Last week’s article on China (read here) covered a system of holistic wellness similar to India. Eastern philosophies on wellness were similar to those which would develop in the West, starting in Greece then branching out to Rome.
Health in the Dark Ages
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe would enter the so-called “Dark Ages.” It’s easy to write off this pre-Renaissance period as lackluster, because few advancements were made compared to Greece and Rome.
The works of Hippocrates and Galen stood the test of time from the 3rd century to the 18th century, when they would be largely unaltered by Western thinkers. The works of Galen in particular spread throughout Europe and the Middle East during the Dark Ages, influencing society for over 1,000 years.
Despite the continuation of such knowledge, exercise and health in general seemed to fall largely out of favor in Europe in the Dark Ages. Famine was common and most people were malnourished, so healthy lifestyle habits weren’t a priority. Obesity even came to be seen as a status symbol. If an individual were overweight, that meant they had enough to eat were therefore very well-off.
Religion Makes a Comeback
This is a drastic change from Ancient Greece and Rome, where it was believed that obesity was a sign of excess consumption, and a balanced lifestyle was sought-after. Part of the reason for the loss of health is attributable to religion.
Hippocrates was notable in part because he was able to separate science from religion. Instead of blaming the gods for illness, he blamed changes in the body, the environment and pathogens. This was important because it forced people to take control of their own health.
In the Dark Ages, the opposite occurred. Christians blamed illness on sin. In other words, if you did something wrong you were punished by illness. The solution is not to lead a healthy lifestyle, but to atone for your sins. Perhaps it was this thought process that dramatically slowed and even seemingly halted the progress of fitness.
The works of Galen were consumed and built upon in the Middle East. From around the 8th century on, medical knowledge in Arab cultures increased quickly. Advanced hospitals were built, which had separate wings for men and women and specialized rooms for hygiene. This shows that a modern public health system was already in place.
Fitness Lives On
Just like in Greece and Rome, Arab physicians wrote important texts that would shape modern medicine. Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina are two examples of Islamic doctors who were recognized in the West.
The works of Ibn Rushd (also called Averroes) contained similar recommendations to Galen in terms of exercise. He classified workouts as intense or mild, and fast or slow. He wrote about the difference between training with heavy weights (rocks) and speed exercises like throwing a javelin. This distinction still plays a role in sports science, with athletes combining weight training with speed and plyometrics to get faster and stronger.
Averroes cautioned that balance is key when it comes to exercise. Similar to Hippocrates and Galen, he explained that high intensities can weaken the body, but if workouts are too easy there isn’t much benefit. He used the same system of classification that Hippocrates developed to determine what workout each person should do and at what intensity.
He recommended “exercise with a small ball,” which I explained in the article on Exercise in Rome. It was originally recommended as an activity for the average citizen to become more active. Ibn Rushd recommends participating until you break a sweat or your face turns red, then stopping.
The Islamic physician talks about a powerful experience he had when observing prisoners. He saw how sickly prisoners were, and reasoned that inactivity was the main cause of their poor health.
Another Islamic physician, Ibn Sina, preceded Ibn Rushd. He lived around the 10th century AD, and made significant contributions to the field of medicine. He rewrote much of Galen’s work and created a text, called “Canon,” that was used to teach medicine for centuries.
Ibn Sina was a polymath and notable philosopher. His main contribution to the field of exercise was observing that obese individuals tended to have more health problems. He recommended diet, exercise and hot baths as a solution.
Much of his thinking contributed to the development of Iranian Traditional Medicine. Similar to Greece and Rome, practitioners believed that health preservation was important for all people, and that healthy lifestyles could prevent disease. Therefore, diet and exercise became central to Arab medical practice.
The Intersection of Fitness and Religion
While I’m not a religious expert and won’t claim to be, it’s important to note that the Qur’an contains references to exercise and diet. This is an important point because in the West, religion was turning away from science and health. Meanwhile, Islam was embracing it.
A 2016 study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Disease Prevention cites various examples of how Islam integrated health and wellness into religious practice.
According to the authors, some references in the Qur’an suggest health and wellness were a top priority. For example, the passage “a man does not fill any vessel worse than his stomach.” In other words, excess consumption of food was looked down upon.
Fasting, although not new to religious practice, is important in Islam. While the reasons are religious, the practice is similar to intermittent fasting. Fasting follows the theme of avoiding excess consumption, which is an important part of most ancient health practices because it reduces calorie intake and promotes wellbeing.
As Western society emerged from the Dark Ages, science once again came to the forefront, and health and fitness became important again. Next week’s article will cover advancements in the West.