So this means, that at some point in history, there was the equivalent of Dana White matchmaking gladiators and setting up the fights. Instead of conor mcgregor vs khabib it was Maximums Decimus vs Aurelius + 2 elephants and a tiger.
Yep, were the common folk, and there's still slavery, the rich are still the rich, and the monarchs and nuclear families still run everything, just modernize our times and language, make old harsh words seem less cruel, and were still in the same times. We just have better gadgets to play with and keep our minds numb and dumb!
One could suspect that the calcium drink helped strengthen their bones, however, it has been proven that skeletal loading has more of an impact on bone density. The simple fact that they lifted weights daily, probably had more of an impact on their bone density and strength.
Energy is never created or destroyed, only transferred. If your bones grew, there must be a source of calcium in the diet. Training is the stimulus for growth, diet provides the resources to grow, its not one or the other but the combination of the two. If you workout but don't eat protein your muscles won't grow. If you workout but don't eat calcium your bones won't grow.
@@mmmdazzagoodmemeayzzz7264 Not necessarily true. There are people who can deadlift around 400 to 500lbs that weigh less than 145. In order to do this, the body in a caloric deficit won't increase in muscle size, but instead the body makes the structure of the cells change and the nervous system is trained to recruit more fibers to compensate for the lack of size.
Too much calcium is connected to osteoporosis, so if the amount were quite ok over a longer time, then the combination is valid for bone density. As an adult you don't need so much extra calcium.
Bone & char drinks would also be high in phosphorous (calcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite). It is an essential nutrients that can be consumed in high amounts without risk. Since it factors into building bones, the high bone density of gladiators may be attributable in part to the nutrients provided by bone meal.
@@cautarepvp2079 the way the Romans did it was to burn certain plants and animal bones in the wood fire until they were ash and then soak the ashes in water, drinking the filtered results. IMO the Legion military drink was water fortified with vinegar (Posca). Using this water to dissolve ashes would have served to establish an acceptable pH, as well as facilitate solubility of minerals. Not a lot of detail was provided in Pliny's and Galen's writing. IMO the drink was a herbal tea infusion perhaps even wine, thus it included non-burned herbs as well as herbal ashes together with the bone ashes in the buffered vinegar water. Recipes for Posca include cumin, fennel seed, pennyroyal, celery seed, anise, thyme, scammony (convolvus scammonia), salt. The last herbal ingredient would make this posca a laxative ... At least two herbs are still burned today for culinary use: leek and horseradish. I expect that the gladiator drink as was made by wrapping small bones leftover from previous meals with leeks and horseradish, and then burned to ash which would include wood and straw ash, as well. One last ash source Romans used was Juniper.
As though as the life of a gladiator might seem (or was, actually), they often did have a relatively good life... A gladiator, usually the most fit and/or fierce slave, often was ridiculously expensive and an Ianista wouldn't have to think twice to keep him as comfortable as possible, physically AND mentally. That also includes, from time to time, feasts, comfort food and ofcourse... women. Gladiators were highly adored by the female Roman population, and many would've seen the insides of a noblewoman's villa. The Chad of the Roman Era.
I once read (I don't remember the source) that gladiators were so 'desired' (both because of their fame and their physique) that some wealthy-enough women payed (the lanista) for a night with them. The lanista made money, the gladiator got 'relief', and so did the lady (who maybe even bragged with her friends, who knows, aristocracy is wierd). [Sorry for any grammar errors, English is not my first language but I'm practicing.]
Super interesting topic! People often think gladiators and the way they fought were consistent throughout the Roman history, so there's always one hard standpoint that death and injury was common and often liked by the public and the other standpoint that it was like a martial arts or sports event where death was super uncommon and just an unfortunate coincidence. The truth is somewhere in the middle and also who became a gladiator and so on. In the early Roman times, kingdom times and pre republican times those games were held as a spectacle to the gods, often with POWs fighting to the death (something that would continue, executions and execution battles took place throughout all Roman history but later on they were rather uncommon, but not totally unheard of) Before, during and after the Spartacus rebellion (late republic and still quite there in the minds in the times of the first emperors), the lannistas became a bigger business and stopped using POWs and criminals, also because it was deemed highly dangerous to the safety of the empire, so that's when the sport evolved and it became also much more popular with the public. This is probably the turning point where civilians became gladiators voluntarily and in the late empire (afte some bans here and there) it evolved into the huge spectalces that even surpassed wagon racing and horse racing (Romans did really dig ancient formula 1, most of the times even more than gladiator fights throughout history btw)
I mean, not at all lol. Training gladiators was extremely expensive and thus they most of the time didn't fight to the dead in the arena. They only fought a few times a year and were likely to die from cuts after the fights due to limited medical knowledge and unsanitary environment.
