cheetahs are the fastest land animal in
the world
but did you know that humans can leave
them in the dust at least in the long
run that's right when it comes to
endurance we can outrun wolves cheetahs
and even horses now in the beginning
humans fall short because we're lousy
sprinters case in point Hussain Bolt
couldn't outrun a cheetah in the
100-meter dash if he wanted to and he
tried but marathons and ultramarathons
are a whole other ballgame each year a
small town in Wales holds the man versus
horse marathon it's a 22 mile race
between riders on horseback and runners
and while horses often win humans will
sometimes prevail so what makes humans
such endurance running superstars the
secret weapon is our sweat we have two
to four million sweat glands all over
our body which means we can run and cool
ourselves at the same time having no fur
is also a huge plus in contrast dogs
rely on panting to cool down and other
animals like horses and camels also
sweat but less effectively as a result
they overheat faster and must slow down
sooner the mechanics of our running
stride also makes us particularly
well-suited for endurance running a
human's running gait has two main phases
aerial when both feet are off the ground
and stance when at least one foot
touches the ground while in the air
gravity pulls us down which generates a
lot of kinetic energy however the second
we hit the ground we instantly
decelerate losing that kinetic energy in
the process some of it goes into
vibrations and sound as we strike the
ground but most of it actually goes
straight to our tendons here's where our
special adaptations come in the tendons
and muscles in our legs are very springy
they act like a pogo stick converting
kinetic energy from the aerial phase
into elastic potential energy which we
can use later in fact our IT
and can store 15 to 20 times more
elastic energy than a chimpanzees
similar body part the fashion alotta
when it comes time to step off those
springy tendons can turn fifty percent
of that elastic pogo-stick energy back
into kinetic making it easier to propel
forward without that extra energy
we'd have to exert that much more effort
just to take a step so how did humans
get to be such great endurance runners
some anthropologists believe this became
important around two to three million
years ago when we started hunting and
scavenging because we couldn't chase
down a gazelle like a cheetah early
humans learned persistence hunting but
they would track prey over long
distances until the prey either
overheated or was driven into a trap in
fact persistence hunting remained in use
until 2014
such as with Masson people at the
Kalahari Desert but distance running can
still help you even if you're not
interested in running down your next
meal studies show running can lower body
weight body fat and cholesterol levels
and the longer you train the greater the
health benefits just one year of
training has been shown to reduce body
weight by about seven pounds
lower body fat by 2.7 percent and
decrease resting heart rate by 2.7
percent it may seem really hard or maybe
even impossible to run a mile or a
marathon but in fact you were born to go
on that run we all were
[Music]
you