Run Better

From Chapter 1: The Human Side of Running

Humans as a species have a special relationship with running that dates back two million years. By way of comparison, the modern era since the advent of running shoes only began some forty years ago—a tiny drop in that ocean of time at just 0.002 percent of those two million years. Work done by researchers—particularly studies spearheaded by Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University—is helping us to understand how Homo sapiens came to develop into the species we know today. And it seems highly probable that running played a key role in our evolution. According to the theory of persistence hunting, around two million years ago Homo erectus had to evolve in order to survive in western Africa, where the environment had become hotter and less tree covered.

Our ancestors in the savannah developed a thermoregulation system that allowed them to regulate their body temperature more effectively than the lions, antelopes, buffaloes, and other tough creatures they rubbed shoulders with. This advantage, together with their newfound capacity to run for extended periods (albeit not very quickly), allowed them to hunt their prey to the point of exhaustion. Unlike their prey, they ran no risk of their bodies overheating and did not need to stop to cool down after a while. Thus, Homo erectus was able to survive long before learning to develop weapons such as spears and arrows that would facilitate hunting.

These days, though our chances of being chased by a lion and having to run for hours are slim, our bodies are still designed to run, all the same. We carry within us the story of our evolution. Our bones, our muscles, and our ligaments hold the key to decoding our past as runners. Studies by anatomists have shown that our bodies were shaped by multiple stimuli, including running. We were built to be running machines! Our tibias and femurs are bow shaped, ready to be tensed and released, which helps to propel our bodies forward when we run. Our bones are living and can be shaped by the forces we subject them to. Our Achilles tendons are long, strong, and elastic so they can absorb energy and transform it into propulsion, making every stride more efficient. Thanks to our upright posture we are capable of prolonged running, and this gives us a huge advantage over primates. Once designed for climbing, our feet first evolved for walking and eventually became perfect for running. That’s right. Even without cushioned shoes (more about that later). Over time, our gluteus maximus muscles, the ones that give the curve to our buttocks, developed to improve our forward propulsion. Our legs grew longer and our waistlines more defined. Our shoulders shifted lower and the nuchal ligament that connects our necks to the back of our heads grew stronger. All of these factors can only be explained by the fact that we pushed our capacity to walk farther and farther. Many aspects of our anatomy are the way they are because we ran, and ran, and ran.