HAVE WE MADE MODERN LIFE TOO COMFORTABLE?
Researchers studied the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, expecting perhaps that they simply spent far less time inactive than people in industrialised societies.
They didn't.
They averaged about 9.9 hours a day in non-walking/resting postures — surprisingly similar to sedentary time seen in industrialised populations.
The fascinating difference was how they rested.
They frequently squatted or knelt rather than sitting in chairs. Measurements showed that some squatting positions kept the leg muscles working substantially harder than ordinary chair sitting.
Perhaps the problem isn't simply that modern humans rest. Humans have always rested. We may have changed the way we rest.
And we don't have to look to hunter-gatherer communities to see how dramatically everyday movement has changed.
We don't have to go back very far.
Think about an ordinary day in Australia a century or more ago.
There were no remote controls, robot vacuums or online shopping. People generally walked more as part of everyday life. Household work involved lifting, carrying, scrubbing, chopping, bending and reaching. Gardens were worked. Washing was physical work. Even getting from one place to another often required more physical effort.
Life wasn't necessarily healthier, easier or better — far from it.
But it did contain something modern life has become remarkably good at removing:
Incidental movement.
Today:
We take lifts rather than stairs.
Our floors are flat.
Our paths are paved.
Machines carry, wash, lift and move things for us.
We spend much of our day indoors and turn the lights on at night.
None of these things is bad. They're wonderful conveniences.
But there is an interesting question:
In making life easier, have we inadvertently removed some of the everyday challenges that helped keep our bodies capable?
Perhaps ageing well isn't about exercising for an hour and then avoiding movement for the other 23.