The Ancient gladiators and Olympic athletes of Rome and Greece used a lot of the equipment and fitness routines that we use today to become fitter and stronger, in order to do their best in the arena and stadiums. Below is a list of the many equipment, techniques and training routines that they used which may surprise you:-
1.) Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)/Boxing/wrestling
Although these sports have been adapted and developed by the modern world the origins of these combat sports can be found in the ancient world. Both boxing and wrestling were Olympic sports. Wresting was the first non track event added to the games in 708BC and Boxing came about around 8ooBC. An ancient form of MMA called Pankration was introduced to the Greek Olympic Games in 648BC and was an empty hand submission sport with hardly any rules. The only things not acceptable were biting and eye gouging but anything else was allowed. The word Pankration means, 'all of might.'
2.) Periodization
During the time of the Roman Empire the most popular organization of training was based on the 'Tetrad' system, which was a four day cycle, founded by the Ancient Greeks. This consisted of Day 1, which was using short, high intensity workouts for toning and preparing the body for the training to come. Day 2 consisted of high intensity, long and strenuous exercises, an all out test of the athlete's potential. Day 3 was mainly resting the body, allowing it to recover and mend from the previous day's training. Exercises on this day would be light to reflect this. Day 4 would consist of medium intensity training. After this day the cycle would start again.
3.) The importance of a warm up/cool down/ and rest
In ancient gladiator training Galen wrote about the importance of slowly building the intensity up and never to go straight into vigorous training if a young gladiator wanted to avoid risking injury,
" Intensity should be gradually increased, peaking at the end. This should be of special concern in order to avoid injury to competitors."
According to Hippocrates, an ancient Greek doctor, a cool down was also important and the trainer after intense exercise shouldn't just lie on the floor afterwards but to 'cool down' by walking,
"Those who walk after exercising will then have a stronger and more rested body."
Also rest was seen as important and a lot of doctors in ancient times preached about the importance of having rest in an athletes'/gladiator's routine to enable them to fully recover from intense training and get the best results and avoid overtraining.
4.) Using progressive overload to build muscle and stamina
Milo of Croton, an Ancient Greek athlete in 6th BC was training for the Olympics. One of his ways of training was to take a newly born bull and hoist it over his shoulders and carrying it over a certain distance. He would do this everyday. As time passed, the bull would grow and get heavier but Milo would still hoist it over his shoulders and walk the same distance. This enabled him to be able to walk into the Olympic stadium with a fully grown bull upon his shoulders. This was the birth of progressive overload whereby you slowly increase the weight in order to gain in muscular strength and stamina.
5.) Nutrition
The idea that nutrition can give you the edge over your competitors has been around longer than the likes of, Herbalife, Weider, MET-Rex and USN. Just like today there were debates, arguing over what diet was the best for gladiators. Some followed an all-meat diet, while others followed an almost all-carbohydrate vegetarian one. From the writings of Ancient Roman writers of the time, the use of barley was readily used as a stable food, being added to soups and porridge. Apparently they ate so much of it, Pliny the Elder called them 'barley men.' However when Galen worked as a gladiatorial doctor he observed that this diet did not toughen the flesh but made it flabby instead.
The ancient Greeks discovered that meat helped athletes grow strong and it became a stable food in the diets of many Greek athletes. Diogenes Laertius wrote how this came about,
"Pythagoras is said to have been the first to train athletes on a meat diet. The first athlete he did this with was Eurymenes. Formally, athletes had trained on dried figs, moist cheese and wheat."
Later on the Ancient Roman gladiators carried on this tradition and followed a high meat diet. As meat was expensive a lot of them would feast on the exotic animals that were killed in the arenas such as elephant and ostrich.
Also long before Lucozade sport came about gladiators used their own version of a 'sports drink' to replenish calcium levels made out of the charred ashes of plants to help build strong bones.....Yuck!
6.) Functional Training
Long before fitness magazines were declaring functional training as the best new thing, ancient gladiators knew the importance of training the whole body as one unit and moving in different planes to be totally fit for their everyday lives. They did running to build stamina and strength, used plyometric training, such as jumping upon high objects with or without holding weights and completing obstacle courses with swinging bags for speed, balance and agility.
7.) Using resistance equipment to build strength.
The ancients used halteraes, which were an ancient version of dumbells. These were either made of metal or stone with holes bore out at the top for handles. Like the dumbells of today they came in different weights to encourage progression. Other equipment used were stones that could be used for lifting, throwing and just rolling, some of these weighed 100kg or more! They also ran in full armour to help increase their strength and speed and used other natural materials for lifting such as logs and sandbags.
8.) Use of body weight exercises
The ancients knew of the benefits of using their own body weight to get great results. They used a lot of the basic and effective exercises that are still used in many modern classes across the world today such as, push ups, lunges, sit ups, pull ups, star jumps, squats and dips. To make push ups harder they would perform them on their knuckles, fingers, with one arm or leg. They used a lot of static contraction exercises to help with strength and grip. A gladiator would hang from a beam with straight arms and hold on as long as possible.
So as you can see a lot of the origins of the principles, systems and equipment we use today can be found way back in time and how the past can continue to help and enrich our futures in the world of health and fitness.
