“Nothing about human behavior makes sense except in the light of culture and in anthropology, and we need to understand the cultural component to our behaviors as well.”
Why do many of us struggle with exercise when it's essential for our well-being? Evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman says that it’s not laziness: it's evolution.
For most of human history, conserving energy was of utmost importance: The key to survival: motion without purpose would be a waste.
Lieberman explains why modern fitness feels unnatural, why guilt-driven workouts will always fail, and what hunter-gatherer lifestyles reveal about health today.
00:00:00 How evolution shaped the human body
00:02:20 How we stabilize our heads when we run
00:03:25 How bodies change in industrial cities
00:07:19 The origins of exercise
00:09:00 Exercise vs. Physical activity
00:09:50 How many of us get enough exercise?
00:12:12 Myths about exercise
00:26:02 Smarter sitting, smarter sleeping
00:27:04 Typical calorie expenditure
00:28:23 Myths about physical inactivity
00:28:46 Is sitting the new smoking?
00:31:45 Myths about sleep
00:36:17 Walking, running, and everyday strength
00:36:40 Bipeds vs. Quadrupeds
00:42:12 The origins of different sports
00:42:44 Not all sports are physically active
00:47:48 Average American step counts
00:50:09 The myth of 10,000 steps
00:59:51 Exercise as medicine
01:02:35 How much exercise do I need?
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About Daniel Lieberman:
Daniel Lieberman is Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lieberman loves teaching and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as three popular books, The Evolution of the Human Head (2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020).
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