Balita

An exercise a day keeps the doctor away

“Mag-exercise tayo tuwing umaga/Tuwing umaga, tuwing umaga/Mag-exercise tayo tuwing umaga/Upang ang katawan natin ay sumigla.” – Lyrics by Yoyoy Villame. 

Good life equals good health, or good health equals good life. Whatever the equation, the good is the exercise. It produces energy, prolongs life and keeps the doctor away. Yet there is always an excuse not to do it. Not that there is no time; it is more the absence of strong will and right attitude. Why this is so?  Is this normal?  According to Daniel E. Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, in his book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding (2020), our evolutionary DNA has not properly evolved when it comes to a healthy physical exertion. This is an interesting argument worth looking into. Let’s find out.

Lieberman claims that exercise is a modern concept because in ancient times people were so busy hunting and gathering for their foods. Work was, therefore, their form of exercise. The shift towards modernization leads us to a sedentary life-style that requires us to exercise in order to improve and maintain a healthy well-being. But this is not automatic. We have to be enticed with proper equipment and clothes; thus the burgeoning of exercise clubs and sports goods industries. We also seek exercises that are excruciatingly painful – the “no pain, no gain” mantra. For example, running the marathon or competing in the triathlon. He writes: “My experiences and research slowly led me to conclude that because industrialized societies such as the United States fail to recognize that exercise is paradoxically modern but healthy behavior, many of our beliefs and attitudes about exercise are myths (by ‘myth’ I mean a claim that is widely believed but inaccurate and exaggerated). To be clear, I do not contend that exercise is incorrect. That would be silly. I will, however, make the case that by ignoring or misinterpreting evolutionary and anthropological perspectives on physical activity, the contemporary, industrial approach to exercise is marred by misconceptions, overstatements, faulty logic, occasional mistruths, and inexcusable finger-pointing.”  

  Our bodies, according to Lieberman, are often doing a lot of trade-offs, one of them is how to spend our precious calories by being physically inactive or active. He says our energy is spent in just five ways: growing your body, maintaining your body (resting metabolism), storing energy (as fat), being active, and reproduction. Depending in the amount of calories, our bodies will choose, based on natural selection, to divert energy to a less strenuous activity. “Stated simply,” Lieberman says, “we evolved to be as inactive as possible. Or to be more precise, our bodies were selected to spend enough but not too much energy on nonreproductive functions including physical activity.”

Throughout the book, Lieberman tackles a lot of misconceptions about exercise, which he calls “myths”. I will list them here and try to give you with a little bit of context. But if you want a clearer picture, I suggest you get a copy of the book.

There you go, folks. Exercise is good for your health but any active physical activity can do the trick as well. For this New Year, let’s resolve to spend more time exercising than waiting at the doctor’s clinic.         

20 December 2023

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