Sport as a moral virtue; Sports and moral virtues

While more or less we emphasize the bodily health or hygienic of aerobic exercise, we neglect the more important aspect of it: the moral aspect of bodily exercise in the long run. In this article the writer tries to highlight this hidden dimension of exercises in general. To achieve this aim, first I have reviewed different approaches to doing bodily exercises, such medical benefit or emotional joy, then I have argued that doing exercise consistently in the long run have three moral functions for us: first, it increases our awareness, leading to self-knowledge; second, it helps us to our bodily impulses and master it in the right way; and third, it lead us to cultivating moral virtues as courage, patience, moderation, pain tolerance, prudence, facing and overcoming fears, and wisdom. So, it seems reasonable to look at physical exercise as ethical practice.