@daymal2717 I didn't get turned on by the men. I saw well-trained men. It was amazing to see the shape they could get in with diet, discipline, and training
Evidence of basically vegetarians being bully is really only coming to light. But people don't want to hear it. I'm not vegan or a vegetarian, but good to know you do not need expensive cuts of meat to bulk.
This subject is always fascinating. A lot of movies have been made showing the gladiators in the arena. I can see why the Lanista wouldn't want to waste his investment in fights to the death.
History was cruel but Hollywood over exaggerated human cruelty often in soldiers, work forces, even slaves. These practices were always common but no one wanted to throw away a tool they heavily relied on.
@@steeldriver1776no buddy.... slavery was actually worse then what they teach... don't take away from black history for ur wannabe know it all comment "slavery wasn't as bad" bs
I had no idea that they had such perfect patterns of training procedures in those ancient times. Most of the trainers in my generation were pushing us too hard without rest. Took me years before I learned the quality of recouperation.
Great video as usual ! Would love to see your take on what Gladiators *actually* were in the Roman society. Maybe busting myths around the downward thumb, or more details on if they killed eached other or not (I've heard people claiming both versions), or their statuses as slaves/citizens... this kind of things ! If you think there is enough content for this, I'm sure it would make an awesome video, even thought it might re-use part of the info in here.
Originally, gladiators were not supposed to kill each other. They were used for festivals and funeral games. The spectacle was in the movements of battle that they showed. It was more of an art than anything else. A gladiator was a very big economic investment. And having them be killed is like burning your house down for the fun of it. We have all heard of Spartacus and many believe that he was a Thracian slave. But that is not correct. Spartacus was originally a Roman legionary from Capua. An officer in fact - a Tribune of the soldiers. But he got into trouble and was given a choice of death or being sold into slavery as a gladiator. He chose to be a gladiator. And he was a good one. Until, in a public match he killed his opponent by decapitating him. Then he was cast out from being a gladitor and became a common slave. That is when he started his rebellion.
High dairy high animal protien requires strong stomach acid to digest. This increases acid loads in the body and blood. This causes calcium stripping from the bones to neutralize and balance blood pH.
@@middelz2 the body is mad smart. I couldn't give the synthesis schematic in a text message. Even if I understood it myself. Calcium is a good ph buffer. And the body knows bones is where the calcium is warehoused
Its true that's why no powerlifters eat meat, it makes their bones too weak. Jokes, dairy is literally one of the main sources of calcium in your diet. Why would it leach calcium from your bones? There are legitimate reasons to maybe limit dairy and red meat consumption but this is just wrong.
Strontium would increase as a result of them drinking stove ashes, as Pliny the Elder points out in Naturalis Historia. This would give their bones twice the strength of an average person. I never heard of the bones and charred vegetables powdered ash though. Curious if this was another source of increasing bone strength used either before or after they realized you could used charred tree bark. Either way, this concept has always deeply fascinated me, because you then wonder, which is superior? Their method or ours? I mean their bones are twice as strong, and I don't know of any athlete who diets in a manner that has bone strength in mind.
Was there any info on how exactly they measure bone strength to arrive at such a convenient number? It's going to be really difficult to come to any conclusion if we don't know their measurement methodology and what the average was at the time. Pliny could have been repeating a widespread but incorrect factoid at the time for all we know. It's not uncommon for historical writers to write confidently while being demonstrably wrong especially on matters of science.
It's not that they trained and dieted specifically for increased bone strength. This is simply the finding from the archeologists, as skeletons is all that remains of gladiators, beside the preserved historic sources. If you look at modern athletes training with similar amount of impact to the body (which is one of the main stimuli for bone strength growth) you will find that they have similar bone strength. And modern diets also provide the nutrition needed for bone growth. Increased bone strength goes along with increased muscle strength and loading/impact intensity on the body.
i love your videos so much, ancient greece and rome and gladiators are amongst the topics i love most, so its great to see content on this, thanks so much
Main downside of eating so much barley is that it's insufficient in 2 aminoacids, which makes it less valuable to build muscles. Consuming over 300g of protein would mitigate that (if my memory serves, it's like they'd eat 150g of "whole protein", which should still be enough, though not as much). Romans did see that, as there are some that noted that muscles of the gladiators were soft yet strong, which would be strange to imagine
Interesting episode! That's soo much barley! Do you happen to know if they were eating whole grain barley or more the kind of "pearl barley" you find in supermarkets nowadays? (Of course interested in adding some to my diet! ;)
3:20 did the Greeks or Romans have intricate scales for heavy weights? I know they had stuff for grams, but was not sure about these bulkier items. I assume they had to know how heavy to load a ship for instance. Or animals of burden. Or in this case know how heavy 250 lbs is, unless they just guessed with relatively similar items and said, "that's close enough". A video on scales would be interesting or more on logistics.
