Let’s face it, see some red faced man or woman jogging along the pavement, headphones on and sweat pouring and many of us shake our heads inwardly and think ‘why?’
The recently released comedy, ‘Run Fat Boy Run’, had an excellent skit on just this. That confused shudder at the idea of running a marathon and therefore having to train for it, day in, day out, in hot sun or (more likely in the UK) freezing rain. What’s the point? Aren’t there more important and/or satisfying things we could do with our time? Isn’t it just some sort of post-modern self-flagellation for the ‘sin’ of not adhering to the Gospels of Public Health and the martyrs to fitness and sexiness we see on the cover of GQ, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Vogue? Is regular, strenuous exercise really just part of the cult of the body-beautiful and therefore something that can be sneered at justifiably?
Somewhat unsurprisingly I’m going to say not.
This isn’t to suggest that everyone should train up to run a marathon. It doesn’t mean that everyone CAN train up to run a marathon, or that running a marathon is even the best way to keep your body functioning properly.
But this is precisely the point – we shouldn’t regard regular strenuous exercise as something extra. It isn’t only for people obsessed looking ‘hot’ or just as a way of expiating the guilt of excess. Regular exercise that gets us sweating, our hearts pumping hard and makes our muscles ache slightly is the basic requirement to keep our bodies functioning properly. It isn’t about becoming an athlete or proving anything to anyone, it’s just about keeping our bodies working.
To anyone without an eating disorder, the idea of not eating at all is a crazy one. We know that it will harm our bodies and we also know that we will begin to crave food and feel uncomfortable – in fact we get this craving to some degree every day. Just because our bodies don’t crave exercise in the same very apparent and nagging way as they do food and water doesn’t mean that exercise isn’t as important in its own way to the continued functioning of our bodies. Yes we can go a lot longer not exercising than we can not eating, but the damage done to our hearts, bones, joints and even minds is profound and often lethal.
In evolutionary terms human bodies haven’t changed that much since our ancestors were running around under African skies, hunting animals, gathering nuts and berries and trying to avoid being eaten by Big Things With Sharp Teeth. Our bodies still crave salt, fats and sugars. Our bodies still store as much fat as possible, and why? Because our bodies are still operating as if we are all hunter-gatherers still on the food chain of other animals.
If we had to spend most of our days walking for miles and climbing trees and sheer rock-faces in order to find our food, it wouldn’t matter so much if we pig-out from time to time on sugar or fat. If we had to run hard and fast for at least 30 minutes everyday to avoid a big predator or to bring down a woolly Mammoth for dinner, then it wouldn’t matter so much if we over eat over a few evenings. We would burn almost all the fats and sugars we eat as part of our usual routine, or at least when winter comes and food becomes more scarce.
Our bodies are optimised to graze on small amounts of food regularly and to consume a larger amount of fattier, higher protein foods once in a while as part of a daily grind of moving around A LOT.
It may be that one day in the distant future our bodies evolve so that metabolising fats without physical activity becomes a possibility, along with the possibility that our posteriors grow into huge and comfy sacks of fat, a bit like bean-bags but softer, and our left hands turn into TV remotes. In the meantime though, without even 30 minutes of hard exercise every day we’re at best paving the way for an even more decrepit old age than is necessary, with aching joints, angina and concentration problems. At worst, we’ll spend our days sweating hard in even the mildest heat only to keel over with a heart attack one day having gulped down that all important extra pint or hazelnut chocolate.
Perhaps just a little jogging isn’t such a bad idea after all. Now where did I put my trainers and I-Pod…?
