Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding

More than any other tactical domain we discuss in this book, exercise has the greatest power to determine how you will live out the rest of your life. There are reams of data supporting the notion that even a fairly minimal amount of exercise can lengthen your life by several years. It delays the onset of chronic diseases, pretty much across the bo

“Humans really are obligatorily required to do aerobic exercise in order to stay healthy, and I think that has deep roots in our evolutionary history,” Dr. Lieberman said. “If there’s any magic bullet to make human beings healthy, it’s to run.”

intentionally exposing ourselves to natural adversity is something of an unnatural act. When you evolve in a harsh outdoor environment, your natural inclination is to rest whenever possible; we’re deeply wired for relaxation and comfort-seeking. As hunter-gatherers, we were great movers, but when the mission was accomplished, we were happy to head

Unless we are asleep, we human beings are designed to move. Our normal physiology depends on this important fact. We evolved a central nervous system to sense changes around us and to move us through our environment. For nearly 200,000 years, Homo sapiens spent the majority of their time on the move. If they wanted something to eat, they had to hun