How to Be a Stoic

an evolving guide to practical Stoicism for the 21st century

Kickboxing for Stoics

So I recently signed up for kickboxing. I did it as part of my
evolving training in Stoicism. Which probably requires a little bit
of an explanation. Growing up in Rome I was exposed early on
to the stock phrase, mens sana in corpore sano, which is found
in Satire X by the Roman poet Juvenal, written in the late I and
early II century (i.e., the time of Epictetus).

Interestingly, Juvenal’s original intention was to teach his fellow

Romans about the importance of virtue:

The author with one of his kickboxing instructors, You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.

Melanie Ask for a stout heart that has no fear of death,

and deems length of days the least of Nature’s gifts
that can endure any kind of toil,
that knows neither wrath nor desire and thinks
the woes and hard labors of Hercules better than
the loves and banquets and downy cushions of Sardanapalus.
What I commend to you, you can give to yourself;
For assuredly, the only road to a life of peace is virtue.

If that doesn’t sound Stoic, I don’t know what does! A similar sentiment can actually be traced back to Thales of
Miletus, one of the first pre-Socratic philosophers: “What man is happy? He who has a healthy body, a resourceful
mind and a docile nature.”

Of course the generally accepted meaning of Juvenal’s phrase has gotten detached from the original context about
virtue, and has come to mean that the foundation of a good life lies in a combination of physical and mental health,
with the implication — confirmed by modern science — that the two are actually related.

I internalized that message long before turning to Stoicism as a philosophy of life, and did what most people do, es-
pecially in the US: I signed up for a gym membership, and more or less religiously attended, two or three times a
week, following a rotating series of aerobic and strength training exercises. Which was incredibly boring. Every time
I was greeted by the nice woman at the gym’s desk with a broad smile and a peppy “enjoy your workout!” I wanted
to retort: “who on earth enjoys a workout?!?”

Nonetheless, I stuck with it, and later came to use my trips to the gym as exercises in Stoic endurance and persever-
ance, coming to think of the health benefits as side effects (preferred indifferents), rather than the main point of the
thing.

But then I remembered about Cleanthes, the second head of the Stoa after Zeno and before Chrysippus. He has a
mixed reputation even among Stoics, in part because his tenure at the school was sandwiched between that of two
giants — one the one hand, the founder of Stoicism, on the other hand, the guy of whom Diogenes Laertius said that
“there would be no Stoa without.” But in part also because Cleanthes was apparently responsible for a temporary
decline in the fortunes of the Stoic school, since he wasn’t exactly an inspiring teacher.

Still, he was a remarkable character. Early in life he was a boxer, thus embodying the tradition of philosophers who
were also athletes (think of Plato: we don’t actually know his real name, “Plato” just means broad shouldered, a ref-
erence to the fact that he was a wrestler). Cleanthes was poor when he arrived in Athens to study philosophy, first
under Crates the Cynic — Zeno’s own teacher — and then under Zeno. He was forced to work night shifts as a water
carrier for a gardener in order to keep himself in school, and his apparent lack of income (he was seen only studying
philosophy during the day) got him summoned in court to account for his income. When he explained his predica-
ment, the judges voted to give him a payment of ten minae, which Zeno did not allow him to accept (it was only a
bit later on that Stoics agreed to be paid for their teachings, breaking with the Socratic tradition).

Cleanthes was such a hard and methodical worker that he was nicknamed “the ass,” a label he apparently enjoyed
and appropriated. His moral rectitude was such that Zeno designated him as his successor, and he taught Chrysip-
pus in turn. Cleanthes died at the very ripe age of 99, about 230 BCE. He had suffered of a terrible ulcer and he start-
ed fasting. He then continued his abstinence from food, thus choosing to die. He said that he found himself already
half-way to death, and he wouldn’t bother retracing his steps.

What is most relevant to this story, of course, is that Cleanthes was a boxer. That inspired me to look for some kind
of physical activity that was more reminiscent of what the ancient Greco-Romans were doing than just going to a
standard gym. I don’t care much for boxing itself, though, and pancratium instructors are hard to find in New York.
Then again, pancratium was an all-out type of wrestling, which included kicking and punching (though no biting was
allowed!). That, and a number of early bouts in my youth with martial arts (Judo, Shaolin Kung Fu, and Karate), made
the choice obvious: kickboxing it would be. (The fact that there is a gym only a couple of blocks from my apartment
in Chelsea, Manhattan, was a nice preferred indifferent.)

