Новинки Дэниела Либермана

Увлекательная книга, после прочтения которой вы не только по-другому посмотрите на упражнения (а также на сон, бег, силовые тренировки, игры, драки, прогулки и даже танцы), но и поймете, что для борьбы с ожирением и диабетом недостаточно просто заниматься спортом. Если физические упражнения полезны, почему большинство их избегает? Если мы рождены бегать и ходить, почему стараемся как можно меньше двигаться? Действительно ли сидячий образ жизни - это новое курение? Убивает ли бег колени и что полезнее — кардио или силовые тренировки? Дэниел Либерман, профессор эволюционной биологии из Гарварда и один из самых известных исследователей…

The myth-busting science behind our modern attitudes to exercise
In industrialized nations, our sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diseases like diabetes. A key remedy, we are told, is exercise - voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. However, most of us struggle to stay fit, and our attitudes to exercise are plagued by misconceptions, finger-pointing and anxiety.

If exercise is healthy (so good for you!), why do many people dislike or avoid it? If we are born to walk and run, why do most of us take it easy whenever possible? And how do we make sense of the conflicting, anxiety-inducing information about rest, physical activity, and exercise with which we are bombarded? Is sitting really the new smoking? Can you lose weight by walking? Does running ruin your knees? Should we do weights, cardio, or high-intensity training?

In this myth-busting book, Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a pioneering researcher on the evolution of human physical activity, tells the story of how we never evolved to exercise—to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his own research and experiences throughout the world, Lieberman recounts without jargon how and why humans evolved to walk, run, dig, and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while avoiding needless exertion. His engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to mention sitting, sleeping, sprinting, weight lifting, playing, fighting, walking, jogging, and even dancing.

Exercised is entertaining and enlightening but also constructive. As our increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diseases such as diabetes, Lieberman audaciously argues that to become more active we need to do more than medicalize and commodify exercise. Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology and anthropology, Lieberman suggests how we can make exercise more enjoyable, rather than shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the question of whether you can exercise too much, even as he explains why exercise can reduce our vulnerability to the diseases most likely to make us sick and kill us.

Обычно ученые ищут логику и строгие взаимосвязи там, где все остальные видят хаос. Дэниел Либерман, глава кафедры эволюционной биологии человека приходит к противоположному выводу: человеческий организм, самая сложная в мире биологическая машина, выглядит гармонично только для невнимательного взгляда. Для эволюциониста это конструкция из не всегда идеально подходящих друг к другу функций, каждая из которых в свое время помогла решить какую-нибудь проблему. Проблема уходит - функция остается.

The Story of the Human Body brilliantly illuminates as never before the major transformations that contributed key adapations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering; the development of a very large brain; and, perhaps most surprisingly, cultural changes like the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions which altered the way our bodies interact with the world around us. While these ongoing changes have brought about many benefits, they have also created conditions to which our bodies are not entirely adapted. Lieberman proposes that many chronic illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and cancers are persisting because of our tendency to treat only the symptoms rather than the causes of these maladies. Lively, accessible, and informative, yet frank about how our choices of diet, exercise, and general lifestyle can affect our health, The Story of the Human Body may just change the way you live your daily life.