Reading | Move or not, this is a problem

"exercise"

[美] Daniel Liberman

Tan Jie translated

Zhanlu Culture | Published by Tianjin Science and Technology Publishing House

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We have never evolved the instinct of exercise

In June 2017, I started writing this book. At that time, I just flew to Kenya, bought a treadmill, put it into a "land cruiser" off -road vehicle, and was ready to send it to a western Kenya named Peng Ya ( Pemja) is distant place. The mountains and valleys are ups and downs, and giant granite rock stones are embellished between them, and Peng Ya, who is more than 2100 meters above sea level, is located on the edge of this vast mountain area. In Peng Ya, small pieces of fields and simple houses are scattered everywhere. These houses are usually houses with mud and cow dung, with that thatched and horsepower, and only one room. Peng Ya's scenery is beautiful, but even with Kenya's standards, it is poverty, and the place is far away. From the closest city, Eldoret to Peng Ya, although there is only 80 kilometers, it takes nearly a day to drive, and the worse the road conditions are, the worse the road is. We drove along the steep winding soil road, and from time to time, we encountered gully with boulder and various obstacles. This is still when the weather is good. If you catch the rain, the road will become volcanic mortar, muddy and sticky.

Although this road is daunting, in the past ten years, I have come here with my students and Kenya almost every year. The purpose is to study what happened when the world is in the process of high -speed modernization. Variety. They are all farmers, relying on planting land to barely maintain their livelihood. Their lifestyle is almost the same as the ancestors' lifestyles: there are no roads, electricity and tap water. Most Peng Ya people have no way to buy shoes, mattresses, medicines, chairs, and things that are very common in us. In order to survive and improve life, especially children's lives, they work extremely hard without using any machines. When I observed these, I was deeply touched. Through the comparison of Peng Ya and the Kalenjin group, but those who live in Eldrate are those who need to engage in daily physical labor, barefoot, and squatting on the ground. Comparing people in the office, we can study changes in the human body.

As for that treadmill, we originally planned to study how fast it was when Peng Ya's head was facing water, food, firewood, etc. Of course, this treadmill later gave me huge inspiration. We invited Peng Ya women to stand on the treadmill. When the belt started to rotate, their footsteps became unnatural, hesitant and awkward. In fact, everyone stood on the treadmill for the first time. When this weird and noise guy was forced to go forward, but it was not enough, our pace was also strange. Although after practicing, Peng Ya's walking skills on the treadmill have been slightly improved, but we also found that if you want to study their walking way under weight and irritability, they must give up the treadmill and let them be solid. Walking on the ground.

In order to transport this runner to Peng Ya, we spent a lot of money, time, and physical strength. Now it seems that all of them are in vain. Just when I complained, I suddenly realized that this treadmill just summarized the theme of this book I wanted to write: we have never evolved the instinct of exercise.

What do I want to express? Well, I said slowly. Today, the recognized definition of exercise is to maintain health or become strong and voluntary physical activities. However, exercise is only a recent phenomenon of human evolution. In the past that is not too far away, our hunting collectors and farmers' ancestors, in order to get enough food, need to conduct a few hours of physical activity every day. People will run or walk for several kilometers for health. The word "exercise" also contains the meaning of "good health" recently. The word EXERCISE is derived from the Latin verb EXERCEO. The original meaning was work, training, or practice. The first time appeared in the medieval English refers to heavy physical labor, such as plowing the ground. Later until now, exercise refers to exercises or training to improve skills or health. Exercise's wording form, Exercise, refers to being troubled by something, troubles for something, or worried about something. The term "exercise" is only related to health. Similarly, using a treadmill to exercise is also the function that has only been discovered recently. It has nothing to do with health and strongness when it just appears.

(Source: Visual China)

Similar devices similar to treadmills were first used by Romans to rotate twisted to enhance heavy objects. Later, after being improved by the Victorian inventor William Cubbit in 1818, they were used to punish criminals to prevent them from being lazy. For more than 100 years, the means of punishing prisoners in the British government include allowing them to walk on the hierarchical giant treadmill for several hours a few hours every day, and Oscar Wilde has been punished such a punishment.

As for whether the treadmill is still a "torture tool", people are sincere. However, in this era of modernization and industrialization, this divergent situation also reflects the absurdity of exercise. If you don't want to be regarded as a lunatic or fool, then how can I explain my weird behavior to Peng Ya's hunting collectors and farmers, or my grandparents: I sit in a chair most of my time every day, and then make up for it to make up for My laziness has a adverse effect on my body. I need to spend money to the gym to force myself to run in a machine to run in place, and finally make myself sweaty, exhausted, and uncomfortable. In addition to the absurd nature of the treadmill, our ancestors must not understand the commercialization and industrialization of exercise. What they can't understand should be the medicalization of exercise. Although we sometimes exercise for pleasure, hundreds of millions of people today spend money to exercise to control weight, prevent disease, delay aging and death. Exercise has become a big business. Walking, jogging, and many other forms of exercise should have been free, but under the "temptation" of those super multinational companies, we need to spend money to buy special clothing and equipment in order to exercise. place. We will also spend money to see others exercise. Some people even spend money to get the qualifications of "abuse" to participate in the Marathon, Super Marathon, Iron Man Tournament, and other extreme, harsh or dangerous sports. Some people even spent thousands of dollars in order to obtain a 150 -mile qualification to cross the Sahara Desert. But the most important thing is that the exercise caused the anxiety and confusion of the exercise. The reason is that although everyone knows that exercise is good for health, many people are worried because they have insufficient exercise, the exercise process is not safe or boring and boring. We were troubled by exercise.

Therefore, exercise has become a paradox: good health but distortions, should have been free but highly commercialized. The source of happiness and health brings discomfort, self -blame, and even caused other people's blame. Next I want to talk about why these feelings have prompted me to write this book and why you are willing to read this book.

In the past that is not too far away, the ancestors of our hunting collectors and farmers, in order to get enough food, need to conduct a few hours of physical activity every day. Run or walk for a few kilometers for health. Exercise is only a recent phenomenon of human evolution. Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Libermann told us why we have never evolved to exercise for many years of research and experience around the world.

In this book that breaks mythology, Libeman told us that exercise is not human instinct. From the perspective of anthropology and chemistry, Lieberman discussed our body, cracked 12 fallacies about exercise, and taught us to correctly treat our bodies and perform correct physical activities to help those anxiety and confusion about exercise And the entangled people put exercise in the right position.

>> About the author

Daniel Lerberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, director of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. Author of the best -selling book "The Story of the Human". In 1993, he obtained a doctorate degree in anthropology at Harvard University. Research fields spans multiple disciplines such as paleontology, anatomy, physiology, and experimental biomechanics. In terms of research methods, both focus on laboratory research and frequent inspections in the wild. In -depth research on the damage caused by running shoes, advocating and practicing "barefoot", is the famous "Barefoot Professor" in the running circle.

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Author: Daniel Liberman

Edit: Kim Jiuchao

Editor in charge: Zhu Zilong

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