Work out like a modern caveman

Bare-chested, barefoot and bearded, they can be seen running along, arms swinging low to the ground. In New York they are known as the New Cavemen — modern city dwellers trying to eat and exercise like our Paleolithic ancestors. The basic idea is that as humans have evolved, a gap has opened between our fundamental physical needs and capabilities and how most of us live. Our ancestors ate simpler food, plants and meat with no grains, milk or processed foods, and got plenty of exercise hunting and gathering. They did not hit the gym after eight hours in front of a computer screen, or devour convenience store snacks. They may have only lived to 30, due to brutal weather and vicious animals, but if they were around today their physiques and general health would put us all to shame.

The practitioners of the New Caveman lifestyle despise gyms and yoga studios and prefer to get their exercise bounding across rocks, running on all fours, playing catch with stones — all barefoot.

The cavemen practise frequent fasting, going without food for a day or more, and then eating a large meal, as cavemen would after hunting and catching prey. Some give blood regularly because the hardships of primitive life often left cavemen a pint short, while die-hards eat their meat raw.

There is medical evidence for the benefits of this way of life. An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine 25 years ago argued that "the diet of our remote ancestors may be a reference standard for modern human nutrition".

One of the most famous "cavemen" is Arthur De Vany, a 72-year-old professor emeritus of the University of California in mathematical and behavioural sciences, who is by all accounts in stupendous shape. He calls his regime Evolutionary Fitness and says it "uses methods that are true to our genes to express the health and longevity that are our rightful genetic heritage. Most of the chronic diseases humans suffer from today — diabetes, heart disease, obesity, inflammatory diseases, cancer, depression, ageing — are novel to modern humans and were not part of our evolutionary heritage.

These diseases are primarily diseases of metabolism and can often be reversed or avoided by attaining a healthful metabolism with a strong, lean body." For optimum physical health, he recommends intense bursts of physical activity rather than pounding on the treadmill. We should take our lead from how children play.
Erwan Le Corre, a Frenchman now living in the US, is another prominent figure in the movement. He calls his system "Methode Naturelle". It builds on a regime he learned as a teenager in Paris called Combat Vital. This involved training in a natural or urban setting, balancing on heights, jumping from roof to roof, or crawling on all fours through tunnels. Le Corre describes his system as natural, because it respects the laws of nature, evolutionary — or "trusting our primal heritage" — and situational, in that it satisfies the demands of our everyday life. It also liberates us from the "zoo" in which many humans are imprisoned, a prison of technology, relentless urbanism, commercial pressure and stress.

It's often hard to know which diet fad will save you and which will kill you. The Atkins Diet advocated eating protein-rich food and cutting out carbs. You could have eggs and bacon for breakfast but no toast. Then the inventor of the diet, Robert Atkins, died and hospital records showed that he had a history of congestive heart failure and cardiac arrest. After all that red meat and cholesterol, no one was surprised.

Even if most of us aren't ready to give up jogging in favour of scooting around town in a bearskin on all fours, there is a middle ground known as Barefoot Running. A bestselling book called Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, has inspired thousands to follow the example of Mexico's Tarahumara Indians, capable of running long distances barefoot.

According to McDougall, humans are best suited to running with our backs straight, in short strides, landing our feet lightly on the ground.
Part of the appeal of both the caveman life and barefoot running is that you are not asked to buy vitamin supplements or elaborate home exercise equipment. They also recognise a difference between our physical and emotional evolution. It is possible, and maybe necessary, for us to be modern and primitive at the same time, to listen to music on our phones while we go running barefoot through the grass.