“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” — Seneca
Theodore Roosevelt spent almost everyday during the first 12 years of his life struggling with horrible asthma. The attacks were an almost nightly near-death experience. He was bedridden for weeks at a time. Born into great wealth and status, he could have remained weak and would have been taken care of throughout his life. One day his father came into his room and delivered a message that would change the young boy’s life: “Theodore, you have the mind but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.” Roosevelt’s younger sister, who witnessed the conversation, recalls how the young fragile boy looked at his father and said with determination: “I’ll make my body.” It was the beginning of his preparation for and fulfillment of what he would call “the Strenuous Life.” He worked out every day and by his early twenties, his battle against asthma was over. Roosevelt had worked it out of his body.
Like Roosevelt, we can choose to not accept the hand we’re dealt with, a hand we don’t control. Instead of sitting back and letting these shelter in place and lock down orders justify Netflix and junk food binges, we can make our bodies, we can choose the Strenuous Life, yes, even when we are trapped inside. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today. We’re kicking off the Daily Stoic Alive Time Challenge with a commitment: every day for the next two weeks, make time for some strenuous, physical exercise throughout the day.
Maybe for you that’s pushups.
Or situps.
Or pull-ups.
Or a bike ride or a swim (depending on where you live and what the authorities are advising).
For some of us this will be 10 pushups, for others it will be a 10-mile run. But the key is picking something ambitious—for you—and sticking with it for the rest of the challenge.
It can be easy to overlook how important health and fitness were to the Stoics. The stereotype of the philosopher is one who spends all day and night with their dense textbooks and their denser thoughts. When the truth is that the great philosophers we hold up as having made these brilliant insights into human nature and the human experience were reading and studying philosophy in addition to many other endeavors and activities. Marcus Aurelius loved boxing, wrestling, running, ball games and hunting. The saying in the ancient world was that “but for Chrysippus, there had been no Porch” (the stoa in Stoicism). As Diogenes Laertes recounts in Lives of Eminent Philosophers, the Stoic Chrysippus was an avid long-distance runner. Even Epictetus, whose leg was crippled (from his time as a slave), talks frequently about lifting weights because “I like a body to be strong… strong with the energy that comes of good health and training.” He likely learned from his teacher, the Stoic Musonius Rufus, who said, “The philosopher’s body also must be well prepared for work because often virtues use it as a necessary tool for the activities of life.”
Fitness was essential. The Stoics called it keeping themselves in fighting shape—at fighting weight—not for appearance’s sake but because they believed life was a kind of battle. They also knew, as you know, that when we feel awful, we act awfully. A person disgusted with themselves has less patience for others. A person who easily loses their breath more easily loses their temper or their courage or their self-control.
Life is warfare, Marcus liked to say. We have to be ready for it. Otherwise, would he have been able to endure the hardships of his life if he were out of shape and weak? Certainly not. And neither can you. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive or exhausting. You don’t have to build a CrossFit rig in your garage. The Stoic regimen takes to a more dispersed approach, scattering movement and physical exertion whenever and wherever it can be had. “It is indeed foolish, my dear Lucilius… to work hard over developing the muscles and broadening the shoulders and strengthening the lungs,” Seneca explained. Rather, “There are short and simple exercises which tire the body rapidly, and so save our time; and time is something of which we ought to keep strict account…”
Seneca, for example, liked to mix walks into his day. And on those walks, he’d find a spot to stop and do “clothes-cleaner’s jumps” (the ancients washed clothes by jumping on them in a shallow tub). Doing some clothes-cleaners, getting his heart rate up a little, Seneca found was more efficient so he could “come back soon from body to mind.” That’s what we’re recommending. Building movement into your day. Because before this epidemic, scientists have been banging on the doors about a different kind of disease plaguing the globe: the “sitting disease,” as they refer to it. “Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting,” director of the Mayo Clinic Dr. James Levine says. “We are sitting ourselves to death.” 1 in 4 Americans sit for more than 8 hours a day. Only 4% spend less than 4 hours a day sitting. People who spend more than 6 hours per day sitting have a 71% increase in mortality rate and a 147% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease. We wonder why we’re unhappy; being sedentary for 7 hours a day increases risk of depression by 47%.
We can imagine how a global lockdown is affecting those percentages. Build it into your day. You can crush at the gym for two hours, but if the other 22 hours are spent on your rear end—you’re not crushing it. Set reminders for every hour or two and take five to minutes for a walk with some clothes-cleaners, or some push-ups and mountain-climbers, or some jumping jacks and sit-ups, or some yoga poses, or a jog around the block.
Trust us, these little things add up. It can:
- Improve Your Mood: physical activity increases the production of endorphins, known to produce positive feelings
- Boost Energy Level: exercise increases insulin sensitivity, helping your body access stored energy to combat fatigue
- Lower Risk of Disease: lack of activity is commonly found to lead to chronic disease.
- Increase Brain Health and Memory: exercise increases your heart rate, which promotes the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain.
Our gyms, our YMCAs, our apartment complex’s Pelotons, our personal trainers, our workout partners—we don’t have access to any of them right. You’re stuck. That’s not your fault. But what do you do while you’re stuck? That’s on you. That’s what the Stoics meant when they said you don’t control what has happened, but you control how you respond. Dead time or alive time. The choice is yours. What’s it going to be? I’ll make my body.
Listen to Ryan’s audio commentary for today’s challenge
Additional Resources:
- Future — one-on-one coaching from remote personal trainers. Sign up through our link and get your first two weeks for just $1.
- 7-minute workout app
- 8 free quarantine home workouts to try during the COVID-19 outbreak
- These 29 Home Workout Hacks Help to Make Your House a Gym
- Soul Cycle — Instructors leading at-home workouts over instagram accounts
- Nike Training Club — Waived monthly fee for its premium service indefinitely
- Centr App — Six-week free trial
- Daily Burn — 60-day free trial
- Orangetheory — At-home daily workouts
- Corepower Yoga — Free access to a collection of online classes
- Peloton — 90 day free trial
- How to Approach Being Active During the COVID-19 Crisis