Their stronger bones would have also been because of their weight lifting exercises. Weight lifting has shown to help increase bone strength and density over time.
You could have mentioned, that in the beginning of the gladiator fights, the different classes were fobidden to fight each others. There were same class fights only.
did you watch the video? there are clear references to classes fighting each other, what you describe makes no sense. They were forbidden from training with each other is probably what you are thinking of, and was mentioned in this video.
the fact that they knew what proteins and calories were, without advanced scientific equipment, among other things, is mind boggling. How did they figure it out?
I understand this is a very tough lifestyle and by no means a walk in the park, but it's as simple as it gets; not at all complex. You train all day, you fight whenever you get a bout, your food, shelter, and all other necessities are provided for you. It's the BEST! It would be the same as prison if the other stupid prisoners weren't riddled with emotions and "mental illness" and addictions and stuff.
Incredible video as always, you do bring up the lesser known facts of roman civilisation. I would however like to see a video about the famous Praetorian Guard, comparing their training to normal legionaries. They were known to not always be stationed outside of Rome and therefore were less familiar with battlefield combat, yet they were handpicked due to their outstanding performance in battle. I'd like to see a more in depth video that shines light on how they retained their combat expertise.
The couple times they were fielded against active legionaries they got crushed. Perhaps some were picked for outstanding performance, especially in the Pax Romana, but I'm sure more got in via connections or favors-for-favors. It was a glorified retirement program. Like you said, they seldom faced any real threats, so even if their training was any different from a veteran legionary, there probably wasn't a lot of oversight to enforce it. Think of something today like a corporate boardroom with 50 guys or bloated hospital administration. The Praetorian Guard rapidly stopped existing as an elite bodyguard and moreso became a big carrot for soldiers of a position where they wouldn't have to do much work and bilk a bunch of influence and wealth out of the station... oh, and kill several emperors.
I was vegan for almost a year. Ran 3 - 5 miles every other day or so (not a great runner but made myself do it), rode a bike 10 - 20 miles a couple of days a week, & did bodyweight exercise often, some weights & some occasional swimming. I never got sick... felt good, lost 30 pounds. Holidays came & I tried a little ham & it was Over. Lol I didn't realize how much I had missed Meat. I eat along the lines of an Okinawan style diet (balanced & proven healthy over decades) & still love a good Steak now & then. It is what it is... I drink bone broth too btw for the collagen, etc. The bone meal is a good idea. I fed bone meal & bone broth, to my (fairly large - almost 90 lbs) rottie / retriever mix as a puppy to make sure she had a good solid foundation for the rest of her life. She jumps like crazy & even spins around in the air when doing so, so apparently Something we did worked. Lots of chicken soup (when we make it) rice & vegetables for her too. (Sorry to get sidetracked, just nuts about my dog, hahaha). Thanks for the interesting & informative videos. Subbed. Peace all.
No wonder gladiators and gladiatrixes have few deaths in Colosseum Arena. Each was worth between 3 to 4 years worth of a person's annual salaries/wages. Example: Using USD currency. A modern person makes an average $60,000 per year. Times 3x to 4x. That $180,000 to $240,000. That's about a quarter million dollars for each gladiator and gladiatrix.
I lift weights and I can see that diet being beneficial. Diet wise you've got two cycles today, bulking where you have an excess of calories (plenty of protein), and cutting where you have a deficiency in calories (still plenty of protein). Sounds like these gladiators were on a permabulk. If your math is right 300 g of protein is ridiculously high as a person usually needs 0.6-1g of protein per day to build muscle. I weigh 190 so that means at most I need 190 g of protein.
In fact they were! During a civil war called “the year of the 4 emperors”, 2000 gladiators from Rome were said to have accompanied the army of Otho to fight Vitellius. In the end they got defeated by the Rhine legions, but that’s still a very interesting occurrence!
We have an account of that during the invasion of Hannibal. Slaves and gladiators were recruited in order to protect Rome from a potential siege by the carthaginians.
