Humans Were Born to Run, Scientists Say

Reuters ^ | 11/17/2004 | Patricia Reaney

[ArrogantBustard]

Been jogging for oh, nearly 30 years,/i>

You sure you've been "jogging" and not "running"? Jogging is an unnatural act, more like marching really fast than it is like anything else, and very few people actually do it. Fortunately. It'll really muck up your legs ... running, in which up-and-down movement is minimized, is a whole different sort of thing. We're pretty good at it, and optimized for endurance. We're predators; our running is for chasing prey, not for evading predators.

[Porterville]

I love running. Funny thing, the eliptical machine actually has improved my form and is helping to make me faster.

[Taliesan]

Just finished my second marathon, and have never had shin splints or a stress fracture. And there is no evidence that "jogging" causes spine problems.

[diamond6]

"Humans were born to run..."

Humans were meant to be born.

[Junior]

"We do it because we are good at it. We enjoy it and we have all kinds of specializations that permit us to run well," said Daniel Liberman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Bull puckey. I hate running. It kills my knees and ankles. Only pointy-headed fitness freaks think running is good for you.

[Restorer]

Any quadruped can outrun us -- even quadrupedal apes.

Humans are distance runners, not sprinters. As such they can run almost any quadruped on the planet quite literally into the ground. The article doesn't mention the major reason for this, which is that the human ability to shed body heat is one of the most efficient of any animal.

The Bushmen and other "primitive" hunters routinely run down antelopes and other speedy animals simply by continuing to track the animal and not allow them to rest and cool down. The result is that the animal eventually drops due to heat stress, essentially cooking itself from the inside out. The Bushman trots up, puts a poison arrow in from a safe distance and waits for the animal to die, or anyway get weak enough that butchering can safely begin.

[Maceman]

They suspect modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors about 2 million years ago so they could hunt and scavenge for food over large distances. But the development of physical features that enabled humans to run entailed a trade off -- the loss of traits that were useful for being a tree-climber.

I find Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape Theory to be the most credible.

[Junior]

To the best of my knowledge, there is absolutely no proof of evolution occuring at the macro- level.

Define "macro-evolution." Posit the mechanism by which "micro-evolution" ceases before becoming "macro-evolution." Once you've done this, we'll entertain your comments on the matter.

[HamiltonJay]

Sounds to me this researcher has a bum fetish

[Fatalis]

Heads up.

[Porterville]

"Shin splints, stress fractures and spine problems are the reward for splitting the difference between running and walking, and then doing it for years on end." "Been jogging for oh, nearly 30 years, and have none of the problems you mention."

Probably has the wrong shoes and is running too much. I weigh 195-200 pounds and cannot run more than every other to every third day. I run between 7-8 miles each time. It is a lot of stress because of my large frame so I allow ample time to heal and make sure that the shoes I am wearing are not worn out (past 250 miles or over 4 months old) and that they are the correct shoes for my foot type. Also, I exercise (between runs) cardiovascularly on machines. I also lift weights and eat somewhat well. I find juices and fruits give me an extra boost of long sustaining energy.

[Van Jenerette]

See Kate Run. Run Kate Run.

[ThinkPlease]

Watch who you're calling pointy headed, buster. Them's fighting words in my household.

[ThinkPlease]

I'm training for my second marathon, and I finally got shin splints from incorrectly training during a 19 miler (bad shoes and pavement==disaster).

[old3030]

True. About the only animals that can beat us over long distances are sled dogs -- and they don't do well over 60 degrees F.

[zygoat]

I stand erect and have an opposable thumb so that I can get the beer off of the top shelf at the liquor store.

[1Old Pro]

No mention of our knees.....the first thing to go under the pounding of running.

[Fatalis]

You'd be wise to also establish a definition of "proof."

[FairWitness]

We can run down critters that can outrun us. Humans have been known to run down and exhaust animals such as gazelles and the like.

And one of the advantages that we have in doing this is that we can carry a certain amount of food and/or water to sustain us, which the animal cannot.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

If this theory is true, then why haven't the other apelike critters that run evolved into our physical structure? Why is there still a difference?

Answer: because G-- created all critters. And he created us with the ability to evolve -- BUT ONLY WITHIN THE LIMITS OF OUR GENETIC CODING.

We are separated genetically from the other primates. Always have been, always will be.

The fact that these evolutionists have to keep citing assumed behavior as a reason for evolving proves that they acknowledge that environmental circumstances trigger our evolving within our limits and that we never can evolve beyond our limits. If we could, we'd all be able to run as fast as a leopard all day long because that would have provided the most assured success in hunting. But leopards can't run fast for very long. And we can't run very fast at all. We've had enough time to evolve to perfection, but we haven't. We're limited by our genes.