Some thinkers of classical antiquity despised physical exercise and mocked those who practiced it. This attitude changed with the Latin poet Decimus Junius Juvenal (1 B.C.). He was the author of 17 satires, in which he criticized the sedentary way of life in Roman society. The satire issue 10 contains the well-known aphorism "Mens sana in corpore sano". It invites us to implore integral health, of body and soul, reaching a "balance" between both. It is about having a healthy mind and a healthy body to obtain a better life, full of virtue and peace.

The original meaning of the aphorism would change for the worse over the years. The proposal would no longer refer to the "balance" of body and soul, but to a priority and intensive cultivation of the body, to which a supposedly healthier mind would be subordinated.

In today's multiple consumer society, a spectacular industry has emerged to satisfy those who are particularly concerned about their figure or physical appearance staff: clinics, beauty centers, gyms, etc.. There is a growing demand for techniques of all kinds subject for the illusory quest for body perfection, encouraged by a massive advertising . A billboard on the wall of a public place reads: "Gym. Do you consider yourself fat and ugly? Just be ugly".

Human preoccupation with body image has increased since physical appearance became frivolously linked with success, happiness and sexual attractiveness. A stereotype of male beauty is still Adonis, the mythological character of which we have been left with an enduring record in numerous masterful statues. (Don't miss "The Death of Adonis", in the Vatican Museum).

Many people are willing to "work out" in the gymnasium on a daily basis in order to achieve the ideal body. Some of them are the same ones who consider absurd the smallest mortifications suggested by Christian asceticism for spiritual progress. This imbalance between mind and body is a disorder that always has negative consequences for both.

In the book "The cult of health and beauty.Therhetoric of wellness", explains this new social phenomenon in this way:

"Most people suffer great media and social pressure to achieve a beautiful, slim and youthful body, the much desired body 10. Moreover, being "healthy" is no longer a desire and a natural aspiration of every person, but a kind of "tyranny" that has turned health into a duty that, according to the wellness industry, we can only satisfy through the consumption of certain commercial products and services. Thinness (even extreme) has been imposed as a canon of beauty, with the consequent explosion of miracle diets and the expansion of light foods, the extension of cosmetic surgery to social classes to which it was previously forbidden, the apology of physical exercise, and the flourishing of gyms, spas, spas and wellness centers." (Morán, R. y J. A. Díaz, Library Services Nueva, 2.007)

It is necessary to take care of our health; it is very advisable to exercise, it is good to go to the gym, but without becoming obsessed; let us not make an end of what is a means. By worrying excessively about our figure or body image we can incur in a form of inadvertent idolatry. We do not see it because it is disguised as fashion.

The risk is even greater for those who have a distorted view of their own body; those who consider that they are still far from the size of Adonis, no matter how much they exercise, can suffer from a serious emotional disorder that is currently known as "vigorexia", "Adonis complex" and "gym addiction".

That term was coined by psychiatrist Harrison G. Pope after analyzing a significant sample of the nine million Americans who attend gyms daily. He found that about one million were affected by an emotional disturbance that prevented them from seeing themselves as they really are. Despite increased workouts they still looked physically very flimsy. According to this analysis and the subsequent programs of study , this emotional disorder can evolve into an obsessive condition that causes those affected to abandon their work and social activities in order to train in the gym continuously. This is gym addiction.

I think it would be a good idea, as a prevention of the problem and as a therapy, to revive the ancient Gymnasium of the Greeks. It was not limited to physical exercise and only individually, but it was also a place of study, a place of meeting to think and a school of music. Some had a Library Services. Why not cultural gymnasiums in which the harmony (not just balance) to which body and spirit are called is experienced?