What You Can (Really) Learn About Exercise from Your Human Ancestors
The Art of Manliness10 Maalis 2021

What You Can (Really) Learn About Exercise from Your Human Ancestors

We all know how indisputably good exercise is for you. Yet a lot of folks still find it a struggle to engage in much physical activity. To understand the reason that this conflict and tension exists and how to overcome it, it helps to understand the lives of our human ancestors. Though, not the way the popular culture understands them, but the way someone who's actually studied them understands them.

My guest is such an expert guide. His name is Daniel Lieberman, and he's a Harvard professor of human evolutionary biology and the author of Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding. Today on the show, Daniel shares what we can really learn from our ancestors as to our modern relationship with exercise, while debunking some of the popular myths about our hunter-gatherer history. We begin by talking about how very recent, and actually quite weird, the whole concept of exercise is. We then discuss the fact that our ancestors were not the natural super athletes we typically imagine, what their state of physicality was really like, and how understanding their lifestyle can help us understand the competing interests going on in our own minds and bodies that can leave us feeling ambivalent about getting up and moving around. We then discuss if, as it's been said, "sitting is the new smoking," and the less and more healthy ways to sit. Daniel unpacks whether we're evolved for running, how our ancestors' strength compares to our own, and whether or not exercise helps us lose weight. We end our conversation with how this background on the past can help us in the present, by showing us the two factors that are critical in helping us moderns make exercise a habit.

Get the show notes aom.is/exercised.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jaksot(1159)

#654: How to Astronaut

#654: How to Astronaut

If you grew up in the ‘80s like me, there's a good chance you really wanted to go to space camp and you really wanted to be an astronaut. You probably had a lot of questions about what it was like to ...

21 Loka 202046min

#653: The Dirtbag's Guide to Life

#653: The Dirtbag's Guide to Life

If you call someone a dirtbag, you might be insulting them for being dishonest. Or, you might be describing their lifestyle -- their pursuit of an outdoor passion at the expense of more mainstream opt...

19 Loka 202053min

#652: Chefs' Secrets for Organizing Your Life

#652: Chefs' Secrets for Organizing Your Life

The kitchen of a busy restaurant can be a chaotic, frenetic environment. But the best chefs create a kind of personal eye in this storm, from which they can efficiently craft meal after meal without e...

14 Loka 202049min

#651: How to Turn Fear Into Fuel

#651: How to Turn Fear Into Fuel

We typically think of fear as a negative emotion. Something that feels terrible, and not only keeps us away from true danger, but also inhibits us from going after our life's goals and passions. Fear...

12 Loka 202045min

#650: Why People Are Building Bunkers for the Apocalypse

#650: Why People Are Building Bunkers for the Apocalypse

When you think about bunkers, you might be apt to think of the 1950s and people building basement and backyard fallout shelters during the Cold War. But there's a second "Doom Boom" going on right now...

7 Loka 202053min

#649: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Outsourced Expertise

#649: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Outsourced Expertise

In an age where endless streams of data, options, and information are available, it can feel like every choice -- from what TV show to watch to how to invest our money -- ought to be optimized, and ye...

5 Loka 202043min

#648: Lessons in Building Rapport from Experts in Terrorist Interrogation

#648: Lessons in Building Rapport from Experts in Terrorist Interrogation

What do you imagine when you imagine a terrorist being interrogated by an intelligence officer? The former getting roughed up? The latter yelling, banging his fists on the table, and demanding that th...

30 Syys 202057min

#647: What Happened When Two Friends Left Their Jobs to Build a Cabin Together

#647: What Happened When Two Friends Left Their Jobs to Build a Cabin Together

It's a thought that's crossed many a desk jockey's mind: "Man, I'd love to flee this office, get out from under this fluorescent-lighting, and do something more concrete with my hands. Like, maybe, bu...

28 Syys 202046min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-narsisti
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
adhd-podi
rss-rahamania
rss-niinku-asia-on
puhutaan-koiraa
kesken
psykologia
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-tietoinen-yhteys-podcast-2
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-psykalab
leikitaanko-laakaria
rss-lasnaolon-hetkia-mindfulness-tutuksi
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
rss-hereilla
rss-rentotapaus