Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

http://www.ted.com Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive -- and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• Christopher
• McDougall
• TEDTalks
• TED
• talks
• TEDx
• TEDxPennQuarter
• run
• running
• evolution
• survival
• psychology
• athletics
• nature
• biology

[lagalucha17]

SPANISH SUBTITLES PLEASE!! LOOK INTERESTING...

[southerntigress]

Just discovered this great book and ideology. not much of a runner (slow and walk are my speeds) but I've been a DANCER for most of my life... Most of the time my feet have been bare or in slippers or salsa shoes that provide no real protection from the concrete floors and sidewalks I jam on. (Of course those spring loaded dance floors are great but not always available!) Now that I've read the book I'm thinking maybe I'm more naturally prepared to run than I ever realized! Thanks Chris McD!

[arhabersham]

Did he played Imhotep in "The Mummy"?

[Jefferdaughter]

@Rawbone73 - Good to know! I'll put 'Born to Run' on my reading list. Still, as one who has lived with horses, ridden long distances, and also used to run (with a toe strike gait as it just seemed better to me), I doubt that a horse would be outrun by a human of SIMILAR BODY TYPE and in similar condition, at any distance, especially if the human was similarly burdened as with a rider, saddle, etc. When I get the financing, I'll run the tests. ITMT, humans were not born to sit! (Grin!).

[tripleMmagic]

@hotsauce0786 Chill out bro! Do you work for nike or something? The science works for most situations. The ground has nothing to do with it. But if you have something against running barefoot then fine. If cushioned shoes work for you than go ahead and wear them. In my experience, when I ran in minimal shoes I got rid of my injuries. As for the horse thing, there is science behind it. I guarentee that in a 100 mile race on flat ground, the human wins.

[hotsauce0786]

@tripleMmagic and you forget to state that this "human vs horse race" its raced not on flat and uniform ground but in countryside with also rivers....and you want to explain science to others!!

Well i offer 100k to any hores than can outrace me on a race up my house stairs! So i can say barefoot rocks!

[hotsauce0786]

@tripleMmagic probaly cant outrace me on a 10k plus distance but would be very difference if its trained at my same level. In the opposit situation every cat can easily outrace a lazy sedentary man that never exercise in his life. So what? Do you realize that are useless informations?

[hotsauce0786]

@tripleMmagic Its easy to understand that is very different to say "i can beat my house cat" vs "i can beat a tiger", right? So there horse species beateable and species unbeateable in a specific task. And so what? What does it mean in a barefoot running discussion? Point 2: the 2 population in the test are not trained equally. Humans are elite runners but horses are...we dont know if and how they were trained. This make the studys considerations useless in a real world. Also my house cat

[hotsauce0786]

@tripleMmagic So lets talk about science. I've read both way time ago and...lets focus on me! I'll show you some trick common in this kind of "science". The sentence "elites win about half of the time" is true, but its field of validity makes it praticaly useless. Why? That santence has the same validity of "elites win about half of the time in body to body fight versus felin". Do u start realize? Point 1: "horse" is a genus, not a specie, not a race and defenitely not an individual beign

[tripleMmagic]

@hotsauce0786 It's mentioned in the book, but I just read an article about a 22 mile race where the elites win about half of the time. They're creating a 44 mile course, and expect the humans to win more often for scientific purposes. If you don't understand the science I'd be happy to explain it to you, but I reccomend you just read "Born to Run" I'll PM you the article about the race.

[hotsauce0786]

@tripleMmagic References?

[tripleMmagic]

@hotsauce0786 You're right! But in a 100 mile endurance race, the elites win.

[hotsauce0786]

So if men had always been so good in runnig WHY the world record in marathon back in 1908 was 2h 55 minutes and now with all this crap technology is more than 50 minutes shorter?

[hotsauce0786]

Only an idiot can think that if its sunny a human can outrace a horse on a 26 miles run

[hotsauce0786]

"Mistery" #1 solved: Tarahumara dont die for heart disease because theyr average life is so short that not makes HP incidence relevant

[hotsauce0786]

In ponit #3 McDougall is distorcing the datas from a serious study with the intenciton to support his statement.

Based on his logic, he should be surprised to see that a 5 yo boy time (27-5= 22) is always worst than a 49 ys man time (27+22=49). As you can see it didnt work in this way, and we can extend this example at every sports. 49 yo soccer player (or random sports) is always better than a 5 yo player. So mr McDougall whats the poin? Why u arbitrary choose 27-19? Cause this is crap

[hotsauce0786]

ok, what's the average life of these tribu members?

[ZensportTV]

Incredibly new perspective about human pre-history...Tarahumara = Win! This fits in completely with all the other content about barefoot running too. (Note: If you're new to the pose method/the idea of barefoot running search YT for the video called "Terra Plana - Learning the Skill of-" for a quick run down about the difference - no personal affiliation or experience with their shoes, just posting for the visual explanation) Haven't tried barefoot personally yet, sticking to feiyues for now :)

[Angry6676]

If you start long distance running when you're young you'll enjoy it more and thank your younger self when you get older. (;

[cg7509]

@Consistency87 ignorance is bliss....