greg said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:>And these are just a few. The thing is none of these are the
cause of
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:>the World's growing obesity/health problems, and none of these are
>going to kill you. If you want to know what the real culprit is,
look
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:>no further than our lack of exercise.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Good words.
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Yeah!
Quoted message said:Yeah [censored]. Your propensity to exercise is genetic. If you are a
natural
Quoted message said:fidgeter you are in good luck. If not our instinct is not to exercise
to
Quoted message said:conserver energy. So your solution to the obesity problem is to
everyday
Quoted message said:of your life do something that his both hard and unnatural. That's an
Quoted message said:excellent plan.
Greg,
First, describe your body size, shape and your fitness level. Then
read the following.
---
Not everyone may feel this way, but new research argues that humans
evolved to become natural runners.
Quoted message said:From our spring-loaded ligaments to our muscular behinds to our ability
to sweat, the human body took the ideal shape of a long-distance runner
starting some 2 million years ago, the researchers say. The long, lean
build helped us scavenge widely scattered kills and could also have
been an advantage when hunting down prey over long distances.
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"We're lousy sprinters, but we're really great long-distance runners,"
said Daniel Lieberman, an anthropologist at Harvard University. "Anyone
who jogs regularly can tell you that it feels good."
How can two legs be better than four when it comes to striding for long
distances? Consider the fact that some 334,000 people ran marathons in
the United States last year, and then try getting an antelope to run 26
miles, or a chimp, for that matter.
"You'd never beat a chimp in a 100-meter dash, but you could never get
them to run a marathon," he said. "And they wouldn't like trying."
Evolutionary biologists have generally credited humans' ability to run
as an offshoot of our ability to walk on two feet.
"How can anyone even conceive of an animal evolving a walking strategy
that was entirely decoupled from a running strategy?" asks C. Owen
Lovejoy of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.
But in a study appearing in this week's issue of "Nature," Harvard's
Lieberman and Dennis Bramble of the University of Utah argue that
endurance running may have been so critical in early humans' survival
that it played a role in shaping many aspects of our bodies.
Runners From Head to Toe
The pair studied both modern human anatomy and the fossil record of
early human ancestors to look for characteristics that would have
specifically enhanced people's ability to run for long distances. They
say most, if not all of these key features seem to have emerged 2
million years ago with the first appearances of the genus [censored] - the
same group as modern living humans.
The peroneus brevis tendon, for example, made famous by Red Sox pitcher
Curt Schilling's injury during the 2004 World Series, is one of several
elongated tendons in the human body that the authors argue provides
critical spring as a person runs. In apes and chimpanzees, the same
tendons are much shorter, says Lieberman, and don't offer the same kind
of spring-loading action.
Then there is the gluteus maximus - the unusually large muscle humans
carry at their rear. Why such bulk in back? Lieberman says it's for
running and, again, this feature is less pronounced in our evolutionary
ancestors.
"When we walk, we barely use the gluteus maximus," he said. "As soon as
you start running, it plays a vital role to keep you from falling -
it stabilizes your trunk."
Other features the authors list that help us run include the arches in
our feet, which offer spring in our step, and broad surface areas of
our joints, which help distribute the shock of impact from running -
at least enough for ancient man, who didn't run on pavement and who
never lived much longer than 40 years.
The upper body, meanwhile, carries its own made-for-running designs,
including wide shoulders - good for swinging arms from for balance as
we stride - and lighter forearms that are easy to move back and
forth. Even our heads are equipped for running, they say, as a large
ligament stretching from our spines to the back of our heads acts to
dampen the oscillation of our heads as we plod along.
Finally, our ability to sweat is unmatched with our estimated 3 million
sweat glands. Couple that with the fact that we aren't very furry and
you have a cool, running machine.
Jogging for Supper
Bernd Heinrich, a world record holder in the ultra marathon and
biologist at the University of Vermont in Burlington, says the authors'
points make sense.
"Most of us don't do much running so it may not feel natural, but it
feels natural to me," he said. "Not much is new here, but I think they
bring together a lot of evidence so it all fits into a pattern."
---
Patrick
