wanna know how fit humans were before the industrial revolution?

[...aydn...]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...=11604&sp=true

pretty good read check it

[MuscleScience]

Very interesting read indeed!

[spywizard]

i hate statistical analysis

What was the expected age.. pre industrial ?? 35?? 42?? and not from just disease and not because of advanced medicines..

neanderthal man?? all subjective and "trained to genetic potential?? " if man today were "trained to genetic potential" what would be the outcome??

APPLES TO APPLES PLEASE

[spywizard]

and if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their asses on the ground when they jumped..

[closegrip921]

damn makes you feel like a piece of shit huh haha, naw, really interesting

[stack_it]

Crazy

[Flagg]

During times of Neolithic man and even further back, man was undoubtedly "tougher" than modern man today, but as previously mentioned the average lifespan of said man was like 20 years due to disease, child birth, predation and environmental and climate conditions. So it's no wonder that man was tougher back then, it was be strong or die.

Technology and medicine today enables us to not have to worry about that, hence why vast percentages of the population are overweight slobs.

[MuscleScience]

During times of Neolithic man and even further back, man was undoubtedly "tougher" than modern man today, but as previously mentioned the average lifespan of said man was like 20 years due to disease, child birth, predation and environmental and climate conditions. So it's no wonder that man was tougher back then, it was be strong or die.

Technology and medicine today enables us to not have to worry about that, hence why vast percentages of the population are overweight slobs.

No natural selection at work today. We are evolving into a weaker and weaker species.

[...aydn...]

this is very true. im currently writting a in depth program including my thoughts on trying to get back to stone age living in this uncertain society.

[ranging1]

sorry mate articles bullshit

modern man is actually more athl;etic and stronger then ever before

it wasnt until the industrial revolution that modern man saw fat people as healthy

yes thats right, until the cost of living feel most people were very very skinny, only the wealthy could afford large quantities of food, and as a result fat people were seen as the ideal physique

wasnt until the early 19 century that bodybuilders, athletes etc emerged as attractive since then world average cost of living was down dramaticaly

im sure if anyone remebers their grand parents will remeber them always telling them to eat more, your to skinny, well this isnt becuase they want to get rid of their food, its actually becuase in their time larger people were seen as more attractive

when the cost of living feel, wealthy people actually realsied that poorer people were becoming larger, hence they changed thier views and started eating healthier ways, plus the investment into capital for research in health lead to wealthy people (who could afford education) realised that leaner physiques were superior

if you research into it ull find man was actually ALOT shorter in the early ages and theirs an increasing trend in height into the later years

the statement in the article a netherlandia women would be 90% the strength of arnold is bullshit, think about this logicaly, the man has no evidence of it either

he assumes and predicts that the women IF trained could acheive that kind of strength, well thats a great assumption......... BUT theirs no documentary of it having a women close to that level of strength

as for the aboriginal evidence, even if the men could run fast they were probably skinny as shit, he makes no comments about the peoples muscular development, so clearly hes trying to hide something their in order to support his arguement

as for his comment of how a aboriginal man could throw a javelin a certain distance that exceeds modern competive throwers

again an assumption
and i quote from his article
'Given other evidence of Aboriginal man's superb athleticism you'd have to wonder whether they couldn't have taken out every modern javelin event they entered'

^^^^ he assumes due to their running abilities they could throw a javelin a huge distance? funny becuase theirs no fossilisation of a javelin being thrown in the air that far...... why? becuase u cant get a fossil out of thin air

also since ive studied history of man heres few stats for how man has actually improved

- average person (in a modern economy thats developed) has the intelligence of almost 5000% greater then a human about 400 years ago

- average height of a person in all economys is 20% greater then fossilisation of half a millenium ago

- history has shown that dominant empires have been the ones to improve their education, capital, modern technoligy,

