You have been walking all day, wading through the long grass that shimmers in the sun to crest a hill and drink in the view, before slipping into the coolness of dappled woodland. You picnicked by the river, where dragonflies darted and hovered. Now, as you make your way home, your fingers are red-stained and jammy-scented from the blackberries you picked. You feel tired, but happy: a rare sense of peace and contentment in body and mind.
It’s no wonder that walking feels so uplifting and restorative: we evolved, quite literally, on two feet.
“Up until around 12,000 years ago – the blink of an evolutionary eye – everybody everywhere was a hunter-gatherer,” says Professor Daniel Lieberman, chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. “Your ancestors survived by foraging for plants, hunting and fishing, regularly moving from one camp to the next.”
Our bodies and brains were shaped by this lifestyle. We became efficient long-distance walkers and runners, which allowed us to range further and find
