Physical Exercise for Virtue
Caring for the body through exercise is a duty insofar as it supports the primary task of rational and moral excellence.
Stoics did not despise the body but saw its care as a secondary duty in service of the primary aim of rational virtue. Physical health supports mental clarity and the ability to serve others effectively. Exercise is thus a Stoic practice when undertaken for these reasons rather than vanity.
Galen himself was a keen promoter of exercise — Stoic physicians integrated physical and moral health.
The Stoic integration of physical and moral health anticipates modern mind-body medicine and the ancient concept of mens sana in corpore sano.
Meditations