Sports Practice and Body's Limits in the Corpus Hippocraticum, Plato and Aristotle

Abstract

We deal with ancient Greek texts (above all texts of the Corpus Hippocraticum, Plato and Aristotle) where the training and, in general, the way of life of the professional athletes are blamed, because of several reasons: 1) They are harmful to the health, because health is the consequence of an adequate balance between the four major body humours and between feeding and physical exercises; instead, illness comes when this balance is broken, either for lack or, as in the case of the athletes, due to an excess. 2) Bodies that the professional practice of sport makes, are neither beautiful nor harmonious, but deformed because of the overdeveloped muscles and the overspecialized training. 3) Athletes’ way of life and training aim at the development of the physical strength and neglect the development of intellectual and moral qualities.