Those grippers are no joke. I can close level 4 and only barely move level 5 and have not met anyone that can close level 5 in my whole life. I cant imagine level 6
I'm ex-Army Infantry, but I doubt I would do very well in these "games". I simply do not have the body for it. I was able to take orders, but being ordered to kill a defenseless opponent I would refuse and probably end up like Draba, in Spartacus. If I even lasted that long.
Meh, with the bod of a good grunt you might do as a Retiarius. I found that in Iraq most of our opponents (the insurgents) were effectively defenseless in firefights due to their incompetence (though they were pretty good at building bombs and terrorizing ordinary folk), but for starters, we knew they were well worth killing after seeing what they'd done to the women and children in the neighborhoods they'd rampaged through, and secondly, more to your point, I never had to kill anyone super up close, especially not when they were asking for mercy, so I just don't know how well you or I would do as a gladiator. Thankfully, we'll never find out!
@@Nosedruul that is because the enemy as a whole, does not train as well as we do. Nor do they have or did have anyway, the tech we do. Anything we or our allies have lost when they were killed and not recovered or when fleeing, they took. Which is why we usually give old, but still effective tech to our allies or governments we support. Regardless MOUT or what ever it is called now, was the training to fight in the cities. Obviously there is a lot of desert over there, but if you are in the neighborhoods, fighting tactics change. It becomes more up close and personal, provided you are trying to preserve the structure and any innocence in it or around it. I also think that being a gladiator and being ordered to kill your downed opponent would be like being ordered to kill another service member of a different branch in the military or even another solider from a different division or company. It just wouldn't sit right.
@sproge2142 your math on protein is not good. Barley 1Kg -> 120 g of protein Broadbeans 700g -> 182 g of protein Lettuce 400g -> 6 g of protein or in case of cabbage 5g of protein Some form of fruit which has broad range of between 0.3g and 4g which is 1 to 12g of protein for 300g of fruit. So 315 gram of protein approx. Also old strains of plants were not like the modern, different genetics and better soil quality, much more nutrient dense...It might have bean much more than 315g of protein.
@@HistoriaMilitum yes I know. I was explaining that to comment of @sproge2142 below. I should probably copy in their reply section. Sorry for the confusion. By the way great job, I am watching your other videos now. You are killing it 👍
This was very interesting, as a body builder for 30 years I can tell you it must be hard to out on all that fat. It’s interesting how many rest days they had and as far as bone density, resistance training on its own really increases bone density a lot, that’s why it’s recommended to older ladies to prevent osteoporosis
The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a trailing, annual, herbaceous legume plant cultivated worldwide for its dry edible seeds or green, unripe pods. It is originally from Mexico and brought to Europe as part of the Columbian exchange in 1528. so the gladiators could not have it on the menu
2:41 Tetrades are the Greece invention. Romans were inviting Greek coaches to train the cast. The forth day was not hard, unless working on a form is hard to you.
Calcium drink was their day Gatorade. It had electrolytes in it. Like Brondo. Probably, first thing the noticed it curbed was abdominal cramps and muscle cramping from overworking muscles in the Mediterranean humid heat. Sodium potassium pump with calcium and magnesium is vital for long endurance and strength in the heat. Needed replaced and that’s what they knew what to do. Our ancestors weren’t novice on how to work in the heat. It was the way it was. No AC back then. 😊
Good video, but I did some quick math on their protein intake as 315 grams of protein is a looooot, and I came up quite short with the listed diet. 1kg of Barley is 120g protein, 700g broadbeans 56, 400 gram lettuce 5.6, totaling 181.6 grams of protein. So almost half the protein is unaccounted for. Don't know if you included the ash drink or something else to make it to such huge numbers or what happened?
315 grams of protein is indeed a huge amount and I can't imagine it would come from the diet depicted in the video. That said, 181 grams of protein would still be optimal for athletes, considering 2 grams of protein per kg optimizes muscle growth and more has not been reliably proven to be beneficial. So a 90kg gladiator would still be good, and I can't imagine them being much heavier than that.
@@ahnuldschwarzenegger1 That sounds quite resonable. He did mention the ash drink thing, I have no idea how much protein that would actually give, but I can't imagine it'd be 130 grams of protein much, and as you said 180 g is already plenty. I must admit I found it surprising how much protein there is in barley, but damn it must that have been miserable to hulk down a kilo of it every single day! 😂
@@sproge2142 That would be one hell of a protein shake if it contained that much protein 😉. But if you train all day long every day, your body screams for food, and when you're hungry enough you'll probably eat a kg of barley a day. I've had days, I wolfed down so much food I had to stop myself because if I had eaten more, it would have come out during the next training, but my body was screaming to eat more. I didn't really care what it was at the time. SomI guess that's how Roman gladiators felt every day.
