A mainstay of our days past was movement. We can revisit our distant past to find tactics that help us last. Hunters and gatherers hunted and gathered. Both implied movement. We walked and ran. We lifted and carried. We exerted energy seeking sustenance. This was the case for thousands of years of the existence of our ancestors. As agriculture took root, so did we. Around thirteen thousand years ago, our movement decreased somewhat. We weren’t travelling as far on two feet, but physical work was still predominant. The industrial revolution further reduced the need for movement. Around 1850, factory jobs began and many of us spent our days doing things in one place. The percentage of our population involved in factory and office work has only grown in the subsequent 170 plus years.
Now, around 75% of all jobs are sedentary. Michael Easter writes in The Comfort Crisis, “Adults now sit for six and a half hours, while kids sit more than eight.” We’re sitting instead of strutting. We’re leaning back in our chairs instead of lifting things. Our daily movement now in each week is what our distant ancestors would have accomplished before lunchtime. Moreover, their daily activity levels were constant throughout their lives. If they didn’t use it, they would lose it. Without physical capability we were sitting ducks waiting to be picked off. Survival meant being physically able. For much of history, working out wasn’t a thing because life was physical work.
We used to walk, for example, because we had to in order to survive. As author Geoff Nicholson noted in The Lost Art of Walking, “Yes, there was a time when everybody walked: they did it because they had no choice. The moment they had a choice, they chose not to do it.” Unfortunately, as technology has made our lives easier, activity levels have lowered. Health has been hurt as a result. Jeremy DeSilva in First Steps notes that anthropologists have discovered that our bone density today is substantially less than it was in our ancestors 10,000 years ago. The gap between what our bone density was then and is now is like we’ve spent weeks in space. Gravity hasn’t changed in all these years. What’s changed is our activity levels. It’s not just our bone density that’s been depleting as we collapse into our chairs avoiding exercise. Michael Easter in The Comfort Crisis notes research from the University of Cambridge that suggests that the arms of the average prehistoric woman were more than fifteen percent stronger than Olympic rowers of today. The activity involved in mere survival was tougher than the focused training of today’s Olympians.
Recommendations for weekly exercise in the US from it’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) is 150 minutes of movement. That’s just over twenty minutes daily. This is a paltry prescription. Yet only one in five Americans meet this standard. More than a quarter of the population don’t do any activity. That’s right, those that do nothing exceed those that can manage twenty minutes of daily exercise. A 2017 study of over 700,000 people living in more than 100 countries found that North Americans averaged around 4,600 steps daily. In a separate 2017 study, data suggested only three percent of participants exceeded 12,500 steps daily. Stepping up your steps puts you in rare air. The Hadza are a tribe in Tanzania that are considered one of the last known hunter-gatherer tribes. They move constantly in a way that mirrors that of our ancestors. The Hadza move ten times the levels of the average North American. They’re walking consistently 50,000 plus steps day after day. Paired with this pace is a medical miracle. The Hadza seem to be free from cardiovascular problems despite having little access to modern medicine.
The Greeks, more than two thousand years ago, valued exercise as an essential component of their education. Half of the time spent at school was spent developing physical capabilities. The Greeks gave us the phrase Anima Sana In Corpore Sano which translates into a sound mind in a sound body. They believed exercise built not just the body but the mind. Even two hundred years ago, in the 1800s, schools in the US allocated a third of their time to physical education. An abundance of research continues to show the connection between the fitness of children and their ability to learn. Unfortunately, around a hundred years ago physical education began to be cast aside. It became less important as the focus shifted to core academic subjects. Time spent moving is markedly less than in the past. The book Spark details much of the research that connects learning outcomes to exercise. With exercise also comes less discipline problems amongst kids. Where fitness decreases so, too, do test results on reading and math. Finland is one of the few Western countries that has resisted the trend to devalue exercise. Finland mandates twenty minutes of movement for every hour of school time across all grades. Finland also has some of the best test scores and an education system that is the envy of the world. Moreover, in Finland, the recommendations for children is to exercise for three hours a day or three times the recommendation put forth in North America.
Research that is now ten years old showed that the fitness capabilities of today’s children have dropped markedly relative to the prior generation. Researchers from Australia compared running speeds for children between the ages of 9 and 17 across several countries. The data of over 25,000,000 students over time was analyzed. The time to run a mile has gotten worse. Times, on average, were 90 seconds slower per mile in 2010 than in the late 70s. This is a significant performance decrease of 20% or more. Researchers attribute this drop to two factors: kids today are heavier (fatter) and they move less. Even though exercise guidelines for kids suggest an hour a day of activity. Sadly, less than one third of kids experience this level of exercise. P.E. today consists less of fitness-based activities and more games. Additionally, less children are enrolled in after-school sports today than a generation ago. Moreover, kids are driven or bussed to school whereas a generation ago more walked or rode bikes. All of these contribute to more kids struggling to meet the recommended fitness goals. Unfortunately, our exercise patterns, or lack thereof, carry over into adulthood.
