Historical Perspective: The Antiquity of Exercise, Exercise Physiology and the Exercise Prescription for Health

摘要

According to the medical historian Baas [1], antiquity for medical history 'doses with Galen'. For the topics of exercise, exercise physiology and the exercise prescription for health, the era is the same but their histories are inextricably linked tothe evolving concepts concerning disease and health, physiology, and to the practice of rational medicine. For the caved humans of the Neolithic Age (ca. 8000 BC), the ravages of disease were attributed to spirits, demons, and/or to supernatural forcesthat had to be controlled, appeased, or driven away before cures could occur and health be restored [2, 3]. This process was facilitated in part by ceremonies, incantations, trephining the skull and by kneading the body in the direction of the feet in order for the evil spirits to escape [4]. Explanations for these occurrences and recoveries were sought by ancient civilizations tliat have arisen from regions served by the Nile, Indus, Euphrates, and Tigris rivers. While not systematic or structured, their evolvement did provide for historical periods that were used by Baas [1] to characterize the evolvement of medicine. As his first edition was published in 1891, his sequence will be followed with the exceptions that (a) the contribution from the Indus civilization will be mentioned after the Egyptians because of the discoveries during the 1920s at Harappa and Mohenjodaro in India [5] and (b), the influences of the Japanese will not be included.