This may explain our inherent instinct to run after animals; not only for the prize of meat, but also for the prize of this paleolithic cannaboid high, which is produced from aerobic activity. He tested his theory with various other animals and published it in The Journal of Experimental Biology; although it was not conclusive due to not enough animal testing, it may be promising in the future to understand evolutionarily how we as humans were encouraged to hunt.
It makes sense to assume the body has a reward system for an occasionally painful activity. A painful activity that leads to life or death. A mature human is capable of running a deer down until it exhausts itself. I guess when you're species is the world's greatest killing machine ,without modern pleasures, a little runners high makes your day
ReplyDeleteThis article is spot-on, and I couldn't agree more. Not only do we receive the "running high" due to innate sense of accomplishment or instinctual activity, it's also heavily produced from the release of endorphins. If I skip a run/exercise any day throughout the week, I feel very guilty, groggy, and fatigued. It's great that running can be so healthy for your body, mentally and physically, and hopefully after reading this, others can appreciate how beneficial physical activity can actually be!!
ReplyDeleteI love this article because it shows that there are other ways to release those chemicals in our brains to make us feel "high." Hopefully more people will use running and exercise as a way to gain this high instead of relying on drugs to do it for them. Running is an amazing and healthy activity that should be done by everyone, more often than it is.
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