The evolution of exercise

There are moments when I wonder if we would have been better off as hunter-gatherers.  How was life back then?

Scattered throughout the world, several dozen groups of so-called primitive people, like the Kalahari bushmen, continue to support themselves that way. It turns out that these people have plenty of leisure time, sleep a good deal, and work less hard than their farming neighbors.

They didn't "work" much.  They woke up.  Yawned. Scratched themselves.  Took a nap. Got up. Ate stuff.  Sat around. Napped. Ate. Slept. Had sex. Slept. Woke up. ...  Not a bad life it was.

For instance, the average time devoted each week to obtaining food is only 12 to 19 hours for one group of Bushmen, 14 hours or less for the Hadza nomads of Tanzania. One Bushman, when asked why he hadn't emulated neighboring tribes by adopting agriculture, replied, "Why should we, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?"

They were, by and large, physically fit.  (Well, if they didn't die young, that is!)  They walked. Ran. Did not overeat.

Life now is such a contrast that we might as well be inhabitants of a different planet in a different universe than the one in which humans lived 20,000 years ago.

We now worship work. We work hard and long.  We do not have time to nap. Sleep is a problem. We eat the wrong things at the wrong time. We gain weight.  We worry that we are fat and unhealthy. We take pills. Sex is not easy.  We take pills.  If there is time in between, we head to the gym.  

But, of course, there is no resetting the clock by 20,000 years.  We are stuck where we are. 

I try my best to be healthy because I do not want to become a burden to others and not because I drool for longevity.  I would argue that a healthy existence requires a life that is like a modern version of the hunter-gatherer life.  Especially when it comes to physical activity.

Now, do not jump to a conclusion that you need to be hyperactive and strong like the hunter-gatherers were.  Because, they were not.  Which is why I am not super-active either; I can barely run or lift a few pounds! 

It is a darn myth that our ancestors were physically active all the time; "we can do better by looking beyond the weird world in which we live to consider how our ancestors as well as people in other cultures manage to be physically active." 

The hunting/gathering ancestors spent roughly 2 hours a day working to obtain food.  And then they kicked back.  "Because natural selection ultimately cares only about how many offspring we have, our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved to avoid needless exertion – exercise – unless it was rewarding."  I suspect that they spent more time thinking about sex and working it than in working and exercising.

We "modern" humans strap on devices that tell us how many steps we have taken during a day.  We wear gadgets that tell us when to stand, move, walk, and run.  A few years ago, David Sedaris wrote an awesomely hilarious essay--perhaps the best of his that I have read, other than this one about his partner--about how the Fitbit started ruling his life.

I wonder what kind of exercises humans will do on Mars after it is colonized!