According to a Harvard Educator, Humans Are Meant for Sitting, Not Sports

The man would be made to sit down and not to run. This is what Daniel E. Lieberman says, researcher and professor in biology of evolution at Harvard in his book Exerted. Please note, this is not a reason not to play sports at all. It's like everything, you have to know how to dose and find balance.

It is impossible to count the YouTube, Tiktok or Instagram accounts which highlight a practice of sport, indoors – whose number has also exploded – or at home, sometimes extreme.

And everything could be perfect if cleavages in society are not observed between those who play sports and those who do not do it.

However, in view of Professor Lieberman's analyzes, if sport is a physical activity to keep the body healthy, man has not evolved until today to practice it all the time. In other words, it is not “natural” to play sports. We are not made for that.

Especially if we add to this that a certain part of those who practice sport do it for aesthetic reasons rather than health. Not to mention the people who have developed a real addiction to this activity.

To achieve this conclusion, Lieberman takes the example ofHomo sapienswhich to perfect his domination of the world spent much more time sitting than running everywhere and that even if he had to move to find food: he would not run, he walked.

Because yes, walking is still sport.

So should we stop everything and sit?

Certainly not! It would even be much more harmful to our health. Although we have evolved to sit, that does not mean that we have to ask ourselves and do nothing.

Science has proven many and many times that a regular sports practice was very beneficial for our body and to prevent certain diseases. However, everything is in the dosage.

If we spent our time playing sports, our body would end up for a while or another by letting us go. And the same goes with the extension of a sitting position. As with everything in life, you have to balance the thing. Especially since athletes will be able to agree that the time rest, in the session or after, has as much or more importance than the session in itself.

As long as we know how to dose, we respect the way in which our body has evolved for thousands of years and above all we preserve it. Thus, without taking into account the rest of the habits (sleep, food, possible addictions, etc.), Lieberman advocates limiting time sitting without break at 45 minutes and practicing walking every day by taking 7,000 steps daily and not 10,000 as it is customary to hear it.

If your physical condition allows it and your workplace also, you have the possibility of taking your steps on a working day. Just like the 45 minutes seated interspersed with small breaks to stretch your legs.

The benefits of a sporting activity

If sitting allows you to rest, which is extremely important, the practice of sport, although we are not made for this, has many benefits. According to the Ministry of Labor, Health, Solidarity and the Family:

• It improves physical condition, respiratory and cardiac functions;
• Improves mental health by reducing stress and helps prevent depressive states
• Help to fight against obesity
• prevents chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers
• help keep bones healthy

But again, you have to know how to dose.