FITNESS Are we born to run?

Are we born to run?


Personal Trainer
Paul O'Brien

To run or not to run? That is the question. As those who have, at one time or another, laced up your trainers will know, running isn’t easy. It can take a significant toll on the body. It can leave you with aching muscles, sore joints and, when injury strikes, a broken spirit.
However, for many people who think about improving their fitness and getting more physical exercise, jogging or running is frequently a default starting position. It’s almost as if we are somehow wired to get out and run. Perhaps it’s in our genes, embedded deeply into the human psyche?
This is one of the theories posited by a wonderful book I recently read. ‘Born to Run’ takes us back to our evolutionary roots and puts forward the hypothesis that we both evolved to run and that running continued to drive our evolutionary progress for millennia. As climatic change forced ancient man to change his eating and dwelling habits, natural selection chose to change our gait. We moved from four legs to two in order to run, climb, forage and do many other tasks demanded by the changing environment. Hunting for meat on the newly opened grasslands usually meant extremely long, mostly slow endurance runs after large game. We simply outlasted our prey and moved in for the kill when exhaustion set it.
Yet, we also developed speed. Short bursts were used at the climax of kills and to prevent ourselves from becoming prey ourselves. To paraphrase the book, we ran to eat and to avoid being eaten.
It is only recently that we have bucked this trend. Only in the last millennium or so have we foregone the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Instead of running, our daily existence is now far more sedentary in nature. This has come at a price. The onset of modern, chronic conditions such as coronary disease, cancers and many dietary diseases are directly related to our decreasing levels of physical activity.
Running has also fallen prey to other modern monsters. What remains one our basic instincts – the desire to run – has been diluted and hijacked by technology. A multi-billion euro industry has grown to exploit this instinct. We have hi-tech shoes that cost the equivalent of a year’s salary in some developed countries. And that’s just our feet covered! Running has become trendy, competitive and expensive.
Beneath all the falsity though, running still addresses a basic need. I believe it reaches out to us at a primal level. It connects us to our roots, both ancestral and physical. We are at once a part of the earth we inhabit and conjoined with the spirits of the past. Running frees us from our ego, our modern, destructive preoccupation with self.
You may have tried to come back to running in the past and for some reason, found it wasn’t for you. Perhaps injury blighted your return, or you simply found it too hard. I encourage you to try again. The next time you run, take to the woods or a forest trail. Carry yourself back through the ages and follow in the footsteps of those who ran to live. Feel the primal connection with the earth beneath your feet. Marvel in the sound of your foot strike. Feel the wind and listen to the symphony that nature provides along your route.
Forget about form, about competition, about training. Run for joy. Run for connection. Run for life. Simply, run.

Paul O’Brien is a personal trainer and life coach based in Westport.