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

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.

Episoder(1158)

An Undercover Cop’s Tips on How to Influence Others and Navigate Life

An Undercover Cop’s Tips on How to Influence Others and Navigate Life

It’s not uncommon for former law enforcement officers and intelligence agents to write self-help books where they share how the lessons they learned in their professional careers can apply to people i...

11 Nov 202446min

When to Eat — The Optimal Schedule for Metabolic Health

When to Eat — The Optimal Schedule for Metabolic Health

When it comes to weight management and all-around good metabolic health, we most often think about what to eat. But my guest would say that it's also crucial to think about when to eat,Emily Manoogian...

6 Nov 202440min

A Bible for Heroes — The Influential Book Read By History's Eminent Men

A Bible for Heroes — The Influential Book Read By History's Eminent Men

In 18th century America, this book was second in popularity only to the Bible.It was a favorite of many thinkers and leaders throughout history, including Emerson, Napoleon, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, an...

4 Nov 202452min

Are You a Thrill Seeker or a Chill Seeker?

Are You a Thrill Seeker or a Chill Seeker?

This episode starts off a little differently than others — with a short quiz, something called the Brief Sensation-Seeking Scale, which will tell you whether you're what psychologists call a high sens...

30 Okt 202432min

Ouch! That Stings! Why Rejection Hurts So Much (And How to Deal With It)

Ouch! That Stings! Why Rejection Hurts So Much (And How to Deal With It)

“Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love,” Charlie Brown once said. Indeed, being spurned by one's crush, or, for that matter, by a friend or potential employer, not on...

28 Okt 202440min

How to Avoid Death by Comfort

How to Avoid Death by Comfort

Note: This is a rebroadcast.Nietzsche's maxim, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," isn't just a sound philosophical principle. It's also a certifiable physiological phenomenon; toxins and stre...

23 Okt 202456min

Lee Child the Writer, Jack Reacher the Character, and the Enduring Appeal of Lone Wolves

Lee Child the Writer, Jack Reacher the Character, and the Enduring Appeal of Lone Wolves

In creating the Jack Reacher character, Lee Child launched a series of books that now boast 100 million copies in print and have been turned into movies and a popular Amazon streaming series.Today on ...

21 Okt 202447min

Money CAN Buy Happiness (If You Use It In These Ways)

Money CAN Buy Happiness (If You Use It In These Ways)

Money can't buy happiness. It sounds good as a bumper sticker platitude.But the truth is, money can buy happiness. At least sometimes. In certain circumstances. If we view it and use it in the right w...

16 Okt 202447min

Populært innen Fakta

mikkels-paskenotter
fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
foreldreradet
treningspodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-bisarr-historie
hverdagspsyken
sinnsyn
gravid-uke-for-uke
fryktlos
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
rss-kunsten-a-leve
level-up-med-anniken-binz
rss-kull
takk-og-lov-med-anine-kierulf
hagespiren-podcast
uroskolen