To be human is to move … so why don’t we do more of it?

I watched Ogie Shaw's TED talk years ago and I found it reassuring, as his views echo my own. Do we believe that exercise isn’t fun, it’s hard and we need to do it anyway? I am concerned about the people who hate exercise and struggle to incorporate it into their lives. How do I reach them?

No, I cannot say my own workouts are easy; they are challenging, and I can talk myself out of them and postpone them like everybody else. But I also love how I feel afterwards: energized, happy and full of a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. I assumed everybody felt this way, so I struggled to understand why some people could not get themselves to exercise.

Then I read Daniel Lieberman’s book, Exercised Dr. Lieberman is a paleoanthropologist; I had several “a-ha moments” during reading, but the one that shifted my thinking the most was his explanation of why some people hate to exercise: in fact, many people do not feel the way I feel after a workout! Whoa—what?! 

There is a lot of great information in this book, for the purposes of this article I will focus on a few key points.

Sitting: good or bad? It depends…

Dr. Lieberman states, “In our post industrial world, instead of walking, carrying, digging, running, throwing and sometimes climbing, dancing and fighting, we sit for most of the day in ergonomically designed chairs, stare at screens and press buttons. The only catch is we still inherited our ancestors’ thrifty genes that rely on physical activity to grow, maintain and repair our bodies.”

It turns out that sitting for long periods of time and sitting in ergonomically designed chairs are what make sitting so bad. Dr. Lieberman has spent a lot of time with gatherer-hunter tribes and noticed that they too spend a lot of time sitting, between 5-10 hours a day BUT, they sit on the ground, kneel and sit in the relaxed squat position. These positions use about the same degree of muscle activity in thighs, calves and backs as standing. The gatherer-hunters do not sit with their back supported and this makes a big difference. They also do not sit in these positions for long periods of time partially because they are not that comfortable. They sit periodically to accomplish a task, socialize or relax. Although they may spend up to 10 hours a day sitting it is not in long bouts of sitting.

Dr. Lieberman goes on to explain that “Incessant sitting combined with modern diets and other novelties thus contributes to evolutionary mismatches-conditions like obesity, metabolic syndrome and Type-2 diabetes, that are more common and severe today than in the past. In fact these conditions are unrecorded in gatherer-hunter and subsistence living societies because our bodies are poorly adapted to novel environmental decisions.”

Unfortunately, evidence does suggest that exercise alone does not counter all the negative effects of sitting so even if you are physically active and fit, the more time you spend sitting in a chair, the higher your risk of chronic illnesses. Research also shows that people who rarely sat for more than 12 minutes at a time had lower death rates and those that tended to sit for 1/2 hour or longer without getting up had especially high death rates (p.66, Exercised).

Instead of trying to find the most comfortable chairs for our work spaces and homes it might be better for us to sit in uncomfortable chairs then we would be more likely to get up and move around. According to research it would only take 100 seconds of movement every 30 minutes to reduce some of the negative effects of sitting (p.67, Exercised). Or perhaps it would be beneficial to think of sitting comfortably for more than half an hour as an indulgence, something to really appreciate, a treat, like dessert.

Why some people hate to exercise

“Exercise takes time to become enjoyable/less pleasant.”

When I read this, it really caught my attention. Dr. Lieberman explains, “Because we never evolved to be inactive and out of shape, the adaptations that make physical activity feel rewarding and become a habit develop only after the several months of effort it takes to improve fitness.”

This is valuable information. When starting an exercise program, it is crucial to start with an activity that you enjoy because you need to establish the habit to get to the point where exercise becomes rewarding. Instead of starting with a “should” mindset (I should be lifting weights, I should be doing cardio…), I think it is more important to ask yourself, “What movements or activities do I enjoy?” Dancing? There are many, many, many different kinds of dancing. Walking? Swimming? Throwing a Frisbee? Bowling? Gardening? Thai Chi? Think back to what games you played as a kid—hopscotch? Hula Hooping? Skipping Rope? Jungle Gyms?

I was recently inspired by an interview with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. Here, I think it is worth outlining a few of his tips for setting goals and forming habits.

We start too big.

