Apparently gladiators were not the lean, mean fighting machines portrayed in popular cinema. They were instead pudgy, mean fighting machines. They ate a mostly vegetarian diet and took calcium supplements to increase bone density.
From the illustration, they'd probably look more like a typical Rugby front row than Hollywood's ideal fighting man.
So if anyone out there is writing a historical novel set in Roman times, the article might be useful.
And then, after writing this post, I glanced out of the window to see what the weather was doing so I could choose the appropriate icon -- and grabbed my camera, because realised I needed to make another!