On the basis of the theory of Benedict Anderson on the „imagined political community“, the work analyses the processes of construction of bodily ideal and movement patterns in physical exercises of the Czech sport association Sokol („Eagle“). Through gymnastics based on Greek mythology and Plato, through large-scale floor exercises, through paramilitary marches, body became a tool for constructing national identity. Through ritualized exercise and the use of body symbolics, body became „nationally encoded“. However, Anderson’s concept of „imagined community“ does not suffice for an explication of the fact that at the end of the nineteenth century Sokol achieved great increase of members. Especially for young gymnasts of both sexes membership in the association entailed the fulfillment of concrete social and psychological needs. Contact with coevals and pubertal search for one’s own identity were equally important in mass integration into Sokol as individual pursuit of better performance. The author raises a query if the perception of Sokol as „popular“ (instead of „national“) movement represents a meaningful cathegorial enlargement. Dance figures and Greek myths dealing with the purity of the body indicate a „popular“ ideology of the association, separated from the political ideas of modem nation.