Author Bill Hayes, Sweat: A History of Exercise

On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Darien Library welcomed Bill Hayes to speak about his book Sweat: A History of Exercise.
In Bill Hayes' seventh book, he uses what the New York Times has called his “unusual set of skills: part science writer, part memoirist, part culture explainer,” to examine a chapter in human history that’s largely been overlooked-exercise.
Sweat tells the story of this modern obsession-a form of physical activity distinct from sports, play, or athletics that today runs the gamut from fancy workout gear and fads like HIIT to spin classes and hot yoga-along with its ancient origins. Sweat also draws on Hayes’s personal experience-running, jogging, swimming, spinning, walking, biking, boxing, lifting, wrestling (as Plato did), sweating, and downward-dogging his way through the origins of different forms of exercise to explore the cultural and scientific history of why and how we exercise, and indeed, how the human body works.
The idea for Sweat came to Hayes 10 years ago while working out at the gym, when he wondered, “What is the history of what I’m doing? Is there even such a thing as a history of exercise?” He began researching the subject and early on, with the help of a librarian at the New York Academy of Medicine, was introduced to a largely forgotten but pioneering figure-the Renaissance-era Italian physician Girolamo Mercuriale-who aimed singlehandedly to revive the ancient Greek “art of exercising” through his 1569 book De Arte Gymnastica, and who becomes a pivotal figure in Sweat.
About the Author
Bill Hayes is the author of How We Live Now, Insomniac City, and The Anatomist, among other books. 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 adaption of Insomniac City, currently in the works from Hopscotch Features, and he is also a co-editor of Oliver Sack’s posthumous books. He lives in New York. Visit his website at billhayes.com.