Is exercising mentioned in any of the texts? What about any concept of training one’s body by lifting heavy things or jogging around to get fit? How often do monks/ascetics of the past exercise or train their body? Was exercising already ingrained into their lifestyle like for example they might walk long distances to find food and they might get water from a river, put it into a bucket and carry it over long distances which would train their muscles.
No the only exercises allowed were walking and sweeping and the Dr Jivaka advised the buddha that the monks should do some exercise for health and the Buddha allowed those. I think the story is in the Vinaya pitaka but haven’t looked at it for a while. Do a search.
Life was very manual back then so alms round might be a good walk. I have done some that were 2 to 3 hours return journey. So all monks used to walk a bit. And reciting texts would have been a bit of a job too. In forest monasteries there is also washing and dying robes which required chopping wood and boiling bark. Also hauling water from a well would be all bucket and rope and hand carried.
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Thank you for answering. I hope I can do tasks such as washing and dying robes, hualing water, walking for alms round, etc when I ordain in the near future.
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I was also thinking along the lines that Greg mentioned. We didn’t eat processed foods like we do today. Recently, I went to Vietnam, and the northern food is very healthy. You will be hard pressed to find someone who is overweight in the north. Just surviving used a lot of energy.
We have rules about playing in the water. However, it is not against the rules to swim for health. In fact, we have saunas sanctioned by the Buddha. IIT has a pool. I lost some weight and I wrote an article on this. Now, I’m at a different monastery. I do knee lifts while I review the Pātimokkha. I find it very effective to get the heart rate up. However, I only do about 7-10 minutes each day (mostly).
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When assigning lodgings, an arahant monk groups them by their hobbies. One of them includes monks who are frequently strengthening their bodies. It’s in one of the vinaya origin stories.
Saṅghādisesa 8
Ye te bhikkhū tiracchānakathikā kāyadaḷhibahulā viharanti tesampi ekajjhaṃ senāsanaṃ paññapeti—
and for the gossips and the body-builders, thinking,
"imāyapime āyasmanto ratiyā acchissantī"ti.
“In this way even these venerables will be happy.”
Kāya body, Delhi: strengthening, bahulā: frequently.
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Body builders does not sound positive being paired with gossipers.
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Maybe it’s exercise enough, but not too extreme? Like one doesn’t have to have the body of Mr. Universe.
From Gemini:
You actually feel dukkha-vedanā (painful feeling) during intense physical exercise—the sukha (pleasure) felt afterward is largely just the relief from that dukkha. Because of this, structured working out can inadvertently mimic a form of harsh bodily asceticism (attakilamathānuyoga), whereas the Buddha advocated for prioritizing mental discipline and the Middle Way.
Furthermore, from an evolutionary biology perspective, deliberate exercise for the sake of burning energy is unique to modern humans. In nature, animals instinctively conserve energy for survival, hunting, and foraging; they do not voluntarily expend calories without a direct survival purpose. Intentional “working out” is a modern behavioral adaptation to a sedentary lifestyle and a surplus of calories. Today, people generally pursue it for health maintenance or aesthetic reasons, but in the environment of early Buddhism, physical conditioning was already a natural byproduct of daily monastic chores—such as cankama (walking meditation), sweeping the monastery grounds, and walking long distances for piṇḍapāta (alms round).
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