If you’ve ever gone for a run and five minutes later, you were wishing you were absorbed by the ground or just laying on your sofa watching a series… This article is for you. And if you’ve ever tried to convince yourself that running was “your lifestyle” only to end up abandoning it after two weeks of suffering, this is also for you. It turns out that it’s not just a lack of discipline or motivation: humans are not made to run. Or at least, that’s what science says. (You’ll have a new excuse now, we know!)
Daniel E. Lieberman, a Harvard Professor of Biology, has uncovered an uncomfortable truth: our body prefers to move when it is strictly necessary and, if it can avoid it, all the better. So if you feel guilty for not wanting to go out and run a marathon, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Your DNA has told that!
So what about physical activity?
Mind you, we’re not saying –neither we nor the Harvard biologist— that we have to grow like bonsai trees in our homes. Instead, Lieberman explains that, while exercise has undeniable health benefits, our ancestors didn’t go jogging for pleasure like your neighbour on the fifth floor does. In prehistoric times, our ancestors moved out of necessity: to hunt, escape predators or look for food. The rest of the time, they preferred to conserve energy because, why waste calories running pointlessly?
What about basal metabolic rate?
This is where basal metabolic rate comes in, which is the amount of energy the body uses to simply keep functioning (breathing, circulating blood, keeping organs running). About 70% of daily energy is spent on this, which means we don’t need to do extreme exercise to survive. Lieberman argues that the problem isn’t that we don’t exercise, but that we’ve created a world where moving is optional. Lieberman believes that a person at rest (about 80 kg) can lose about 1,700 calories a day at rest. Not us, too bad!
Is running really bad for your body?
Lieberman isn’t saying that moving is bad. What he warns is that doing extreme exercise without listening to your body can lead to problems. Overdoing it on long runs or high-intensity workouts can wear out your joints, cause muscle injuries and increase fatigue.
The trick is to find a way to move that is sustainable. Walking, moving regularly and avoiding long hours of inactivity can be much more beneficial in the long run than going out for marathons without a clear goal.
And spending a lot of time sitting?
Another idea that Lieberman highlights is that sitting is not as bad as we think it is. Yes, spending the whole day in a chair without moving is not ideal, but it also does not mean that we should be standing or moving constantly. The key is to find a balance between rest and activity. Neither too much physical activity nor completely eliminating it.
The biologist explains that, for those people who spend many hours sitting, whether for work or for other reasons, the ideal is to stand up frequently.
If running makes you happy, go for it. But if every time you go for a jog you feel like your body is sending you help signals, listen to biology: You don’t need to run to be healthy. Walking, moving naturally, and giving your body the rest it needs can be just as effective in maintaining good fitness.