Exercise is Unnatural
You remember back in High school when…
The slackers in your 10th Grade PE class who tried to pass the class while moving as little as possible?
The stoners who mocked the Presidential Physical Fitness Award tests?
Evolutionarily - they were right - it is stupid. Running around in a circle as fast as possible is a waste of precious energy. Birds do not take a fifteen mile flight in the morning as a warm up for their day of getting food, trying to reproduce, and avoid being eaten.
Our instincts are to only move when we need to move and to move as little as possible. The modern world is built on “labor saving” machines. Machines move us and everything that we need to survive, but not to thrive. To thrive our bodies require movement.
Daniel Lieberman in his January 2021 book:
Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding
Changed my views on exercise. Here is what I knew.
Myself, and normal people, do not want to exercise. I dread scheduled exercise. We find ways to get ourselves moving -- temptation bundling, carrots and sticks, scheduling, showing up and starting hoping momentum pushes us through a full workout.
Once I start a run, walk or lifting weights, only rare injuries prevent me from completing the planned distance or sets.
I like the results. We feel good after exercise. We are glad that we did it. With sustained effort over months and years we enjoy the feeling or fitness.
There is a disconnect. If I know once I get gong I will likely finish and then feel great about what I did - Why is getting going so hard? Why do I need to entice myself with habit hacks?
Exercised explains the why - we were made to move, lift, and carry, but we only did so when there was not a choice - it had to be done.
Step 1 - Do not move unless you have to.
Step 2 - Get moving you will reach your goals.
Step 3 - You will feel so good relaxing afterwards that you do not see a need to move in the near future.