Humans - The Ultimate Endurance Athletes

“LET EACH MAN EXERCISE THE ART HE KNOWS” - Aristophanes

Out in the distance the sun begins its ascension like Mariah Carey after October 31. The morning is blissful as always with a chilly 60 degrees and a beautiful canvas of purple hues that light up the sky. The roads are quiet except for a couple cars commuting to work or doing the drive of shame. The birds chirp in the trees I run by communicating where the best worms could be, a few seconds later I let out a scream while sprinting up the last hill of my 5 mile run. With my run completed I walk in circles breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth thinking about why are humans natural endurance athletes. With that thought racing along with my heart, I walk back up to my apartment, showered, made my breakfast (4 fried eggs, coffee, greek yogurt w/ berries) and began my research.

Roughly 1.1 million people a year participate in marathons with the average time of completion being 4 hours and 30 minutes. To be among the 1% of marathon runners in the United States you’d have to complete the task in under 2 hours and 50 minutes. If you finish in under 3 hours and 20 minutes you’re part of the 10% club which is still impressive. The United States hosts over 1000 marathons a year, begging the question what makes us so capable of achieving these incredible distances. If you’re a nerd about speed and athleticism as I am, watch the video below of a cheetah sprinting. In my opinion It’s one of the most fascinating spectacles to witness and it remains a dream of mine to witness one hunt down a meal in the plains of Africa. But unlike humans, cheetahs are built for speed and not endurance. Cheetahs bodies are dominated by fast-twitch muscle fibers, up to 80% of their bodies are inherently fast twitch. A cheetah is as aerodynamic as it gets, they are born with: a flattened rib cage, thin legs, large lungs, a flexible spine that serves as a slingshot, retractable claws that serve as cleats, and a large tail that acts like a rudder for maintaining balance at high speeds of 75 mph.

Humans are inherently terrible athletes when it comes down to characteristics such as power and speed. I cant help but be marveled at track athletes such as Usain Bolt, future Olympic gold medalist Kishane Thompson, and basketball players such as Ja Morant, Derrick Rose, and Anthony Edwards. The track athletes are faster than our ball players of course but something that these athletes have in common is their power and speed. Basketball players generate immense force from their glutes, hamstrings, and calves; this power combined with speed upon approach to the jump allows them to be propelled through the air. What allows them to be explosive you might ask? That is because they’ve trained themselves to develop more fast twitch fibers that are essential for rapid bursts of energy found in activities like sprinting and jumping. Fast twitch muscle fibers are special fibers we have to train in order to elevate our athleticism, but humans are naturally predisposed to slow twitch muscle fibers that makes us natural endurance athletes.

Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers:

FTMF are known as type 2 muscle fibers that supply short bursts of energy production found in powerlifting, jumping, and sprinting. Athletes that sprint, jump and lift heavy are generally dominated by fast twitch muscle fibers. These fast twitch fibers are white in color due to the little amounts of blood vessels and mitochondria. Fast twitch fibers are anaerobic so they use resources of energy that are found in your body such as blood sugars (glucose) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers:

STMF are known as a type 1 muscle fibers that are responsible for endurance activities. These fibers have a distinct difference in color from the fast twitch fibers, being that the slow twitch fibers are red due to copious amounts of blood vessels and use of oxygen to generate energy. The slow twitch fibers are special in their ability to endure fatigue because they use oxygen to produce energy, allowing it to host a party of mitochondria unlike our fast twitch fibers.

Daddy Long Legs:

Roughly seven million years ago our ancestors were specially selected to become bipedal beings which ultimately doomed our ability to be ‘fast’ animals. Remember the harder your legs push down against the ground the faster you run and when we run only one leg is present with the ground to generate power, the less power we have = less speed. If you watch the video of the cheetah running in slow motion, look at its incredible spine. The spine of these creatures hosts powerful elastic energy that allow the animal to sling forward with each stride; when humans became upright we lost this feature. In comparison to other animals we also serve a host to fat ankles, stubby legs, broad feet, and lack of claws unless you’re somebody who forgets that a toe-nail clipper exists. However this isn’t a total loss, because we host an array of features that makes us endurance stars. The most obvious being our long and springy legs, although being chunky they are quite lengthy for an animal of our size. Our legs host a long elastic tendon and our feet are powered with spring like tissues that rest underneath the arch. Whenever your legs and feet kiss the ground, the tendons begin to do their yoga and stretch as your hips, knees, and ankles bend as the arch flattens. The tendons begin to fire back energy that help glide you through the air with each stride.

SWEAT:

Our legs play a vital role in what makes us endure long distances, but the most important feature we have is an incredible talent to sweat immensely. Running or participating in any intense activity will cause our bodies to heat up; our heart rates will increase which leads to our autonomic nervous system to perspire and release sweat from our sweat glands. If humans never adapted the ability to sweat, you’d more than likely die of heatstroke your first time exercising. When heat turns the water into steam, the energy that is lost helps to cool off our skin. Most animals only have sweat glands on their paws, apes also have small amounts, but humans have a number of ten million sweat glands from our heads down to our toes! We’re also completely hairless, our lack of fur promotes air to swiftly move along the surface of our skin. “But wait! Horses sweat a lot too, they don’t have a lot of hair, and they have long muscular legs! Couldn’t they easily beat us one on one in a distance race?? Here is the problem with that, when a horse or other quadrupeds gallop they lose the ability to pant. This is because their gait pattern (the rhythm in which they move/run) causes their gut to hit against the diaphragm with each stride inhibiting the ability to breath.

HEART:

At a resting rate our hearts pump out an average of four to six liters of blood each minute. When we begin to run or do anything physically demanding our hearts can pump out an impressive five times more in order to cool off the muscles that we’re using. Humans evolved with elastic heart chambers that give us the ability to pump significant amounts of blood with each beat drop.

OTHER ADAPTATIONS:

•Our butt’s are the biggest muscle in our body and for good reason. The buttocks are primarily a balancing tool that prevent us from falling forwards when we engage in a walk or running motion.

•Every animal that is adapted for running also comes stock with a nuchal ligament that is found at the back of the skull that keeps our noggins steady and prevents our heads from bobbing as we increase our speed.

•Last but not least our shoulders assist to maintain our balance for coordinated body movements. Not to mention they play a vital role in our posture, and maintaining a steady rhythm to stabilize our torso and arms.

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