Never Walk Alone

Frank Forencich posted an article from the Mayo Clinic on the Exuberant Animal Blog today.

The article is about walking, and how frequent walking is just as effective (if not more effective) at improving health as “heavy” exercise.  Not only is it just as effective, but there’s also significantly lower risk of injury in walking than in other types of “work out.”

Walking is part of our evolutionary heritage.  Bipedal locomotion (walking on two legs) is one of the things that sets us apart from the other primates, and one of the things that enabled the rapid growth of our brain.  We could do more things while we were moving – hold weapons, carry food, fix tools or clothing, etc.  This increased effeciency definitely helped us to create neural pathways that didn’t exist in our primate brethren, and may have helped us to get the enormous amount of calories needed to fuel that growing brain.

There is one comment I’d like to make about the article, though, that the author misses.  That is, the communal nature of human “exercise” through history.

We never walked alone.

But most gyms are set up in a way that forces people to work alone. All machine-based exercise equipment is made for one person. Sure, people have conversations next to each other on their stationary bikes, but where’s the creative problem solving?  The space for play?  It isn’t there.

For those of you reading this post, or the Mayo Clinic article – find a friend to walk with, and play some games along the way…