This is the book I've read about exercise that I've liked the most. I guess because it doesn't feel like propaganda or "follow this program and you'll be amazing". It is, instead, a study of the effects of diet and exercise from a historical view. I was surprised to learn, for example, that hunter-gatherers didn't spend every waking hour walking. And the book just made a lot of sense.

I thought the style was engaging and not dry, which I appreciated. And I feel more motivated to move for the right reasons.

This book was more of a drawn out journal than a readable nonfiction book. Many anthropological studies were discussed. I was expecting a trajectory of mid-century exercise obsession with various fads addresses. Instead, it focused on hunter+gatherer studies and other extremely boring tangents.

This is one of my favorite reads in quite a while, which is saying a lot (I think I read over 300 books last year). It's fascinating, helpful, informative and really well researched. I found myself telling family members about it again and again, which is the biggest sign that a book is a hit with me.

Lieberman is an anthropologist who has thoroughly researched what sorts of natural exercise humans have evolved to do over time, along with how our closest primate relatives exercise and what makes the difference between us. He has spent time with hunter-gatherer tribes and gives a fascinating contrast to how they age compared to how most modern humans do, and he's packed the book with good science, good history, good stories and great advice. Highly, highly recommended.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Daniel E. Lieberman's <i>Exercised</i> is an accessible tour of the basic findings of exercise science from an evolutionary/paleoanthropological perspective. Lieberman's central claim is that exercise, as in intentional physical activity for the purposes of maintaining health and fitness, is a weird and very recent phenomenon in annals of human history. Ergo, exercise is not something humans are particularly adapted for - though Lieberman means this more in the psychological than physical sense as he explains in great detail how the body evolved to move and perform physically. Thus, <i>Exercised</i> is a work of exercise apologetics; maybe the first of its kind, given that most works advocating exercise/fitness are rife with aggressive admonishments against sloth and gluttony.

Although I think the framing of the work is overdetermined (the distinction between human beings evolved for physical activity but not exercise is somewhat contrived), I found the content informative and engaging. As a fitness-enthusiast and scientist, most of the conclusions and recommendations were completely familiar to me (well supported and justified by explications of the scientific literature), but the evolutionary perspective is quite interesting and contextualizes why exercise is beneficial in our evolutionarily mismatched modern society.

The book is a little overlong with some unnecessary repetition (though the extensive citations and notes are appreciated). Additionally, a deeper exploration of the literature of exercise science and related topics, including high performance/extreme athletics, would have enriched the work. Sometimes Lieberman's tangents about human nature or structuring incentive structures to match evolved proclivities are the most interesting and provocative aspects of the book. Some of <i>Exercised</i> felt like a retelling of parts of Lieberman's prior book (<i>The Story of the Human Body</i>), which I think is the superior work. Overall, <i>Exercise</i> is worth picking up whether you are a proponent or critic of exercise.

Excerised goes over the increase in disease in humans as society became more industrialized and left its hunter gatherer roots. I found this book to be off-putting and interesting at the same time.

I really wanted to read more about the anthropology behind exercise and how physical activity is applied to daily life in non-industrialized areas. While this book does provide this, it spends more time going back to modern industrialized societies to show how our worlds are just so different that that is why people have more health problems in countries like the US and UK.

I found the book to attempt to enlighten the reader by using studies to show that correlation doesn't equal causation and give examples of how too much exercise and not enough exercise can be damaging. What I really came away with after reading nearly 500 pages was that modern science doesn't really know anything conclusive other than exercise is good for humans. I happened to already know this. The myths mentioned were not statements I have heard much about and found the answers to be obvious. I am by no means a health or exercise expert either.

I was really disappointed that the book spent a lot of time on modern running and exercise culture without really going into depth about the physiology of how indigenous people exercise or other methods of modern exercise, such as weightlifting. I would have liked there to be more information on the evolution of exercise through the industrial revolution as well as studies commenting on weight lifting and other forms of exercise instead of just running.

While I think the author was trying to give the reader the ability to think critically about these modern issues and how they still need more work and action by sedentary people, I found the message to be lost in study after study being thrown at the reader giving conflicting messages. I really felt that I ran a mental marathon while reading this book and the message was lost by how exhausted I was to go through 464 pages, when this really could have been 300 pages.

3/5

As a chump, non-athletic exerciser, who has nonetheless jogged for a half century, I am in the market for books on the subject. I can safely say that "Exercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health" is the freshest and most useful book I've ever come across on this vexatious issue. The book's distinguishing trait is that its author, Daniel Lieberman, is an evolutionary biologist. His analysis of any fitness/health issue considers not only the usual experimental and medical data but also how our evolutionary forebears behaved (which can be gleaned, partly, from the small remaining populations of true hunter-gatherers). Using this professional lens, the author scythes down myth after myth. We're told to relax and exercise less as we age; nonsense, indeed the reverse is crystal clear. One topic close to my heart (and my dodgy left knee) is exercise's possibly deleterious effect on people; the situation is complex but with the exception of extreme levels of activity, we can safely obsess. You can lose weight by walking, it just takes longer than dieting; moreover exercising is a marvelous complement to dieting. Cavemen are not our role model. "Just do it" won't cut it; motivation to exercise is complex and varied. And so on and so on. He is especially harsh, and rightfully so, on fads and commercialized catechisms. The book is superbly organized and referenced, yet Lieberman's style is elegant and laced with graceful humor. I'm not sure Exercised will make much sense to someone first broaching regular physical activity, but as long as you get out reasonably regularly and have thought a bit about it, this is an entertaining marvel of a book.