We tend to set goals on our best days, when we feel really motivated. Instead, we need to select the right habit by determining what we would be able to do on our worst day, when we feel tired, stressed, sad, angry or overwhelmed. James states that “this goal might be smaller than you had hoped initially but allows you to get a foothold.

A habit must be established before it can be improved.

When we set a goal, we can plan big but for progress we need to think small. For example, my big goal is to be able to do the splits. To do this I have a goal of stretching everyday. Most days I do my full stretching routine which takes about 15 minutes but on my worst days I will do one stretch, my hip flexor stretch, the one I feel I need the most.

Selecting the right goals matters.

In order to set the right goals, James suggests asking yourself a few key questions:

1. Who is the type of person that would have that goal?

2. What is the identity I am trying to reinforce? Your habits embody your identity. Every action is a vote for the kind of person you want to become.

3. What habits would you take pride in?

When you are proud of something it is easier to maintain internal motivation for it.

Habits have no end date.

If you stop doing it, then it is no longer a habit. Habits are forever; to be established they must be sustainable and non-threatening.

Use the two-minute rule.

This means taking a habit that you are trying to form and scaling it down to something that can be done in two minutes or less. James states that, “We tend to be all or nothing with our habits and the two-minute rule helps us get out of this perfectionist tendency.” I think he makes a really good point here—all-or-nothing thinking sets us up for failure and feelings of guilt and shame which make us want to numb and this puts us in a vicious cycle. We need to start with showing up, establish the habit. “We don’t give ourselves permission to show up in a small way.” says James.

Design the right environment.

Lastly, if you are trying to exercise at home, do you have a designated space for those workouts? Have you set up that space to encourage that behaviour?

Exercise or physical activity is no longer necessary for our survival. We mostly do it for emotional, social, or physical rewards. Humans are social, the most social animal on the planet, we have been selected to enjoy doing activities in groups, to assist one another and to care what others think of us. This is why peer pressure and camaraderie are powerful motivators. If you struggle to find a physical activity that you enjoy consider at least doing it with someone you enjoy.

Active Grandparent Hypothesis

In his book, Dr. Lieberman proposes the Active Grandparent Hypothesis, which states that human longevity was not only selected for but also made possible by having to work moderately during old age to help as many children, grandchildren and other younger relatives as possible to survive and thrive.

Anthropologists have shown that all older individuals in foraging populations from Australia to South America remain active throughout life, gathering and hunting more calories than they consume which they provide to younger generations. In the Hazda tribe, grandmothers typically work longer hours than mothers do because they do not have to nurse little ones.

“A study of thousands of American women compared how much American and Hazda women walk and found that Hazda women walk twice as much per day as Americans. The study also showed that American women in their seventies were taking half as many daily steps as they did in their 20s – 40s. In addition, heart rate monitors showed that elderly Hazda women actually spent more of their day engaged in moderate to vigorous activity than younger women who were still having children. Not surprisingly, hard work keeps elderly gatherer-hunters fit.” (p.232, Exercised)

Dr. Lieberman asks, “Is human longevity a result of physical activity or an adaptation to stay physically active?” He continues “it follows that if humans were selected to live long after we stopped having babies, we were probably not selected to live those years in a state of chronic disability.”

Our prehistoric ancestors had to move to survive and they had to keep moving their entire lives. We don’t have to be physically active to survive but according to Dr. Lieberman “there are many mechanisms in our bodies that slow aging and extend life and they are turned on by physical activity, especially as we age.”

Because exercise is not necessary for our survival it is in our own best interests to make it as enjoyable as possible, we can do this by:

• Remembering that it takes time for exercise to feel rewarding.

• Finding an activity that you like or is the least unpleasant.

• Thinking outside the box, what games did you play as a kid?

• Exploring the vast world of dance; there are many different forms suitable to any age and ability.

• Setting realistic big and small goals. What will you do on your worst day?

• Establishing a habit first before trying to improve.

• Making it a forever habit. Make it part of your day.

• Making it social. Exercising, moving and playing can be more fun with company.

• Designating a space for exercise that encourages you to exercise.

“Human health and longevity are extended both by and for physical activity,” says Lieberman. Let these words sink in. To be human is to move. Move more and keep moving.