- the world population almost 2 milleniums ago was appoxametaly equal to the population of the current island of malta

world human popultions have almost doubled every century, (alos the reason why many people believe birth control will be inevidable to avoid a inevidable shortage to food)

though the article is right in stating the average man/women was more athletic and stronger then the modern man today, they dont tell you that the average life span of a man that long ago was approx 31 years with a standard deviation of 3, meaning 99% of ALL men didnt live past 40

so what if the average human was stonger and faster then modern man?, they were also ALOT dumber, lived in small tribes, had no ownership of land, no protection from disease etc, half of them starved to death, others died hunting, they lived short hard lives, AND MANY had ridiculous and absurd traditions that resulted in murdering many of their won people

dont forget that religion also emerged in this era, the definition of religion is 'a belief', man created religion to help guide his people without any evidence, it was created to help make people work, serve, fight gather, worship etc

history again shows that religions are created to suite the economy of almost all developing economys

early christianity emerged to promote people to work hard and save

roman catholicsm was creating to help people earn wealth in a capitalism economy and spend money to boost economys (reaosn why u see so many older churches decorated in expenisive glass, gold, bronze, silver etc

confucism teachings and buddism was created to help what is descirbed today as autocracy and semi communism

an the list goes on

what im trying to say here is modern man has evolved, were smarter and better educated, healthier, have better average standards of living, increased affordibility of goods and services, much improved medicine and science

if you were to look and less developed countires like kenya and etheopia for example, u can see that these people are AWESOME tunners becuase of their harsh lives

the average life expectancy in kenya is 50 years, compared so say australia which is 81 years

australians may not be able to run as fast as kenya, but we cetainly live longer and richer lives in less harsh enviroments

i think it goes to show man wasnt meant to be strong and athletic in order to survive, we thrived off our ability to be smart, educated and posses thoughts and ideas

man has evolved into a superior human, its just not what everyone thought it would be

and it wasnt until man was smart enough to study his past that he was able to see this

[wharton]

I would like to see 100 of them guys with shields take on my box of grenades whos superior now. what a load of crap knowledge is power my friends. We are stronger and more advanced as a species right now than ever before. Just depends on how you look at it.

[bushido3374]

....

[Flagg]

No natural selection at work today. We are evolving into a weaker and weaker species.

I agree, while we seem to be getting more intelligent (debatable in many cases) we seem to be devolving physically.

@Ranging, you're looking at this all wrong. Yeah fatties were regarded as being wealthy and successful but that has nothing to do with athleticism and durability.

I would argue as well that some humans are smarter today, pioneers, inventors, discoverists, theses are the people that drive humanity today and they make up a very small percentage. Sure we can teach a lot of people about theories and they'll get it, but there's still a lot of inability to think for ones self. You critisize the article for basically making vast assuptions yet you say modern man is FIVE THOUSAND TIMES more intelligent. You got proof of that?

10,000 years and back, climate was far more different to now. Man didn't have the luxury of nipping down to the supermarket to get food or going in doors and turning up the heating cause it was cold. Also consider that some 15,000 years ago, European man was hunting the likes of Mastadons and Wooly rhino with nothing but spears and had to deal with Sabre tooth cats as well, animals far larger than todays modern elephant, rhino and tiger. Or are you assuming a few bodybuilders and olympic athletes could go out in the wild now with a couple of knives and survive comfortably for the next three months with no help from the outside world?

[Flagg]

I would like to see 100 of them guys with shields take on my box of grenades whos superior now. what a load of crap knowledge is power my friends. We are stronger and more advanced as a species right now than ever before. Just depends on how you look at it.

Again you're missing the point. The power of invention has made us better in many, many ways today but man was superior to us physically 10,000 + years ago.

[lawstudent007]

i hate statistical analysis

What was the expected age.. pre industrial ?? 35?? 42?? and not from just disease and not because of advanced medicines..

neanderthal man?? all subjective and "trained to genetic potential?? " if man today were "trained to genetic potential" what would be the outcome??

APPLES TO APPLES PLEASE

Same here. I agree with your post entirely. They never tell you the important background detail of the analysis. They just give you a figure and draw a conclusion. Being from a science background, I know how statistical data can be used to to make two opposite points...lol. You always have to take it with a grain of salt.

[fig]

"If you're reading this then you -- or the male you have bought it for -- are the worst man in history"

Well I'm better than a man 100 years from now, aren't I? Actually, that sounds like something a modern day wimp would say...shit.