SPORT AND MEDICINE DURING GREEK ANTIQUITY AND ROMAN IMPERIAL TIMES

This study examines the relationship between gymnastics and medicine using literary sources from the Greco-Roman period. Throughout ancient Greek literature gymnastics was presented in relation to medicine. Gymnasts were not always distinguished from physicians. Gymnastics was thought to protect from disease and to promote health. Members of the Hippocratic School were the first to state that man's health depends on a balance between diet and exercise. Plato's works verified the synergistic effects of gymnastics and medicine to psychophysical balance. According to Aristotle, medicine and gymnastics contributed to the development of a discourse on matters related to health, which promotes human felicity, happiness, and balance of life. In the Roman Empire gymnastic practices changed and championshipaimed training prevailed. This did not respect man's natural idiosyncrasy and became dangerous to health. Exhausting training and the lack of harmony and symmetry in training endangered the health of athletes. Within this framework, the need for a qualified physical trainer monitoring exercise was obvious. He should have the ability to assess the various exercises, and to test the usefulness or risk of different forms of exercise. Consequently, the physical trainer needed to have medical knowledge and also to know how to practice medicine.