Harvard professor debunks the ‘10,000 steps per day’ myth | Daniel Lieberman
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Published 2022-11-20
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Today, most of us tend to medicalize exercise, turning it into something that we “have” to do. Case in point: the treadmill. If our main goal was enjoyment, there’s no way we’d regularly spend 45 minutes walking in place on these expensive machines.
But our relationship with exercise — or, more generally, physical activity — was not always so discrete and joyless. For much of human history, people got plenty of physical activity by not only walking long distances, but also by doing activities that were both necessary and socially rewarding, like hunting, dancing, and sports.
Harvard biologist Daniel Lieberman argues it’s time to rethink our relationship with exercise, and to understand physical activity as a complex and integral part of human evolution. After all, while walking thousands of steps through the environment to find our next meal was a major part of our evolution, walking on the treadmill was not.
Read the video transcript ► bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/rethin…
0:00 Treadmill torture (really)
1:54 Exercise vs physical activity
2:40 Why exercise stresses us out
3:12 “Medicalizing” exercise
3:48 The 10,000 steps myth
5:02 Warrior origins of exercise
6:12 Aggression: Proactive vs. reactive
7:15 The anthropological view
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About Daniel Lieberman:
Daniel Lieberman is Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lieberman loves teaching and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as three popular books, The Evolution of the Human Head (2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020).
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All Comments (21)
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Totally deceiving title, absolute clickbait
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I wouldn't say he debunked it. He explained and deconstructed it, but it was still relatively true in his own words.
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Do something is better than do nothing. Everything starts with the first step
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"I don't know anybody who really enjoys being on a treadmill." But... I actually enjoy being on a treadmill... I get to listen to and organize my Spotify playlist while exercising. It's very therapeutic to me.
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Straight forward message, very clear. Walk as much as you can, but you don't have to count. He is an advocate of exercise being a natural part of your day, and enjoying whatever you do.
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He was talking for 8 minutes but didn't really say anything.
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"debunks" is basically the exact opposite of what he does in this video but ok
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Exercise equipment like treadmills are fine if you live in an environment where you can't go outside for certain periods of time.
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Nobody has ever said less with as many words as this man does here
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I was told at a young age "Use or Lose It" or "Always keep moving" which both grandma's would say. The one who kept to these lived almost to 100 while the other was shy by 20 years. This rule seems to be true for my parents as well. I believe Harvard just released finding that cancer patients on chemotherapy that exercised / forced themselves to move had a 63% survival over those who did not move.
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I use a treadmill because it's hard for me to walk outside in the winter. I fall too easily, and am getting to the age where falls are particularly hazardous.
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"Exercise is not fun its like taking your medicine". I can't properly put into words how much I disagree with this. I LOVE exercise. Is it hard? of course it is, but I love every minute of it. I lift weights 6 days per week and do 2 hours incline walking on my home treadmill (daily). Exercise is by far one of the best parts of my day. The health benefits just make me love it even more.
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I think he's talking about the people who exercise for the sake of something. Like lifting weights to look good without a shirt and hitting the treadmill to lose weight, etc. Although this might be true for some people, others, myself included, LOVE to exercise. Lifting weights can be a hell of a challenge, while I"m doing it, I could tell myself, "man what am I doing." But once the session is over, I feel so relaxed and so happy. Being stronger also helps me do a lot of daily stuff.
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This whole video makes the assumption that everyone hates going on the treadmill. I love walking on the treadmill. It's relaxing. Aiming for 10,000 steps has helped incredibly with my fitness and made exercise a habit. Bashing the 10,000 steps a day thing makes no sense to me
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Without having watched the video its still save to say that any kind of exercise that makes you move is better than no exercise.
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Working out in the gym is way less of a torture that listening to this guy talking so much without saying anything
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eat less + work more + drink more water + stay away from stress = healthy body.
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People are always too hung up on these things like 10k steps a day, instead of focusing on the trip itself for example. That is what I did, plan trips outside and just try to enjoy myself and really take in the nature and everything around me, made me not even realize I have walked a ton, before when I was hyper focused on getting within those 10k steps, I tended to simply hating it in itself and tended to not actually getting there. It is good to have goals, but goals can also overshadow whatever you are doing to the point it gets detrimental, where if you ever don't reach that goal, you might end up blaming yourself, thinking you are not good enough etc. Keep it simple as just getting out, and down the line set bigger goals, important thing is simply to get outside more often, even just a trip to the grocery and walking and carrying everything back instead of using the car is a step in the right direction.
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let me summarize the video because the guy, as someone else stated, found the longest way to say the idea. just don't count. walking is natural, so you don't need to count how many steps you take, you just need to make sure you do it. i have no idea how he "debunked" this when all he said was that you shouldn't count. he didn't debunk that 10k steps a day is good for you.
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What was the point of this video?!?
