How did greek athletes build muscular bodies?

Answer 1

It was a brutal regiment involving calisthenics, believe it or not as we know them today, they were in fact invented in ancient Greece, and Kettle Bells, also invented in Greece, although, there is no archeological evidence for them. Kettlebells exist in Russia, because the Slavs lived within the borders of the largely Greek influenced Byzantine Empire. If you look closely, the Alphabet of the Russian language has a ressemblance to Greek writting, as it was the Greeks who first educated the Slavs. When Constantinople fell to the armies of Mehmed II of the Turks, the Slavs went to various parts of eastern Europe, and the lion's share of them ended up in what is now Russia, where they took with them all the stuff they learned from the Greeks, ranging from Wrestling, writting, and political corruption.

The ancient Greek regiment involved a diet rich in fiber, anti oxidants obtained primarily from fruits, and high in protein and calcium. Vitamins were obtained from whatever vegetables were indigenous to ancient Greece. Athletes in fact only consumed 3 square meals a day according to their apetite, but were careful not to gorge. In Islam, its so-called prophet says "eat only until you're full," that is in fact ancient Greek wisdom, it did not originate in Arabia. If you are strength training, if you are only so hungry, eat only so much; they had a very "listen to your body" approach. Most people who strength train tend to eat too much or too little.

1) All Greek men woke up before the sun was out for a morning jog at around 4 a.m. However, what separated athletes and warriors from the rest of the citizen class, was that athletes and warriors kept training throughout the day in whatever their sport or skill was. As a general rule though the fitness routine was the same across all Greece.

2) Following what was I think a 7 to 10 mile run, they would do an hour of calisthenics where they would do 100 everything, in a row, "circuit" style. Followed by the calisthenics they would do dancing, now that I recall. The Calisthenics would end, before I forget, with arms-only "sitting" rope climbs, said rope climbs are still done in the balkans today.

3) After the calisthenics, kettle bell swings where, using a 60 lb kettle bell, having worked up to it from teenhood, they would do 100 everything yet again. The session would end with stretches, the men would clean themselves and then go about their business. Athletes would continue training in their sport until the sun came down, in the Greek summer time that was about close to 9 p.m. I believe. Warriors would generally do the same; the members of the warrior class, at least in Thebes and Sparta. Athens did not have a warrior class, rather they had a vast army of professional soldiers later in their history, namely during the infamous pelop whatever wars (wiki it). Its peloponesian, I forget the spelling, it something along those lines.

I came across this information while at college, and even then, the text only offered vague methods, if you want to seriously research Greek fitness you will need to travel to New York or London, and track down ultra obscure tomes. Anything you find, will likely have dust on it, or be in very bad condition. Believe it or not, Greece itself is not a good source of information for obscure Greek stuff; better brush up on your Italian, because if you want ancient mediterranean fitness information, you will need to go to the libraries in Italy. Renaissance scholars did their best to track down and preserve any knowledge from ancient times, so for expert writting, Italy is the place to go, sometimes colleges in London, or perhaps Oxford, may have translations but don't hold your breath.