Includes bibliographical references and index.

Are we born to rest or run? -- Part I: Inactivity -- Inactivity: the importance of being lazy -- Sitting: is it the new smoking? -- Sleep: why stress thwarts rest -- Part II: Speed, strength, and power -- Speed: neither tortoise nor hare -- Strength: from brawny to scrawny -- Fighting and sports: from fangs to football -- Part II: Endurance -- Walking: all in a day's walk -- Running and dancing: jumping from one leg to the other -- Endurance and aging: the active grandparent and costly repair hypotheses -- Part IV: Exercise in the modern world -- To move or not to move: how to make exercise happen -- How much and what type? -- Exercise and disease.

In industrialized nations, our sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diseases like diabetes. A key remedy, we are told, is exercise - voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. However, most of us struggle to stay fit, and our attitudes to exercise are plagued by misconceptions, finger-pointing and anxiety. But, as Daniel Lieberman shows in Exercised the first book of its kind by a leading scientific expert, we never evolved to exercise. We are hardwired for moderate exertion throughout each day, not triathlons or treadmills. Drawing on over a decade of high-level scientific research and eye-opening insights from evolutionary biology and anthropology, Lieberman explains precisely how exercise can promote health; debunks persistent myths about sitting, speed, strength and endurance; and points the way towards more enjoyable and physically active living in the modern world.