‘We’re overcomplicating exercise … just move’: Bill Hayes on life with Oliver Sacks, sweat, the history of exercise

Author Bill Hayes has delved into the history of exercise in his new book, and he’s got a simple message for those wanting to get in shape.

Insights: Bill Hayes

You’ve written a new book, Sweat: A History of Exercise. With obesity levels rising, has the art of exercise been lost? In some ways, yes – and I think the word “exercise” has a bad reputation. It’s closely associated with sweating and aches and pains and injuries. I like to say that exercise is synonymous with movement. The most important thing is just to get your body moving.

Your late partner Oliver Sacks was a brilliant neurologist and author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat. How did you meet? He read my book The Anatomist, which tells the story behind the classic 19th-century text Gray’s Anatomy, and wrote me a letter. It was very collegial: Dear Mr Hayes, I read your book and enjoyed it very much... I really admired him. And I wrote back: Dear Dr Sacks... I was living in San Francisco at that time, and we had a brief correspondence. Fast forward a year or two, I just decided to move to New York and sort of start my life over. I lived in the West Village, as did Oliver. We began seeing each other and fell in love. Going to the gym and swimming was part of our relationship from the beginning. Oliver was an incredible swimmer.

How did you get the idea for your new book? I was in the gym, on a StairMaster – that old-school cardio machine – and I remember looking out and seeing all these people on the gym floor, men and women of all different ages and races, lifting weights, doing pull-ups, doing yoga. And I just thought, how did we all end up here? And if I were to trace a line backward in time, where would I land? I went to the public library to look for a book on the history of exercise. I couldn’t find one, and a light went on.

During your research you came across a 16th-century book, The Art of Gymnastics by Girolamo Mercuriale, written in Latin... It was the first comprehensive book on exercise. I happened to open it to one of the illustrations, which was of two pairs of men wrestling. When I saw that illustration I was really blown away and I knew there was a story here. I tracked down an English translation, and it started my own journey, retracing Mercuriale’s footsteps. It was surprising because one doesn’t automatically associate the Renaissance with exercise. But here was this great book.

When you exercise and awaken your body, you’re also acquainting yourself with the inevitability of your own mortality, aren’t you? Absolutely. Especially as things change over time. In my middle age I’ve become much more of a swimmer because I really can’t run: it hurts my feet too much, and my knees. Exercise does make you aware of the great good fortune of being alive. I certainly learnt that from Oliver. Just having gratitude for having a life, being alive and letting your body enjoy moving.

In your book you explain in granular detail the human body’s sweat gland system. Incredible, isn’t it? There’s a real misconception about the role of sweat in the body, which I probably prescribed to before I researched this book, that sweating is for detoxifying the body or getting rid of toxins. That is really not the role of sweat. Sweating or perspiring is purely thermoregulation. It’s about keeping the body cool. It’s such a simple system, but if we didn’t sweat we would not live. It’s really that simple. It’s the body’s airconditioning system.

Bill Hayes will be appearing at the Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney writers’ festivals in May. Sweat: A History of Exercise (Bloomsbury, $29.99) is out now.