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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
In Exercised, Daniel E. Lieberman, a paleoanthropologist and evolution biologist, sets out to explain the 12 myths about physical exercises. The main question is, if exercise is so good for our health, why do so many people find it very hard, and why haven't we evolved to enjoy it? The short answer is, our body expects to be physically active while saving as much energy as possible. In other words, yes, we are born to run, and yes, we are born to be couch potatoes. Evolution hasn’t prepared us for modern sedentary life. This is an evolutionary mismatch.
I am not a fitness fanatic and I don’t watch sports, but I totally enjoyed the book. It is fascinating to read the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico and their long distance running, and the daily physical activities of Hadza people in Tanzania, a modern hunter-gatherer tribe.
My favorite chapter is Chapter 7: Fighting and Sports: From Fangs to Football. According to the author, sports were invented not because of fitness requirements, but for social purposes: to encourage cooperation, to control impulses (reactive violence, within the same team), and to promote proactive violence (against enemy teams).
What I find interesting:
– Our body is so adapted to walking and walking is so energy efficient that it is hard to lose weight just by walking.
– Our body has many adaptations for running, but as bi-pandal animals, humans are poor sprinters compared to four legged animals such as deers and horses, but it is possible to outrun these animals over a very long distance, hence the endurance hunting.
– Man vs Horses Marathon
– The barefoot runners (landing on the ground as light as a feather with the whole foot)
– Dancing is a physical exercise and sports too
Chapter 10 and 11 are about different exercises, fitness programs and health. If you haven’t gotten as much physical activity in your daily life as our hunter-gatherer ancestors once did, you should exercise. There is no one recipe for all fitness program, but a mixture of aerobic exercises (most also cardio exercises) and weight training is good. Or, you could try HIIT.
I am not a fitness fanatic and I don’t watch sports, but I totally enjoyed the book. It is fascinating to read the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico and their long distance running, and the daily physical activities of Hadza people in Tanzania, a modern hunter-gatherer tribe.
My favorite chapter is Chapter 7: Fighting and Sports: From Fangs to Football. According to the author, sports were invented not because of fitness requirements, but for social purposes: to encourage cooperation, to control impulses (reactive violence, within the same team), and to promote proactive violence (against enemy teams).
What I find interesting:
– Our body is so adapted to walking and walking is so energy efficient that it is hard to lose weight just by walking.
– Our body has many adaptations for running, but as bi-pandal animals, humans are poor sprinters compared to four legged animals such as deers and horses, but it is possible to outrun these animals over a very long distance, hence the endurance hunting.
– Man vs Horses Marathon
– The barefoot runners (landing on the ground as light as a feather with the whole foot)
– Dancing is a physical exercise and sports too
Chapter 10 and 11 are about different exercises, fitness programs and health. If you haven’t gotten as much physical activity in your daily life as our hunter-gatherer ancestors once did, you should exercise. There is no one recipe for all fitness program, but a mixture of aerobic exercises (most also cardio exercises) and weight training is good. Or, you could try HIIT.
For those who LOVE learning new things, and are excited about biology, anthropology, and of course, exercise.
I have a love / hate relationship with exercise as a former person with an ED, but this book never triggered, never fat shamed, and was pure education.
I will say though that due to the more scholarly nature of the book, it can feel very dense and be hard to read - and I did often skip chapters that I just wasn’t interested in at all.
I have a love / hate relationship with exercise as a former person with an ED, but this book never triggered, never fat shamed, and was pure education.
I will say though that due to the more scholarly nature of the book, it can feel very dense and be hard to read - and I did often skip chapters that I just wasn’t interested in at all.
informative
inspiring
relaxing
slow-paced
Fascinating look into why we do and, more importantly, don't exercise.
It's certainly got me moving
It's certainly got me moving
informative
As with another book by Daniel Lieberman that I read earlier this year, [b:The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease|17736859|The Story of the Human Body Evolution, Health, and Disease|Daniel E. Lieberman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375545961l/17736859._SY75_.jpg|24815436], there was a lot of information here that I had previously encountered in other books, with complicated science concepts explained in ways that a layperson can understand. His main goal here is to figure out why, despite the clear benefits of exercise for our health, many of us in the industrialized world have a very difficult time motivating ourselves to get off our butts and do it. As is the case with most books on topics like this, he is much better at describing the problem and the sources of the problem than he is at suggesting solutions, but it’s easy to forgive him, as the main source of the problem is industrial civilization itself. The book probably could have used another round of editing, as there were some sections that were repetitive and he occasionally draws conclusions based on tenuous evidence (though he usually does a good job of stating the potential problems with the data cited.) Nevertheless, it was a thought-provoking book and well worth the time.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
This book was great in the first 50%. The second half felt like repetition and padding honesty, which is a shame, because I cannot stress enough how REALLY EXCELLENT the first half is.
Super interesting! I first learned about Daniel Lieberman’s work in a human evolution class. I’ve been really into his research since. Enjoyed learning all about exercise through the lens of an evolutionary anthropologist!
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced