The article titled “Humans Evolved to Exercise” by Herman Pontzer was published in Scientific American magazine in 2019. The author discusses the importance of exercise for the human body. He compares humans to great apes, highlighting that the latter remain lean and healthy despite being inactive. At the same time, the former’s physiology evolved in such a way that movement became vital (Pontzer). The article claims that chimpanzees eat a primarily plant-based diet and, on average, walk less than 5000 steps if converted to human equivalent (Pontzer). Even in captivity, gorillas maintain less than 23% of body fat, and chimps have this number below 10%, which in humans can only be found in Olympic athletes (Pontzer). Humans lack this capacity because walking upright changes our anatomy and physiology by increasing VO2 max, doubling the amount of slow-twitch muscles in the legs, and elevating red blood cell count (Pontzer). Therefore, exercise is crucial to maintain cognitive, mental, and physical health. Training boosts the production of neurotrophic factors, improves insulin sensitivity, reduces steroid hormones, and strengthens the immune system, delaying the onset of all major chronic diseases in the modern western world.
The title immediately captured my attention because I am highly interested in the role of exercise in human health. The article covered such areas of Human Anatomy and Physiology as skeletal, muscular, nervous, pulmonary, cardiovascular, and digestive systems. The subject of this article is essential because people nowadays have sedentary lifestyles, which results in the surge of such disorders as ischemic heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. The first thing that I learned was that the human body ages and degenerates quickly without exercise. Secondly, I realized that we do not have the luxury of high resting metabolic rate as apes do; hence, all people should be more physically active to remain healthy.
Work Cited
Pontzer, Herman. “Humans Evolved to Exercise.”Scientific American, 2019.