Sweat

A History of Exercise

By: Bill Hayes

Narrated by: Bill Hayes

Bloomsbury presents Sweat written and read by Bill Hayes.

A New Yorker Best Book of the year
An Esquire Best Nonfiction Book of 2022

From Insomniac City author Bill Hayes, "who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did" (SF Chronicle)—a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise.

Exercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads from HIIT to spin classes to hot yoga to prove it. Exercise—a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics—was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, dissecting the dynamics of human movement.

Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek “art of exercising” through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. Though largely forgotten over the past five centuries, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise were pioneering, and are brought back to life in the pages of Sweat. Hayes ties his own personal experience—and ours—to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, giving us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.

©2022 Bill Hayes (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Hayes' memoir/research/history books are great!

I've enjoyed Hayes' work for years, and was delighted to find his self-narrated book on Audible. (Not all authors can narrate well, but I liked his reading very much.) I'd read it in print form and delighted in the deep-dives into archives and research, plus his personal journeys through different types of physical exercise and sport. Recommended!

Sweat is a very disappointing work.

Mr. Hayes takes far too much time and energy describing his own personal experiences with exercise rather than exploring the history of exercise in a more detailed way. Although I was pleased that some discussion of Ancient Greeks, Girolamo Mercuriale, Eugene Sandow, Jack LaLanne, and, Jane Fonda, huge swaths of the history of exercise was glossed over.

Important figures in the history of exercise such as Benrnarr McFadden, Gustav Zander, and Edward Hitchcock were completing ignored.

Not a word of on ultra-marathon runners of South America, lacrosse playing in North America, the implementation of Indian Club training in 19th Century America, or Kettle Bell training in Eastern European nations.

No discussion of the Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Plan, Vic Tanny, Charles Atlas or even Arthur Jones.

I felt this book was no where near “A History of Exercise” as promised but more accurately a cursory platitude of self indulgence with the author’s personal experience with exercise.

Boring

Way to much detail about the author that was not a bit interesting (like endless description of the way he uses a lat machine or his father playing handball) and not enough about the history of exercise which was actually interesting.

Some dudes work out diary

1/4 history
3/4 boring dudes personal exercise history

Bait and switch, this sucks