Origin Stories
If exercise is healthy, why do so many people avoid doing it? If we’re born to be active, why is it so hard to keep your New Year’s resolutions about exercise?
In this episode of Origin Stories, Daniel Lieberman, author of the new book Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding, explains the powerful instincts that cause us to avoid exercise even though we know it’s good for us.
This episode will help you think about exercise in a whole new way.
Listen now
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About the book
In this myth-busting book, Leakey Foundation grantee Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity, tells the story of how we never evolved to exercise–to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his own research and experiences throughout the world, Lieberman recounts without jargon how and why humans evolved to walk, run, dig, and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while avoiding needless exertion.
Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology and anthropology, Lieberman suggests how we can make exercise more enjoyable, rather than shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the question of whether you can exercise too much, even as he explains why exercise can reduce our vulnerability to the diseases mostly likely to make us sick and kill us.
Click here to find this book at your local independent book shop.
