Reflections | Even Confucius was buff? How ancient China prized strength and fitness

Against my better judgment, I took out a gym membership in Prague. It turns out that my usual exercise regime – brisk walking for up to an hour every day – is not as practical in the city as I had imagined, at least not in my part of Prague.

Cobblestone pavements are pretty to look at, but they are made for leisurely strolls, not aerobic walks, unless spraining an ankle or two is your intention. There are parks and green spaces near my flat, but they are either too small or they reek of marijuana, alcohol or urine, sometimes all three at once. The only smooth, level footpaths nearby run alongside busy roads, and car fumes do not make for healthy lungs.

Not so a few of the men at my gym. Their enormous muscles, together with the telltale signs of back acne and an oddly aggressive swagger, suggest chemical assistance. For them, exercising at the gym seems to be less about health and fitness than about achieving a particular physical aesthetic.

To each his own, I say. But man, can they lift weights! At the machines, my modest stack of plates looks positively dainty beside the towering columns of iron they heave.

Displays of brute strength have fascinated people for millennia. China, in particular, has never lacked legendary figures whose physical prowess bordered on the mythical. Among them, however, one stands out for an unexpected reason: Kongzi, better known in the West as Confucius.

Few people today imagine the sage, who died in 479BC, as anything other than a gentle philosopher. Yet historical sources describe him as an exceptionally tall man – well over six feet (183cm) in modern measurements – who possessed such extraordinary strength that he could single-handedly lift the massive wooden locking bar from a city gate.