Fitness Through the Ages I: 'Dem Caveman Gains

With the first part in this 'Fitness Through the Ages' series, it would be obvious that we begin from the beginning of human kind. Good ol' Caveman, with his primitive means of obtaining food, required indomitable levels of fitness.  To get food, to gain sustenance, to provide for his family and community, Caveman would go hunt for days.  His survival depended on it.  How fit you were, determined how well you could obtain food to live another day.  Caveman gains,in essence.   

Life was far from sedentary

To stalk, to track, and then to have the stamina to kill, required a practiced level of accuracy, endurance, speed, and control in a state of fatigue. It was not just for the obtaining of food that early man needed to be fit.  Caveman was largely nomadic, moving where food was plentiful.  High endurance would have been essential to pick up and relocate, however far it was needed, to gain access to plentiful sources of fruits, vegetables, and wild game.  

When being FAT was considered being FIT

Its from this high need for energy to go look for food that having a fat storing capability was developed.  When food was hard to find, you could still get energy from fat that would be carried with you.  It'd keep you warm in the winter when food would be harder to find, allowing you to be 'fit', to survive in the conditions you were exposed to.  

Marcus Aurelius: All Men Die One Day

The Philosopher-King

Known as the last of the five good emperors, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus or just Marcus Aurelius, was a man who lived by his awareness of his mortality to accomplish monumental achievements in his time as emperor of the giant that was the Roman Empire.  The famous quote, 'Seize the day,' could not be more aptly exemplified by Marcus Aurelius, with accomplishments including: defeat of a rejuvenated Parthian Empire, success in the Marcomannic wars against the building Germanic tribes, and quickly suppressing of a major revolt in the eastern provinces.  

However, it was his stoic philosophy that made this man iconic.  The 'philosopher king' was what he was called, with a compilation of thoughts in his sought-after works, Meditations.  In such writings it can be found an account of how aware this Caesar was of the shortness of his life.  In one instance, Aurelius writes, "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."  He was noted to look down upon indulgence in the basal desires: excessive sleep, gluttony, and lust.  He was a man zeroed in on the present, one to steer away from the sheep, and one aware of his own self-worth and ability. 

Aurelius was a confident emperor but not one to overstep his bounds.  As leader of one of, if not the greatest empire at the time, how could one not let indulgence interfere with ambition and legacy?  This Roman had such a keen awareness of his own mortality that it is said that he would have a servant walk behind him, as the two would travel through Rome's town square.  When the people cheered and praised him, the servant's sole duty was to whisper in the Emperor's ear, "You are only a man, you are only a man," as a reminder as to the temporary status of the world he lived in.  

If such a man with such status and power could will himself such an awareness, and in doing so, live up to be named with such an esteemed title as one of the 'Five Good Emperors' of one of the most monolithic empires in human history, than what tells us that we should ignore our own mortality in order to reach our own successes?

Bibliography

Aurelius, Marcus, and Gregory Hays, Meditations.  New York: Modern Library, 2002.  Print.