The video explores the intriguing perspective of human exercise, emphasizing how treadmills have become a modern symbol of exercise despite their origins as punitive devices in Victorian prisons. The speaker, Dan Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology, explains how exercise, though not inherently enjoyable or something we evolved to do, has become a crucial practice for health and fitness in the modern world. He discusses the distinctions between physical activity and exercise, tipping his hat to historical and evolutionary perspectives.

The video further delves into walking as an essential human activity, highlighting how contemporary lifestyles have significantly reduced our engagement in this fundamental movement. Lieberman critiques the medicalization of exercise in Western society, addressing myths like the arbitrary 10,000 step goal, while emphasizing the importance of incorporating more activity into daily life. By advocating for a balanced approach, he aims to mitigate confusion and stress surrounding exercise.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. apotheosis [əˌpɒθiˈoʊsɪs] - (noun) - The highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax. - Synonyms: (pinnacle, peak, zenith)

It's the apotheosis of exercise.

2. volition [vəˈlɪʃən] - (noun) - The power of using one's will. - Synonyms: (choice, discretion, will)

Of course, now, people still trudge on treadmills, except they do it on their own volition.

3. decrepitude [dɪˈkrɛpɪˌtjuːd] - (noun) - The state of being decrepit or feeble. - Synonyms: (frailty, weakness, infirmity)

They do it because, you know, it helps stave off death and decrepitude.

4. anthropological [ˌænθrəpəˈlɒdʒɪkəl] - (adjective) - Relating to the study of humankind. - Synonyms: (cultural, sociological, ethnographical)

By shining the light of evolution and using kind of an anthropological perspective.

5. trudge [trʌdʒ] - (verb) - To walk slowly and with heavy steps, typically because of exhaustion or harsh conditions. - Synonyms: (plod, lumber, slog)

So they would make prisoners sort of trudge for hours a day on these big slat-like treadmills.

6. voluntary [ˈvɒləntəri] - (adjective) - Done, given, or acting of one's own free will. - Synonyms: (choice, discretionary, elective)

But exercise is discretionary, voluntary physical activity for the sake of health and fitness.

7. auspicious [ɔːˈspɪʃəs] - (adjective) - Conducive to success; favorable. - Synonyms: (favorable, promising, propitious)

Turns out that 10,000 is a very auspicious number in Japan.

8. proactive [prəʊˈæktɪv] - (adjective) - Creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened. - Synonyms: (preemptive, anticipatory, forward-thinking)

Road rage is a perfect example of reactive aggression. But there's also proactive aggression.

9. reactive [riːˈæktɪv] - (adjective) - Showing a response to a stimulus. - Synonyms: (responsive, reflexive, reciprocal)

They're kind of combat related sports, I think evolved also to help us learn not to be reactively aggressive

10. medically [ˈmɛdɪkli] - (adverb) - In a way that relates to medicine or medical treatment. - Synonyms: (clinically, diagnostically, therapeutically)

One of the ways which we medicalize exercise in the western world is we think there's a certain amount you should do.

Harvard professor debunks the 10,000 steps per day myth - Daniel Lieberman

Treadmills are really weird. They're a strange, modern piece of equipment that we spend a lot of money on, or we spend a lot of money to go to a gym that makes your work really hard to get in the same place. It's the apotheosis of exercise. Think about it. Treadmill, right? We think treadmills are synonymous with exercise, but it's a noisy, expensive machine that makes you work really, really hard for no purpose other than to make you move without getting anywhere. Most of us, if, you know, we're forced to ban on treadmill, we listen to a podcast or some music, watch something on our iPhones or whatever to make it tolerable.

My name is Dan Lieberman. I'm a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. And I'm the author of "Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding." The very first treadmills were probably invented by the Romans or some other ancient peoples like that, to move wheels and stuff like that. But the modern treadmill's real genesis comes from Victorian prisons. They were invented by a man named William Cubitt at some point in the 19th century to prevent prisoners in England, you know, like debtor's prisons, from relaxing and enjoying themselves. So they would make prisoners sort of trudge for hours a day on these big slat-like treadmills to make it unpleasant for them to be in jail.

Of course, now, people still trudge on treadmills, except they do it on their own volition. But many of them still feel like it's a kind of form of torture. I don't know anybody who really enjoys being on a treadmill. It's easy to squeeze your way to shape the hips and thighs. So many modern forms of exercise are kind of like cod liver oil. They're not really pleasant. Extra sunshine for us. In winter and spring, we do them because they're good for us. Come on. Go, go. But it's not fun. Make your muscles cry.

