A Harvard professor’s book explains why humans are made to sit, not run

JVTech News A Harvard professor’s book explains why humans are made to sit, not run

Running or sitting?

The culture of sports and fitness is becoming more and more prevalent in our lives, until society decides not to do sports. however, Daniel E. Lieberman analyzes and debunks the myth that a healthy lifestyle depends on consistent physical exercise over time.. And this is not a superficial or ignorant opinion, because he is a professor of evolutionary biology and at Harvard University. In his book ExerciseThat explains “How we never evolved to exercise, why it’s good for our health and what we should do”A quote that is actually the subtitle of the book itself.

According to Lieberman, Humans are not made for sports and there is no scientific evidence to the contrary. From a scientific perspective, exercise is an activity foreign to our bodies. However, the author believes that exercise, if done in moderation, has enormous health benefits. Many people around the world scramble to get as much exercise as possible. Maybe they will find some peace of mind after reading this professor’s arguments and they will try to control their sports sessions as best as possible.

Evolution did not make us runners

Throughout the pages of Exercise, which maintains the thesis that evolution did not make us runners. We are made to walk and above all, to sit. Daniel E. Lieberman points out that, historically, humanity evolved in environments that did not require standing for long periods of time.Enjoy time spent sitting or lying down telling stories or doing crafts.

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However, when the time was right, our ancestors could walk more than 12 kilometers a day to get food, whether by hunting or gathering.. That is why the author believes that it is not necessary to punish such human activity so severely. Instead, he suggests promoting healthier ways of doing it, Make sure you don’t spend more than 45 minutes sitting at a time and, of course, avoid sitting all day..

thesis of Exercise It also points out that we have an innate tendency to conserve energy. According to Lieberman, “Compared to other mammals, humans may have evolved to be particularly reluctant to exercise”. This phenomenon has a seemingly simple explanation, but a complex nature: basal metabolism.

Important tasks that drain our energy

Basal metabolism corresponds to the minimum amount of energy required by the body to maintain vital functions at rest. ie in case of total physical and mental inactivity. Thus, regulation of blood circulation or body temperature is included in this group. These tasks alone represent a large portion of daily energy expenditure, or about 60 to 75% of the total energy used by the body. In addition, the brain itself consumes 20 to 25% of the energy required for basic metabolism. According to Lieberman’s data, An 82-kilogram person burns about 1,700 calories, even if he spends the entire day resting..

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In his book, the author details the relationship between sports, health and illness. It explains why walking is easier on our bodies than running, by doing sports sessions that don’t push us to the limit. All its analysis is always carried out while avoiding falling into remission of a sedentary lifestyle., as we mentioned in the beginning. However it is impossible to cover everything that Lieberman mentions ExerciseWe could argue that the latter allows certain patterns known to keep us active, Like make sure we take at least 10,000 steps a day.