How to Apply Stoicism to Physical Exercise

Some notes on the possible uses of Stoic psychology for fitness

I’ll admit right from the outset that I’m no expert on physical fitness. So why write about it? I’ve been looking for years for a good discussion of how Stoic philosophy could be applied to the psychology of exercise. I’ve decided that it might be of value to jot down my own notes, and questions, regarding the potential uses of Stoicism in this regard. My area of expertise is psychotherapy, particularly treatment of anxiety disorders, but also, to a lesser extent, issues like pain management.

There’s an obvious overlap between what we know works in these areas and what’s at least worthy of investigation in relation to exercise. Modern psychologists know a lot, for instance, about how to cope with pain. Does that potentially offer us guidance when it comes to coping with the discomfort and fatigue felt when lifting heavy weights or jogging long distances, and so on? Stoicism offers us a philosophical framework for employing techniques from cognitive therapy and, perhaps, holds out the hope of a whole philosophy of fitness, which is consistent with modern cognitive-behavioural research in psychology.

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The Goal of Exercise

Tolerance of discomfort plays an important role in modern psychotherapy and voluntary endurance of hardship is integral to training in ancient Stoicism. So could physical exercise offer a way of training not just our bodies but also our minds, in accord with the goals of Stoic philosophy. Stoicism was a famously paradoxical philosophy, meaning that it taught doctrines that seemed, at first, completely at odds with the prevailing values of society. Most people pursue wealth and status as if they were ends in themselves, whereas the Stoics believed this was a mistake. Likewise, it seems clear that most (but not all) people today see the primary goal of physical exercise primarily as physical wellbeing or improving their appearance, e.g., through weight loss. Some people exercise in order to compete with others in sports.

The Stoics consider it a fundamental error, though, to treat any of these goals as primary. They are, at best, preferred indifferents. These are things we naturally desire in some circumstances but which are of no intrinsic value in relation to our true goal, which for Stoicism is moral wisdom or arete (virtue) — and the improvement of our character. Stoics would, therefore, be exercising for fundamentally different reasons than the majority of people. Perhaps this helps to address one challenge with the psychology of exercise: motivation. People who exercise to lose weight, for instance, often lose motivation to continue exercising once they achieve their goal. People who are trying to build strength, can lose motivation when they hit a plateau and stop making gains. At some point, our focus must shift on to maintenance rather than improvement, but not everyone finds that sufficiently motivating to keep up the effort required for consistent physical exercise.

Exercise, for Stoics, is primarily about developing self-discipline, psychological endurance, and strength of character in general.

Curiously, Stoic philosophy would view physical exercise primarily in terms of moral or psychological goals. Exercise, for Stoics, is mainly about developing self-discipline, psychological endurance, and strength of character. That’s not how most people think of going to the gym, however — or at least it’s certainly not how they talk about exercise. It may have implications for how we would approach exercise in practice. For instance, Diogenes the Cynic famously built endurance by holding his naked body against frozen statues in winter — the modern equivalent would be having cold showers every day. Reputedly a Spartan asked him how he managed to do it and Diogenes replied that it becomes quite easy with practice. The Spartan, however, replied “What’s the point then?”

Lifting weights or jogging becomes easier with practice. Arguably more self-discipline is required by someone who is unfit and overweight, or recovering from illness or injury, and beginning to attempt even modest exercise. The psychological challenge, for them, may be much greater than for someone who is already fit and finds exercise naturally easy and enjoyable. Would the Cynics and Stoics therefore advise us to keep seeking different physical challenges to avoid complacency?

Applying Stoicism to Exercise

There’s a great deal more we could say about this subject but I want to focus on some practical techniques, which I think might be worth evaluating. These actually lend themselves to being tested fairly easily in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) — the gold standard for outcome research. Stoic psychological practices often help us cope with discomfort, such as the fatigue of lifting weights or jogging. It may be that these sort of techniques can be applied more easily to static forms of physical exercise where endurance clearly becomes the main challenge, such as isometric exercises, including The Plank, or perhaps dynamic tension. (Although these forms of exercise may be less suitable than others for general fitness training.)

Below, I’ll list several general Stoic strategies for physical exercise, broken down into specific tactics or techniques.