@@ahnuldschwarzenegger1 haha, you took the words right out of my mind about the protein shake! 🤣 I find it really interesting to learn about the food habits of the past, there are so many what are to us obvious conventions about how we eat our food, rules where people will look at you like you're crazy if you break, things like just eating bread or meat entirely by itself. I honestly don't understand how people could just chow down a loaf of barley bread without butter or anything. Related to that I've been hooked on documentaries about the people living in siberia, and their diets are just as "crazy", just meat and dairy products with very little imported carbohydrates. And the native nomadic people is beyond even that, when they slaughter a raindeer the whole family gathers around the animal and they just slice open the stomach, pull out the guts, pour on salt to stop the blod from coagulating and then just chow down on the organs and drink all the blood. Food is one of the few things that bring us all together, but man the difference in diets in time and people is just so wild and it's not a topic often explored properly imo.
I used to think gladiators were like the bravest front line soldiers mixed with mma stars, now i relaize they are closer to wwf nstars with a bit of the latter !
Wow so grinding up bones is a real thing? Apparently they still do that in protein drinks today. I drink mass gainer protein shakes and on the Amazon reviews people complain that they find bones of different types in the bags. They even have pictures of it. So that means they really do grind up bones and feed it to us?
It seems to me that they were the athlete superstars for their era, not unlike John Cena, the Rock and Lebron James. Perhaps they even had merch and collectible items as well?
Think it’s a stretch to say their diet made them fat and this is something there’s much conjecture about. Complex carbs making you fat isn’t really true. You’d have to eat them at an excess simile to animal protein
Its sounds like if a person was an exceptional good athlete with some great sportsmanship you can have a pretty good life. Especially if the person was poor. You would only fight a couple times a year, train with others constantly, be well fed and have the chance to become super famous. Kind of like fighters today. Only a handful actually get to glory but when they do its a fun journey to watch.
@@rutummaling5143its not jealousy its sensibility only 3 countries in the world use the imperial system,the rest of the world uses metric system so he is basically right
Eating ash even from wood often coated on what ever you cooked on an open fire can help the following if in moderation: Fever, Arthritis, Gout, Constipation ,Bladder problem & fluid retention issues. I use to eat a lot on open fires as a nipper & wasn't fussy like most to knock of all the ash after cooking on embers. I was in my peak health when I was young in the woods, hills & valleys with fresh air eating good nature provided from a fire. I have never met a particularly healthy fit man that cooked with an electric or gas cooker but hay exceptions exist. You can't beat wood & untreated charcoal in my experience. Honestly becoming an adult having obligations & limited free time working lead to my eventual health's decline. I might have had my home in London but I spent as much time out of London across Europe's wilderness & seas. What I miss most is salty sea winds & the sun on my skin with a night skies filled with the stars ever predictable as they have always been in set motion! I think their is nothing more sad then the fact most have never had untampered meat or fish cooked on a open fire or seen the nights sky without electric lighting obfuscating it. The silence can be lonesome on occasion but peaceful without hassle & worry. I have been stuck in a society for 6 years & damn if I had the breath to leave I would with with few reasons to return outside of family ties. People think we in the present know best but I say the ancients & even prehistoric humanity had far more sense in many ways! No supervisor or train to catch ever against time looking for time that is never their. Just the task at hand to find sustenance, shelter etcetera with time to your thoughts & simple matters for your own comforts.
I was getting all hyped up just by listening to the descriptions💀 I can easily see kids having a favorite gladiator, and entire groups of dudes fan girling their fighter
i do need more on their diet, i can't believe they eat 315 grams of protein. Doing my research with the quantities in this video the numbers doesn't match
Thank you for the educational video! Re: lion steakes: doubt it. lions seem to move a lot, utilzing their entire body for that, so I would surmise their meet is super tough. Lion bolognese or peposo makes more sense than steak.
My guess would be fish as part of the diet would be necessary and available through out the empire. Arenas were in the larger cities. Sardines, herring, cod and many types of seafood would plentiful from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.
The main amount of exercises was not did with dumbells, but with other heavy elements which provided grab and pull and strength to endure in different positions. Imagine yourself working in a yard, carrying bricks, stones and logs around; also pushing walls and hard elements was satisfying, as well pulling robes and other stuff. It felt good crawling around, squatting while your partner pull back a robe tied to your body. Teamwork was always successful in pairs to implement other movements.
Full body workouts aren’t really ideal unless your body is just made for that. It’s better just focusing on certain muscle groups a day so when you alternate, the groups already used can rest
