We all somewhat know that exercise is beneficial for our health. But for me, that was always a pretty abstract statement.

So I was super excited when the book Exercised by Daniel Lieberman came out some months back. It looks at exercise and similar topics with the scientific and evolutionary lens with fascinating detail.

For me the most eye-opening discovery when reading this was that when you exercise (or do any physical activity that requires some effort) the body starts all kinds of repair mechanisms designed to fix any damage that occurs during this activity - like torn fibers in muscles and similar. The key point is that this repair keeps going even after it fixes the damage done by exercise and so it also repairs damage incurred by other means.

And since for most of our existence, we had to move quite often, these repair mechanisms didn't evolve to start up without any exercise.

The book references many large studies over many years that show various health benefits for people who exercise regularly. Anything from longer life span to dramatically reduced risk from many diseases.

There were also innumerable fascinating "nuggets" of information like the fact that among the Hadza people (sort of like modern hunter-gatherers) 70-year-olds have comparable grip strength to people in their 30s. Thanks to a lifetime of being active.

Exercised ends with some exercise recommendations which may be helpful to get started.