An Ideal Body: It’s All Greek To Me

“Give me a word – any word – and I show you that the root of that word is Greek!”                (Mr. Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.)

Anyone who has seen the excellent movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, will remember that line from Mr Portokalos. Although the character and his etymological discourses are obviously played for comedy, when it comes to the world of health and fitness, he may just have a point.

Think of the words, “protein,” “creatine,” “aerobic” and even “gym.” These are but a few examples which really do have their roots in the ancient Greek language.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise though. You see, the ancient Greeks didn’t just give us the vocabulary we use; they also gave us the very concept of physical training as we know it. They were very a healthy and athletic civilisation and it’s from them, of course, that we inherited the Olympic Games, as well as sports like boxing and wrestling.

In addition, the ancient Greeks also gave us a very clear idea of what the perfect body was. Physical strength and fitness were admired and considered important assets in their culture. But more than this, the ancient Greeks elevated the development of the human body to an art form. They aimed for balance, symmetry and proportion in a physique – exactly the same aesthetics that they put into other arts, such as painting, architecture and sculpting.

The Greek ideal survived for many centuries, and has influenced the work of great artists all over the world. It was also the inspiration for early bodybuilders, when that sport was in its infancy around the start of the 1900s. But that started to change around about the 1960s or so. The emphasis in bodybuilding moved away from beauty and proportion and onto sheer size. The introduction of anabolic steroids and other drugs onto the scene didn’t help either.

Bodybuilding physiques eventually got so huge that they’ve now become completely divorced from their classical roots. Sadly, the Greek ideal seems to have been almost forgotten – but the good news is that we have been left clues. Where? In art, of course!

To get an idea of what a classically perfect physique was, we need only look at statues of Greek athletes in a museum, in a book, or even on the internet. Studying these artworks reveals exactly what the ideal body used to look like, and it’s very enlightening. While those statues don’t look like modern bodybuilders, they still definitely look athletic and muscular.

The classical Greek physique was defined by having wide shoulders and a narrow waist, with a trim and flat abdomen. Even today, that kind of tapering silhouette is still highly appealing.

The chest on a Greek statue is well developed, but not to excess. Nowadays, a lot of people do too much chest exercise, and the pectorals end up looking swollen and even droopy. It’s a common mistake made by many newcomers to the gym, probably because the chest is a relatively easy area to build and because exercises like the bench press have a macho image about them.

As for the limbs on a classical statue, these are certainly muscular, but are not overdone. Having massive arms and legs is certainly an achievement, but the danger is that these can overshadow the overall shape of the body and destroy the sense of proportion. A typical feature of Greek statues is that the arms are slighly smaller in circumference than the neck. The calves are approximately the same size as the arms.

Similarly, the neck and trapezius muscles were not overemphasised. If these were too large, they would detract from the wide-shouldered look and throw the whole physique out of balance.

Look also at the overall tone of the muscles on a Greek statue. These look gently sculpted rather than being too harshly “cut” or “ripped.” This look was achieved by reducing the body fat to a low percentage but not nearly as low as competitive bodybuilders are required to. The classical Greek physique didn’t need to have all the striations and muscle fibres visible, or to have veins popping out everywhere.

Some experts are now predicting that eventually the whole sport of bodybuilding will go back to its classical roots and become a truly natural physical culture again. Time will tell, but I hope they are right. The Greek ideal body is a treasure, as precious as any work of art in a museum or gallery. It deserves to shine once again.