'I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia' Jane Fonda
'A delight ... You're in for a treat' Alison Bechdel, author of The Secret to Superhuman Strength
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From the author of Insomniac City 'who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did' (San Francisco Chronicle): a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise
Exercise is our modern obsession, and we have the fancy workout gear and fads to prove it. Exercise - a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics - was an ancient obsession, too, but as a chapter in human history, it's been largely overlooked. In Sweat, Bill Hayes runs, jogs, swims, spins, walks, bikes, boxes, lifts, sweats, and downward-dogs his way through the origins of different forms of exercise, chronicling how they have evolved over time, and dissecting the dynamics of human movement.
Hippocrates, Plato, Galen, Susan B. Anthony, Jack LaLanne, and Jane Fonda, among many others, make appearances in Sweat, but chief among the historical figures is Girolamo Mercuriale, a Renaissance-era Italian physician who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek "art of exercising" through his 1569 book De arte gymnastica. In the pages of Sweat, Mercuriale and his illustrated treatise are vividly brought back to life. asHayes ties his own personal experience to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day, he gives us a new way to understand its place in our lives in the 21st century.
Review
I was riveted by Sweat and its extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of exercise over millennia. Who knew? -- Jane Fonda
Bill Hayes' peripatetic inquiry into the history of exercise is a delight ... You're in for a treat. Hayes weaves his riveting findings in the archives with a revelatory memoir of physical exertion that begins to answer that most human of questions: what does the body mean? -- Alison Bechdel, author of 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength'
A lovely weave of memory and science, great characters and compassionate humor. You will love it for its wisdom and wonderful writing -- Anne Lamott
Like the most rewarding kind of travel writer, Bill Hayes is both informative and personal as he takes us through the borderlands ... I'm grateful for the way this intimate, reflective, and factual guidebook captures the feeling of that terrain -- Robert Pinsky
Playful and powerful ... profoundly moving ... Hayes writes with so much panache that reading this book is thrilling - Boston Globe
Bill Hayes has an unusual set of skills ... He is part science writer, part memoirist, part culture explainer - New York Times
A beguiling brew of fascinating scientific facts and illuminating, poignant anecdotes ... vital and pulsing with energy. - Entertainment Weekly
Exquisitely wrought, heartrending and joyous -- Joyce Carol Oates
Like Patti Smith's haunting M Train, Hayes' book weaves seemingly disparate threads of memory into a kind of sanctuary - a secret place where one can shake off the treasured relics of past lives and prepare to be reborn anew - San Francisco Chronicle
Hayes's work is resoundingly about life - about being wide awake to possibility, to the beauty of every fleeting moment - Oprah.com
All laud and honor to Hayes - Washington Post
He is, in his photos and writings, the great poet of the everyday -- Edmund White
A sweeping inquiry into the sometimes converging, sometimes colliding worlds of psychology, medicine, mythology, aging, and mental health -- Maria Popova
Memoir, history, and science come together and apart again in a book that reads very much like a dream, switching genre and subject with a beautiful logic of its own, illuminated now and then with flashes of gorgeous insight ... Read this one and savour it - Out
Book Description
From the author of Insomniac City 'who can tackle just about any subject in book form, and make you glad he did' (San Francisco Chronicle): a cultural, scientific, literary, and personal history of exercise
About the Author
Bill Hayes is the author of Insomniac City and The Anatomist, among other books, and a forthcoming history of exercise, Sweat, to be published by Bloomsbury. Hayes is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. A collection of his street photography, How New York Breaks Your Heart, was published recently by Bloomsbury. Hayes has completed the screenplay for a film adaptation of Insomniac City, currently in the works from Hopscotch Features, and he is also a co-editor of Oliver Sacks's posthumous books. He lives in New York. Visit his website at billhayes.com
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