So about three times a week I get up at 6:15, get my gear, and walk to the gym, where the first session begins at
6:30. The routine consists of fifteen minutes or so of a very (very) intense aerobic and strength workout, followed by
a few minutes of stretching, and then 35-40 minutes of kicking and punching a bag suspended from the ceiling,
practicing jab, cross, hook, uppercut, front kicks, side kicks, and my favorite, roundhouse kicks.

The health benefits are significant and pretty obvious to most of the regular participants. Because the workout is
closely supervised by a number of trainers, you really do work out, sweating and grunting all the way. And the
punching and kicking isn’t leisurely either, since it is done pretty much non-stop and at a fairly high intensity. It feels
good on your body, and it also help reduce your stress level (just imagine a suitable opponent’s face at the top of the
punching bag and go at it!).

But of course for me a major point is to see kickboxing within the framework of Stoicism, which means that the
whole experience is mostly not about losing weight or learning how to kick the shit out of imaginary adversaries.

Rather, the exercise is first and foremost a metaphor for life itself, as Marcus put it: “The art of life is more like the
wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets that are sudden
and unexpected.” (Meditations, VII.61)

Or consider Epictetus: “‘Get up’, says the trainer, ‘and wrestle again, until you are made strong.’ Let this be your atti-
tude; for know that nothing is more amenable than the mind of man. You have but to will a thing and it is done, and
all is right; on the other hand you have but to relax your effort and all is lost. For destruction and deliverance lie
within you.” (Discourses IV, 9)

Indeed, one of the things our trainers constantly tell us is not to let go, to keep pushing, even by a little, to get more
out of our bodies and efforts. That’s also how the Stoics make progress toward wisdom (without necessarily ever
reaching it): you push yourself a bit more every day, and when you fail you simply get up again and resume from
where you left.

Another similarity between kickboxing and Stoic practices is the focus on the here and now. Having to punch or kick
a bag over and over requires effort (you are punching and kicking, not gently nudging!) and concentration. You don’t
want to get distracted by other thoughts, like what you need to do at work after you leave the gym, because other-
wise you will not do your job as a kickboxer properly (which can result in injuries, among other things). As Don
Robertson puts it while explaining the similarities between Stoicism and modern psychotherapy, “The ‘here and
now’ philosophy of Gestalt therapy is a figure of speech translating the Latin hic et nunc, one of the key themes of
Stoic psychotherapy: returning awareness to the present moment.”

Larry Becker, in A New Stoicism, interprets the eudaimonic life the Stoics were striving towards as characterized by
maximization of agency, within the constrains imposed by an ethical compass (i.e., a maximally agentic psychopath
would not be a good Stoic). This means that eudaimonia is a state of being, not an outcome, similar to the modern
concept of “flow” in psychology, introduced by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, as illustrated in this diagram:
In order to be in the “flow zone,” one needs to be doing whatever she is doing at a combination of high skill and high
challenge levels. This is precisely what a good kickboxing session is like: you literally feel the empowering sensation
of your body and mind being coordinated to accomplish the task at hand, which makes the hour in the gym go fast
and provides you with an afterglow deriving from the intimate, first person knowledge that you have done well.
Likewise in Stoic practice: the prokopton challenges himself at the highest level possible because that’s the way to
improve his skills at living life; and vice versa, his improving skills make it possible for him to push the challenge one
or two levels higher.

Regardless of whether it is kickboxing, Judo, Kung Fu, or any other martial art or type of wrestling, it looks like Juvenal
had a point: a healthy body goes hand in hand with a healthy mind, and the two favor the practice of virtue. More-
over, I think the much under appreciated Cleanthes should be reevaluated as a role model for the Stoic in training.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

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This entry was posted in Modern Stoicism on November 3, 2016 [https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.-

com/2016/11/03/kickboxing-for-stoics/] .

14 thoughts on “Kickboxing for Stoics”

Ron
November 3, 2016 at 7:24 am

I agree; going to the gym bores me to tears. Hmm… (I like your Batman t-shirt!)

jmyers8888
November 3, 2016 at 8:15 am

Okay, but I still prefer dancing, which I just did last night and do 2-3 times a week. The sort of dance I do (contra
dancing) is aerobic and social. I supplement that by 30 minutes on the elliptical on days I dance, and 60 minutes
when I don’t. Besides, dance has live music (also of some philosophical value?), and I can listen to podcasts (like
“Rationally Speaking”) when running on the elliptical.
 Roberto Figliè (@RFiglie)
November 3, 2016 at 8:30 am

Great post Massimo! I think that fighting sports are the best as a mind-body gym for a Stoic. I practice brazilian jiu-
jitsu since 3 years now (one and a half year before I started practicing Stoicism) and it needs you to have a complete
control over your entire body, in particular how you choose to use your energy and strenght, and control your
breathe of course (especially when someone is trying to choke you). Also, being a type of wrestling after all, with
many techniques you have to keep in mind while fighting, you really have to be hic et nunc, otherwise someone will
make you remember it .
Enjoy your workouts!