"The mantra of this book is that nothing about the biology of exercise makes sense except in the light of evolution, and nothing about exercise as a behaviour makes sense except in the light of anthropology."

This examination of history is by a paleoanthropologist Professor – something of an expert both on the evolution of the human body and the study of hunter gatherer societies, both which an emphasis on how they have led to the evolution and development of human physical activity. He is perhaps best known for his work on endurance running which was adopted by the barefoot-running movement. He himself is a reluctant exerciser (albeit a marathon runner) and this book represents his study of exercise i.e. planned, sustained, structured and (most crucially) voluntary physical activity undertaken for health and fitness. A key aim to the book is to examine why we find this activity so difficult and why in fact we are so exercised about it.

The first section looks at physical inactivity and how rather than being evolved to exercise we are actually evolved to exercise as little as possible and rest frequently. One reason is the need to conserve our energy for body maintenance – one very interesting observation that the author makes (which I think matches the surprise you probably have when you first wear a calorie counting smart watch) is how much of your calorie use is involved simply in being awake and how little incrementally is added by exercise. Hunter gatherers would also conserve energy for long hunting pursuits and reproduction. I have to say I was reminded of the professional cyclists (I think Churchill inpsired) mantra around the economy of effort – "Don’t walk when you can stand, don’t stand when you can sit, don’t sit when you can lie down, don’t lie down when you can sleep". But whereas for professional cyclists this is more about conserving their legs, for hunter gatherers it was more about conserving their meagre and uncertain supplies of calories. While not condemning rest he does point out the issues with modern sitting which is simply too comfortable and passive – and at the very least recommends fidgeting (something which encouraged me as an inveterate jiggler and fidgeter). This section finishes with a section on sleep which while interesting is I think is better passed over for a more dedicated book on the topic (such as “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker).

The second section is on strength exercises such as sprinting, lifting and fighting. The section draws heavily on biomechanics (as well as evolution and anthropology) and was not always of such interest to me, and I found the lengthy discussion of the evolution of fighting both lacking interest and slightly gratuitous to the book’s main thrust (although my very use of that phrase shows how ancient hunting techniques are embedded in our language as well as our physiology. His overall conclusion on strength is that for hunter gatherers being overly strong carried too high a cost and that for modern man the key is to stay just strong enough for normal activities (but that this likely requires deliberate exercise as you age as our labour saving world means day to day living simply does not provide enough muscle stress).

The sections on Endurance (walking, running and dancing) I found more interesting. He is particularly strong on humans being almost perfectly designed for long distance walking interspersed with jogging (something I found interesting as it matches my COVID era daily dog walks – or at least my aspiration for them). For example our all body sweat glands and lack of fur make us perfectly adapted to avoid over heating when running long distances – unlike say dogs (and many other quadrapeds) whose panting mechanism fails when they break into a gallop. He also makes it clear that walking can lead to weight loss but it needs both lengthier and faster walking than most people manage and regular persistence over a long period – a key reason being that (like with most exercise) it is so much easier for us than earlier societies to simply cancel out exercise by extra unhealthy eating – his key point seems to be to diet to lose really excessive weight and use endurance exercise for longer term and more sustainable weight loss. The section on the importance of tribal dance as a mechanism for maintaining fitness initially seemed interesting but of little application – but I think this came later.

I enjoyed the section on ageing and felt this was perhaps the real key to the book. He shows how in earlier societies the vital role of grandparents to support pregnant and nursing mothers meant that endurance and light-strength fitness persisted much longer as a basic necessity, leading to the paradox that while our bodies require lifelong physical exercise to stay fit into old age, our minds did not need to evolve to seek this exercise voluntarily (in fact quite the opposite – as above we are mentally evolved to avoid any immediately unnecessary exercise). The real aim he says for us and for society is to find ways to make exercise both necessary and fun in some way. On the necessary point he is a fan of nudge theory and likes for example an app which sends your money to your least favourite cause if you don’t exercise. On the fun side one of the issues he points out is that the much heralded dopamine/serotonin/endorphin benefits of exercise only really accrue to those already exercising sufficiently. This is where among other ideas he draws back on the idea of dance – using sport and group activities to help with exercise (as well as rewards and variety) and a number of other nudge ideas.

He concludes looking at optimal amounts of exercise – and agrees that the common prescription for adults of a minimum 150 minutes per week moderate (50-70% of maximum heart rate) or 75 minutes vigorous (70-85%) exercise makes a lot of sense – mixed up with possibly some high intensity training (although not without doctor advice) and some weights/resistance.

The last chapter would I think be better as an appendix – it goes through a series of “modern” diseases, looks at how each arose at least partly from an evolutionary mismatch between our bodies and the modern world, and then what type of exercise can most prevent them.

Overall I found this a very interesting read, which while very much not a prescriptive self-help book, does have a clear conclusion.

Make exercise necessary and fun. Do mostly cardio, but also some weights. Some if good, but more is better. Keep it up as you age.

See my upcoming review of of EXERCISED by Daniel Lieberman in Booklist magazine (American Library Association)