Moving on

Humans are made for moving. It’s what I always have thought, or, let’s say, since I myself started to move. With the latter, I don’t mean the moment I was thrown on this earth, so my birth, but when I began doing sport. Actually, “began” is not the right word. I didn’t suddenly or within a rather short time begin to practice sport. It was a gradual development. First going to an ice rink, now and then; during the next summer making a few bike tours; next winter more skating; then I became a member of a sports club; etc. My ideas about the body (and its relation with the mind) developed gradually with my sportive activities, until I had the feeling and then also the idea that humans are made to move.
Nowadays, this is a widespread idea. This hasn’t always been so. For a long time it was so that you left physical work to others, if you could. Actually, such work was considered to be beneath you. It was done by people who hadn’t the capabilities to do something else (so it was thought). Better work was office work; or work in leading positions; anyway work for which you didn’t need to use your body. Those people made a stroll at most; or a horse ride; maybe even often. But this was seen as leisure; as relaxing and not so much as physical effort. So, Kant – I don’t know what he thought about physical effort – every day made a walk (and always at exactly the same time).
That moving your body is good for you actually should be no surprise, although for a long time the idea was ignored if not denied. But humans originated in the darkness of the prehistory as bipedal beings. There were no domesticated animals and no carts; nobody would bear you, unless you were a little child. Therefore the only way to go from here to there was by using your own legs. No wonder that your whole body became adapted to this necessity. Your body functions better when you use it, like your blood pressure, organs, energy system and muscles. It degenerates when you don’t use it enough, like an old car that rusts away when it is not used any longer. Your muscles lose power and endurance when they don’t work hard enough. Etc.
Millions of years long humans would move their own bodies without even thinking about it, for there was no alternative. This changed when, with the development of agriculture and with the development of cities and permanent residences, human life became sedentary, and there was less need to move. The social structure became more complicated, and since physical effort came to be seen as an effort you should avoid – this was a rather narrow view, as we now know – physical work was looked down upon. So it remained almost till today. However, many people still needed to move a lot, since fast and efficient means of transport, as we have them today, and machines to relieve physical work did not yet exist (and are not more than two centuries old). When people wanted to move from one place to another, most of the time they used their bodies. Carts and horses were only useful for longer distances and even then you had to use your own body more than in a modern train or car. Moreover, many people couldn’t afford them.
Although the idea that moving your body is good has become widespread, the practice is often different. Although this is changing, cities have often not been built for walkers and cyclists, so that you are forced to take your car or to use public transport. People were not used to walking any longer, while actually by bike they would arrive as fast at their destinations. For how much time isn’t lost in waiting for the bus or train or looking for a parking place? Moreover, society is organized that way that often you have hardly any opportunity to move your body. If you want to, you must do it intentionally in your free time like going to a fitness centre, making a bike ride for pleasure, or in your sports club. Moving has become something extra. The result is that many people don’t do it enough. According to the Irish neuroscientist Shane O’Mara going by foot is better than cycling. I think that he is right, for when walking (or running), you move the rest of your body (besides your legs) more than when you are cycling (which is a little bit one-sided, as you use mainly your legs and less so the rest of your body). Nevertheless, I doubt whether “better” is the right word here, for by cycling you can do by far longer distances, so that you can go to places by bike, where you wouldn’t go by foot (and then you would go by car, bus or train instead). Moreover, when you become older, cycling is a much more pleasant way to move for many people than walking (anyway, it’s my experience).
One of the most remarkable results of scientific research is that moving your body is not only good for your body in a narrow sense but also for your brain, if not for your mind. It helps you postpone if not prevent mental diseases like Alzheimer's disease; it’s good for your memory and learning ability; it works against stress and depressions, makes you more creative and keeps your brain younger. So moving your body is better for the whole person you are; not only for your physical person but also for your mental person. Isn’t it another argument for the idea that body and mind are one; an idea I defended in my last two blogs (and in other blogs as well)?