The abandonment of fitness as a value in schools is reflected in our adult population. Just like our kids, our increasing inactivity connects with growing waistlines. As of 2016, approximately 40% of Americans were obese. The number that are considered obese has doubled over 25 years. Over 70% of adult Americans fall into either overweight or obese. The average weight of adult men, for example, has moved from just over 172 pounds in the late 70s to almost 181 pounds by the mid-90s. Ten years later, men’s average weight tripped over 190 pounds. In 2010, in around ten years, the average man had added another five pounds to their weight tipping the scales at over 195 pounds. This trend seems to be continuing and is also reflected in women. These should be scary data that don’t signal strength. We’re weaker, fatter, and unhealthier because of moving less.
Being out of shape is suggested as being worse than smoking. Being unfit can have more than twice the impact on our lifespans as smoking does. Actuarial studies suggest smoking takes ten years off one’s life whereas being unfit can remove twenty-three years. If we aren’t willing to work to seek fitness benefits, we’ll be running into the arms of entropy which will suck us deeper into the sofa and fuel aches and pains. Many of today’s diseases are fed by our creature comforts. Some health professionals consider our diseases as ones of captivity. The more we stay stuck inside doing little, the more health problems we have. A key risk factor for top killers like heart disease, stroke, obesity, dementia, and more is low exercise levels.
Easter asks, when you’re at the mall or an airport and you have a choice between taking the stairs or an escalator, which do you choose? Sadly, Easter notes, for 98% of people, the choice is stairs. We pursue the path of least resistance. One way to be willing to do what others won’t is to be one of the few that do. That is, do choose stairs. Movement is as close a thing to a miracle drug that we have. It cures many ailments. Doctors knew this thousands of years ago. Susruta was an early doctor in India around 600 BC. He observed a connection between lack of activity and more ailments. So, too, did the physician Galen who looked after the Gladiators of Rome. He saw anything stimulating heavy breathing would build muscle, thin the body, and harden the mind all which helped resist vulnerability to diseases. Movement is medicine.
What we do to exercise matters less than doing something. There’s an abundance of research that shows higher levels of either cardio fitness or muscle strength are strongly related to better health outcomes. Those that develop both cardio and strength capabilities have even better health outcomes. In fact, research is suggesting there’s no such thing as too much exercise. We won’t wear ourselves out by exercising. We’re building ourselves up to become better and sustain health. As Jim Rohn recommended, “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” One type of exercise isn’t better than another. The best type of exercise for you is the one that you will consistently do. Most advice reflects the bias of the person offering it. Strong, buff folk advocate for strength training. Thin, wiry folk lobby for running, and so on. There’s no single, best form of fitness. You get to choose which method is best for you.
We’re living in a world where we’ve never known more about what it takes to be healthy. Our knowledge of nutrition and fitness has grown in leaps and bounds. Elite athletes have taken advantage of this and continue to push the boundaries of human performance setting new records consistently across athletic endeavors. It’s not just the elite excelling. There are plenty of amazing and aspiring amateurs that have made personal commitments to physical fitness. Yet, even with the best getting better our average health and physical abilities are decreasing. This is a depressing dichotomy. We want to pursue the proven path of health by dedicating ourselves to building fitness. It’s all upside.
Is getting more exercise part of your New Year’s resolution? Are you willing to do what others won’t and make movement a daily discipline? Aim to do some form of exercise at triple the levels recommended for average health. Instead of twenty minutes a day, seek some form of movement for an hour a day. If just 3% of the population achieves 12,500 or more steps daily, set this as the standard to which you’ll commit. You’re worth it. After all, you’re willing to do what others won’t. Reconnect with the lives of ancestors past to build a body that will allow you to last.
Moreover, our bodies are capable of wonderful feats. We should relish the opportunity to explore the edges of our abilities by consistently seeking physical improvements. Exercise is a way to regularly embrace being uncomfortable for short periods. To improve we must push ourselves. Exercise is a great approach to delight in discomfort. It puts us directly in touch with the sensations of our body. As we increase the intensity of our exercise, we experience discomfort. Our breathing labors, our muscles feel sore, we get hot. All these offer signals that we’re on the right track. Our body has built in warning systems to encourage us to not over do things. However, these signs of discomforts aren’t signs of impending doom or failure. They are merely information. Scientists have found that we can push well past these sensations. A beauty of exercise is that it teaches us that discomfort serves. We don’t benefit from shrinking in its face but from staying in that state. Additionally, the lessons we learn from pushing ourselves physically carry over to other parts of our lives. We can learn to yearn for the burn, desire difficulty, and seek satisfaction in struggle. Trigger your vigor and move. Health helps. It not only leads us to live longer, but it also relieves aches and pains, it facilitates our focus and helps us learn, and it boosts positive emotions. Exercise releases feel good hormones that ward off depression and help us manage anxieties. Exercise also gives us capabilities. We build our physical competencies through activity which cultivates confidence. We feel good about what we can do physically. This confidence carries over to other areas of our lives helping us persist. Fitness makes you a force. Health puts you in a position to stay in the game. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.
