Hi, this is Alex, from MinuteEarth.
You're probably sitting down right now.
Or maybe you’re standing.
But it’s unlikely that you’re watching this video while playing baseball, or going
for a run, or rock climbing.
In fact, if you’re like most people, you’re not very active even when you're not watching
YouTube videos.
In the United States, for example, more than three quarters of all people fail to meet
recommended guidelines for physical activity, and some countries are even less active.
That’s a problem, because when people aren’t physically active, we’re more anxious, we
sleep worse, and we have fuzzier memories and shorter lifespans than if we were active.
We also have a higher risk of cancer, heart attack, diabetes, obesity, stroke, Alzheimer’s,
depression, and tons of other health problems.
If all of us were to exercise more, each year the world could save over 5 million lives
and $50 billion in healthcare costs.
But, unfortunately, that’s really hard, because it seems to require fighting against our genetics.
Way back in the day, we spent tons of energy finding enough food to survive.
So ancient people who took it easy when they weren’t searching for food replenished more
energy than people who also did pointless physical activity.
As a result, they had more energy for hunting and gathering, and were more likely to survive
and reproduce.
Modern studies have suggested that different genetic factors predispose us to be more or
less active, and can be passed along, so it’s likely that our ancestors - at least the ones
who survived - had genes that promoted taking it easy that got passed along, and along,
and along, all the way to us.
But now that most of us don’t need to throw things or run or climb rocks to get food,
our natural preference for taking it easy has taken over.
Sure, some people still do these things as exercise - which is what we call it when you
intentionally do “physical activity” for the purpose of improving your health - but
that’s not enough of a motivator for most people.
So most people take it easy, which, as we mentioned before, leads to a ton of problems.
That’s why some people are calling for us to reincorporate more non-exercise physical
activity back into modern life.
If we built fewer roads and more paths, it would be easier for people to use their own
power to get to school or work.
If we put stairways at the main entrance to buildings rather than hiding them in a back
corridor, more people would use them rather than elevators.
If our airports had fewer human conveyor belts, more people would walk.
If we turned our lawns into gardens, we could be active by raising and gathering food.
And if we took otherwise inactive pursuits like gaming, and combined them with a physical
activity, more people would have more reasons to be active.
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy to redesign entire communities and make new norms, like
showing up to work stinky.
And most people wouldn’t be able to easily incorporate enough incidental physical activity into their
daily life.
So to be healthy, most of us would still probably need to intentionally exercise in addition
to being incidentally physically active.
Which means that even if you've been watching this three minute MinuteEarth video from your
treadmill desk, you should still probably go outside and run around for a MinuteEarthree.
This video was sponsored by the University of Minnesota, where students, faculty and
staff across all fields of study are working to solve the Grand Challenges facing society.
One of these challenges is helping people be healthy, and promoting physical activity
is part of the solution.
Beth Lewis, the director of the School of Kinesiology, is working to identify which
types of behavioral interventions are most effective at increasing physical activity
among adults, and she’s also documenting the effects of increased activity on mental
health.
For example, her research has found that higher levels of exercise are related to a lower
risk of postpartum depression among new mothers.
Thanks, University of Minnesota!