Jaycel Adkins
November 3, 2016 at 9:10 am

Just a delightful article to read. I started practicing Jiu Jitsu a couple of months ago as a form of ‘hard winter training’
a la Epictetus.

maylynno
November 3, 2016 at 10:07 am

Very interesting and witty. Yoga is a stoic discipline too. love this post!

William Ferraiolo
November 3, 2016 at 10:17 am

Ever seen Gunnar Nelson fight? He’s a UFC cage fighter…and the best modern exemplar of a Stoic combat athlete
you’re likely to find.

Shane Sullivan
November 3, 2016 at 6:20 pm
This reminds me of certain passages from the Zhuangzi; Cook Ding, Woodcarver Qing, the Hunchback and the Ci-
cadas, etc., which David Wong compares to the skills of musicians and dancers. Interestingly, Wong also cites Larry
Becker in the same section of his article on Chinese Ethics, but on the subject of accepting one’s fate with
equanimity:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-chinese/#DaoEth

Also, off-topic, I have that same Batman t-shirt!

“NO ONE SAID I WAS

BATMAN
ALL I’M SAYING IS
YOU’LL NEVER SEE
US IN THE SAME
PLACE TOGETHER”

Bruno Hausdorff
November 3, 2016 at 10:18 pm

Great! I got curious when you said in another post that was practicing.

Dustin Paul Richard

November 5, 2016 at 11:14 am

Small world – I go to the same kickboxing studio! (Melanie actually signed me up!) I can only do night sessions,
though, so I doubt we’ll pair up for partner drills anytime soon. In any case, enjoy!

viennahavana
November 5, 2016 at 2:55 pm

Massimo, I loved this post. Years ago I struggled with a fear of walking home alone in my neighborhood at night. I
found a Krav Maga teacher who taught me how to defend myself. It was from practicing once a week for more than
2 years that I learned I could fight hard (and visualize doing significant damage to an attacker). The lessons were
about how to survive a fight by using whatever force was necessary, and as a result it taught me courage. Feeling
attacked during the lesson made me face my fear, stay alert in the present moment, and re-examine the ongoing
anxiety as being an “impression and not the thing itself” (Epictetus) as I learned that I could really protect myself. I
also learned practical wisdom (i.e., how to walk at night, to look out for odd behaviors, to avoid putting myself in
dangerous situations). Even more practical wisdom came from learning that the “first rule of fighting is to avoid a
fight” and in the training to develop resilience and maximize agency (the ability to act if/when the need arises)… I
would definitely recommend learning a combat sport as a form of Stoic practice.

Massimo Post author

November 5, 2016 at 6:14 pm

Dustin,

Wow! Small world indeed!

Vienna,

Exactly right, on all counts.

Tim
November 6, 2016 at 5:30 pm

Great post! Coincidentally, I was planning to go to the gym after reading a little online. Now having read this, I’m go-
ing to ask at the gym if they have any kickboxing classes and look into this further. Before today, I would have never
imagined doing kickboxing. I previously thought it was a just a full contact sport (which would terrify me). But if it
can also be a good form of exercise with just a punching bag to pound (that doesn’t pound back) –that interests me!
Thanks!

Massimo Post author

November 7, 2016 at 7:46 am

Tim,
It varies with the gym, some do focus on the fighting aspect, mine does not, it is only good vigorous exercise and
stress reduction. I’m really enjoying it.

Erskine Kevorkian (@adaephus)

November 7, 2016 at 2:46 pm

Following the nudging of this blog, I started to immerse myself in Stoicism (and virtue ethics in general) a few
months more than a year ago. Now just two months ago from today, I started attending kickboxing classes myself,
also inspired by the example of Cleanthes, and things like Epictetus’ talk of a ‘winter training’ (a quote already men-
tioned above by Jaycel Adkins). As such, this post made me smile a lot. It makes me I feel as if I must have achieved
a pass mark :’) Thanks for all the commentary you’ve provided over the last year (and more, of course!), Massimo.
It’s greatly appreciated.

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