And so it's, you know, it's like taking your medicine. It's important to make a distinction between physical activity and exercise. So physical activity is just moving. You do anything, go shop, you know, pick up your groceries and take them to your car. That's physical activity. When you sweep the kitchen floor, that's physical activity. But exercise is discretionary, voluntary physical activity for the sake of health and fitness. The word exercise comes from the Latin exercisio, and it meant to train. We still do math exercises. When you were plowing a field, for example, that would be considered exercise in sort of early English or soldiers do exercises to get fit. On the other hand, it also means to be exercised to be upset, to be confused, to be anxious, to be kind of worried. You know, we get exercised by our math exercises.

In the modern world, a lot of people are confused about exercise. They find it hard to do. They're not quite sure how much to do. There are all kinds of myths surrounding it. The burning is a signal that your muscles are working harder than they should. Most people don't do it because they want to. They do it because, you know, it helps stave off death and decrepitude by shining the light of evolution and using kind of an anthropological perspective. My goal really is to help people be less exercised about exercise.

Walking is one of the great exercises for people of all ages. If there's any one physical activity that humans evolved to do, it's to walk. Walking is the way in which humans get around, get food. It's kind of fundamental to who we are as a species. Today in the modern sort of western world, with cars and escalators and elevators, and Zoom and TV and all that sort of stuff, we just don't walk very much. You know, the average sort of hunter-gatherer will take maybe 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day.

The average American before the pandemic was taking something like 4,700 something steps a day. So a lot less than our ancestors. One of the ways in which we medicalize exercise in the western world is we think there's a certain amount you should do. We prescribe it. You should take two aspirin, you should get 8 hours of sleep, and you should walk 10,000 steps a day.

We like that. There's nothing necessarily wrong with a goal. Goals can be really helpful, actually. But 10,000 steps is kind of arbitrary. The number actually came from when the first pedometer was invented in Japan before the 1960s Olympics. You know, in the boardroom, they were trying to decide what to call it. Turns out that 10,000 is a very auspicious number in Japan. And they thought it kind of sounded good. It seemed kind of reasonable. So they called it, you know, 10,000 step monitor, and that kind of stuck.

And surprisingly, it turns out that 10,000 steps isn't actually a bad goal. If you actually look at what people in non-Western societies do, you know, 10,000 steps isn't actually that far off. So it's a perfectly reasonable goal to shoot for, but there's nothing like special about it. If you do 8,000 steps, that's fine. If you do 15,000 steps, that's fine. The important thing is to be physically active, because some is better than none, and a little bit more tends to be better than that. But, you know, it's all good. There's no magical number. It's not a U-shaped curve with a bottom on it where that tells you what you should aim for. That does not exist.

I mean, every culture engages in sports. It's a human universal. Sports are important, and they serve all kinds of functions. There's a lot of wonderful things about being on a team, and especially when you're children, you learn good sportsmanship. If somebody scores a goal on you, it's not appropriate to bash them in the face. You know, that sort of thing. You learn hierarchies, you learn companionship, you learn how to cooperate.

But some sports also have another origin. It's not coincidental that a lot of the sports, for example, in the ancient Olympics especially, were skills that were really important for warriors. You know, javelin throwing, chariot racing. Well, we don't do chariot racing anymore. Sprinting, wrestling, boxing. Right. These are all very kind of physically demanding sports. They're kind of combat-related sports, I think evolved also to help us learn not to be reactively aggressive.

So, like an instant kind of unplanned aggression. I mean, the extreme to me is tennis. You cannot be serious. You're not even allowed to swear when you're playing tennis. We're not gonna have a point taken away because this guy's an incompetent fool. You know that. That's what he is. Road rage is a perfect example of reactive aggression. But there's also proactive aggression.

When you plan something, you premeditate, you work it out in advance. War is an example of a proactive aggression. Sports are also kind of proactively aggressive. Sometimes it's perfectly acceptable to be appropriately proactively aggressive as long as you're within the rules. And that's what humans excel at. We're better than most species at curbing reactive aggression, though not so often. But we are capable of extraordinary proactive aggression.

You know, every once in a while, there's a mass shooting, and there's a kind of a standard reaction. Everybody says, "oh, my gosh, you know, how could this person do this? I go to church with him and whatever, and just a nice person, etcetera." But we're confusing reactive aggression with proactive aggression. Hitler was a vegetarian. But of course, one of the most proactively aggressive human beings who's ever lived. We shouldn't confuse these two different kinds of aggression.

Our bodies weren't designed. They weren't engineered. They're not machines. They evolved. And so if you want to understand why our brains work the way they do, why our feet work the way they do, why we run, why our immune systems function the way they do, the only explanation for those sorts of questions is an evolutionary question. There's an old expression, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." I would say that nothing about human behavior makes sense except in the light of culture, in an anthropology. And we need to understand the cultural component to our behaviors as well.

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Education, Harvard, Evolution, Exercise, Cultural Perspectives, Treadmills, Big Think