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.

Avsnitt(1159)

The Conquering Father Who Made an Empire-Building Son

The Conquering Father Who Made an Empire-Building Son

If asked to think about the greatest generals of the ancient world, one name is likely to come to mind first: Alexander the Great — the incomparable military commander who amassed the world's largest ...

25 Aug 202152min

How Moral Grandstanding Is Ruining Our Public Discourse

How Moral Grandstanding Is Ruining Our Public Discourse

It's hard not to notice how heated and divided our public discourse has gotten, especially online. People insult and vilify each other, take unnuanced positions, and seem to be competing as to who can...

23 Aug 202155min

What a Man With 60,000 Books Can Teach You About Lifelong Learning and Building Your Home Library

What a Man With 60,000 Books Can Teach You About Lifelong Learning and Building Your Home Library

Gary Hoover loves books. Among the nine companies he founded was the bookstore chain Bookstop, which was acquired by Barnes & Noble. He has a personal collection of 60,000 books, which he had to purch...

18 Aug 202150min

Tips From a Top TED Talker on How to Be Heard

Tips From a Top TED Talker on How to Be Heard

Julian Treasure knows a thing or two about how to speak well. He's given five TED talks which have been watched over 125 million times, including one on, well, how to speak well, which resides in the ...

16 Aug 202149min

A Futurist's Guide to Building the Life You Want

A Futurist's Guide to Building the Life You Want

When people hear that Brian David Johnson is a futurist, they typically want him to offer up some predictions for what the world will look like 10, 20, 50 years from now. But Brian will explain to the...

11 Aug 202145min

The Hell-Raising Leader of WWII's Filthy Thirteen

The Hell-Raising Leader of WWII's Filthy Thirteen

If you have any interest in World War II, then you've surely seen one of the most arresting photographs to come out of that conflict. In it, members of the 101st Airborne Division can be seen sporting...

9 Aug 202143min

How to Fight Internet-Induced Numbness

How to Fight Internet-Induced Numbness

The ironic thing about our digital devices, is that they promise constant stimulation . . . and yet we find they end up making us feel numb. Numb in terms of struggling to be present. Numb in feeling ...

4 Aug 202140min

Improve Your Productivity With the Power of Deadlines

Improve Your Productivity With the Power of Deadlines

Everyone has experienced the way deadlines can act as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they force us to get stuff done; but on the other, they often push us to wait until the last minute to get ...

2 Aug 202143min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
alska-oss
nu-blir-det-historia
johannes-hansen-podcast
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
not-fanny-anymore
sektledare
rss-viktmedicinpodden
roda-vita-rosen
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
allt-du-velat-veta
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-psykoterapipodden
rss-basta-livet