I was just reminded of this so I decided to repost it here.
Read this and weep, wimps, you know who you are.
As reported by Reuters, London.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...=11604&sp=true
Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister has just written a book titled "Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
Writes McAllister in the opening sentence of his prologue, "If you're reading this then you - or the male you have bought it for - are the worst man in history." He continues, "No ifs, no buts - the worst man, period... As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Based on his research, McAllister finds evidence that he believes proves modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic disciplines of running and jumping. Some examples follow.
Many prehistoric Australian Aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. According to McAllister, photos taken by a German anthropologist in the early years of last century showed young Tutsi men jumping heights of up to 2.52 meters.
Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
Athens employed more than 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 meters or more while the current world javelin record is 98.48 meters.
A Neanderthal woman had 10% more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90% of Arnold Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s. Because of a quirk of her physiology, giving her a much shorter lower arm, any Neanderthal woman could have slammed his arm to the table in an arm-wrestling contest.
For the evidence supporting these contentions, read the article.
Why Have We Wimped Out?
According to the author, we are relatively inactive these days and have been since the emergence of the industrial revolution. At its start, there are statistics about how much harder people worked then. Consequently, they were much more robust than we are.
The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40% of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days. Since we're not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past, and even in the recent past, our bodies haven't developed to the same extent. Even the level of training that our elite athletes undergo doesn't come close to replicating that.
The author concludes by saying that although we certainly don't want to go back to the brutality of earlier times, there is more we can do in our present era to maintain a level of fitness superior to that of the typical average male.
Happy Motoring!
Read this and weep, wimps, you know who you are.
As reported by Reuters, London.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...=11604&sp=true
Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister has just written a book titled "Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
Writes McAllister in the opening sentence of his prologue, "If you're reading this then you - or the male you have bought it for - are the worst man in history." He continues, "No ifs, no buts - the worst man, period... As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Based on his research, McAllister finds evidence that he believes proves modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic disciplines of running and jumping. Some examples follow.
Many prehistoric Australian Aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.
Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. According to McAllister, photos taken by a German anthropologist in the early years of last century showed young Tutsi men jumping heights of up to 2.52 meters.
Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
Athens employed more than 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 meters or more while the current world javelin record is 98.48 meters.
A Neanderthal woman had 10% more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90% of Arnold Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s. Because of a quirk of her physiology, giving her a much shorter lower arm, any Neanderthal woman could have slammed his arm to the table in an arm-wrestling contest.
For the evidence supporting these contentions, read the article.
Why Have We Wimped Out?
According to the author, we are relatively inactive these days and have been since the emergence of the industrial revolution. At its start, there are statistics about how much harder people worked then. Consequently, they were much more robust than we are.
The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40% of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days. Since we're not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past, and even in the recent past, our bodies haven't developed to the same extent. Even the level of training that our elite athletes undergo doesn't come close to replicating that.
The author concludes by saying that although we certainly don't want to go back to the brutality of earlier times, there is more we can do in our present era to maintain a level of fitness superior to that of the typical average male.
Happy Motoring!
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