the ball was particularly popular. In the Odyssey of Homer (about the eighth century BC), Nausicaa, the daughter of the king of Phaeacia, throws the ball with her friends and all sing songs while playing.
Similarly, historian Carystius of Pergamon (second century BC) wrote that the women of his time “sang as they played the ball.”
Another popular activity was the Dance to the sound of music. Dance was widely considered as a gym exercise that people could practice to improve health.
A famous defender of the benefits of dance as exercise was the great Athenian philosopher Socrates (about 470-399 BC). According to historian Diogenes Laércio (3rd century DC), “Socrates had a regular dancing habit, thinking that this exercise helped keep the body in good condition”.
The practice of physical exercise to the sound of music was portrayed in several ancient Greek vessels.
Beyond individuals who used music in their personal exercise, the soldiers also did training exercises and marched to the battle to the sound of trumpets.
But calm… with moderation
In ancient Greece and Rome, it was believed that music and exercise played an important role in the formation and development of body and soul.
The ideal was harmony and moderation. The body and soul needed to be balanced and proportional in all its parts, without any excess. Thus, the practice of a type of exercise too often, or the excessive exercise of a body part, was poorly seen.
The doctor Galeno de Pergamo (129-216 DC) criticized the types of exercise that focused too much on a body part. I preferred the ball games, which exercised the whole body homogeneously.
A Imoderation in Music – That is, listening too much, or listening to music too emotional – was also sometimes poorly seen.
For example, the Athenian philosopher Plato (about 428-348 BC) was famous for arguing that most of the song should be censored as he could shake his passions too much. For Plato, only simple and emotionless music, heard in moderation, should be allowed.
If the ancients could see today’s people running the walk with music playing in their ears, they would certainly be amazed. And they would probably approve – as long as it wasn’t over.
