Humans Are Born to Walk!
The Running Boom is Officially Over!
Are humans “born to run?” Not really. The running boom is a big, fat ruse, driven by marketing hype and false promises, with numerous disastrous unintended consequences. For the vast majority of enthusiasts, “running” —even slow-paced jogging‐is far too physically, metabolically, and hormonally stressful to confer true health benefits. Walking is the essence of human health, and delivers comprehensive health and longevity benefits without the risks of injury and burnout that come with running.
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About Born to Walk
Born To Walk will awaken you to the wide-ranging benefits of walking, leading a barefoot-inspired lifestyle, and eliminating the stress, injury, and burnout caused by chronic cardio.
Mark Sisson, New York Times bestselling author, forefather of the ancestral health movement, entrepreneur founder of Primal Kitchen® and Peluva footwear®, and former 2:18 marathon runner, is officially proclaiming an end to the running boom. Born To Walk will help reshape fitness culture to reject flawed and dated “no pain, no gain” ideals, and replace them with a simple, accessible, sustainable program to increase general everyday movement, improve aerobic conditioning the right way, avoid injury and burnout, and promote a healthy, happy energetic, long life—one step at a time.
Excerpt
You have likely heard of the aphorism that humans are “born to run.” This fundamental of Homo sapiens evolutionary biology and running industry marketing has been misinterpreted and misappropriated in the recent decades of the so-called running boom. Unfortunately, the running boom is laden with hugely destructive unintended consequences that we need to acknowledge and immediately eliminate if we want to live our longest, healthiest and happiest possible lives. Emerging science is revealing that in most cases, the more weekly mileage and the more years you run, the more hollowed out, hunched over, weak, hormone diminished, and diseased you become. If these progressions sound familiar, it’s because they also represent the essence of the aging process! It’s more accurate to acknowledge that modern humans are not born to run, they are born to walk, and walk extensively every single day.
Indeed, evolutionary biology confirms that we have an assortment of highly-evolved genetic attributes for endurance exercise. The “endurance running (ER) hypothesis” advanced by many anthropologists asserts that our unique endurance attributes applied to persistence hunting were a key factor in humans ascending to the top of the food chain. Compare and contrast our graceful locomotion with the plodding, waddling, easily overheated great apes for further evidence of our evolutionary endurance superiority. These insights, combined with a hefty dose of modern fitness industry marketing hype, have lured us to lace up our cushioned shoes and head down the roads and trails searching for the runner’s high, a trim physique, and protection against sedentary-related diseases.
Unfortunately, the aggressive marketing of the born to run fantasy has compromised the collective health and well-being of earnest runners. For the vast majority of runners, the most appropriate training pace for aerobic development—the so-called fat max heart rate—equates to a brisk walk—not jogging, and certainly not running. Most people (excepting the highly conditioned and genetically gifted front-of-the-pack types) lack the baseline metabolic, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health to attempt an activity as strenuous as running. I’m not talking about marathon running, I’m talking about trying to run nonstop for as little as 10 or 15 minutes. After only a few minutes of running, your heart rate can easily drift beyond fat max and into the “medium-to-difficult” zones that prompt increased stress hormone production, elevated glucose burning, lingering muscular soreness and fatigue, and prolonged recovery time. Getting out there and faithfully running at a steady pace for 30 minutes or 60 minutes a few times a week or more—as recommended by popular books, magazine articles, coaches, personal trainers, expert-guided group running programs, and one’s peers—can lead to exhaustion, depletion, brain fog, difficulty dropping excess body fat, and an assortment of genetically-programmed survival compensations that will make you generally lazy and less active in daily life.
Beyond the stressful, sugar burning aspects of endurance training, running generates exponentially more impact trauma than walking, and modern humans lack the foot functionality and overall musculoskeletal resilience to be able to handle the pounding. Consequently, recreational runners are injured at a stunning and embarrassingly high rate annually—around 50 percent annually, with 25 percent of all runners sidelined at any given time. These stats are worse than the injury rates for NFL players (31 percent injured annually; four percent at a given time)! Born to run is a cute aphorism and compelling marketing hook, but it’s a big fat ruse and has f*ck-all to do with how you can get healthy, happy, and fit in hectic, high-stress modern life. We need to come down off our runner’s high, slow to a walking pace, start thinking clearly, and apply a more sensible and genetically-optimal strategy in pursuit of the all-important cardiovascular health that prevents disease and promotes longevity.
Don’t get me wrong, the running boom and other aspects of modern fitness culture sure beat the couch potato boom and the patterns of inactivity, atrophy, lifestyle-related disease, and accelerated aging that have become today’s norm. Alas, due to the disastrous unintended consequences of running and the tremendous upside of a walking-centric lifestyle, I hereby officially declare an end to the running boom. Walking represents the essence of our Homo sapiens genetic expectations for health. We are adapted for near constant low-level movement throughout the day to promote optimal cognitive, hormonal, metabolic, and immune function. Our ancestors hunted, gathered, foraged, wandered, scouted, and migrated for a living for two million years. Unfortunately, most modern humans—even devoted fitness enthusiasts adhering to a consistent workout schedule—are woefully deficient in honoring our genetic requirements for everyday movement. Emerging research in the “sitting is the new smoking” refrain reveals that we can destroy our health in numerous ways when we succumb to the many sedentary influences of modern life, such as long periods of unbroken screen time.
The romanticized notion that humans are “born to run” has buoyed the so-called running boom of the past 50 years: well-intentioned fitness enthusiasts lacing up their cushioned shoes and plodding down roads and trails in pursuit of the runner’s high, a trim physique, and the fountain of youth. Unfortunately, born to run is a big, fat ruse—a marketing gimmick and a gross misappropriation of evolutionary biology insights about our Homo sapiens genetic attributes for endurance. While any movement away from a sedentary-dominant lifestyle is laudable, the truth is that humans are actually born to walk, not run.
Mark Sisson, New York Times bestselling author, forefather of the ancestral health movement, entrepreneur founder of Primal KitchenⓇ and Peluva footwearⓇ, and former 2:18 marathon runner, is officially proclaiming an end to the running boom. For the vast majority of enthusiasts, running—even slow-paced jogging—is far too physically, metabolically, and hormonally stressful to promote health, weight loss, or longevity. Alas, the elevated, heavily cushioned modern running shoe enables ill-adapted people to run with poor technique, increased impact trauma, and a truly embarrassing rate of chronic overuse injuries.
Born To Walk will help reshape fitness culture to reject flawed and dated “no pain, no gain” ideals and replace them with a simple, accessible, sustainable program to increase general everyday movement, improve aerobic conditioning the right way, avoid the risks of injury and burnout associated with running, and promote a healthy, happy, energetic, long life—one step at a time.
Part 1: The Unintended Consequences of the Running Boom
Chapter 1: Opening the Floodgates in One Fell Swoosh
Chapter 2: The Broken Promise of Weight Loss
Chapter 3: The Broken Promise of Cushioned Shoes
Chapter 4: The Catastrophe of Chronic Cardio
Chapter 5: The Ordeal of the Obligate Runner
Part 2: Embracing the Born to Walk Lifestyle
Chapter 6: Slowing Down And Building an Aerobic Base
Chapter 7: The Genetic Imperative to Walk
Chapter 8: Natural Foot Functionality and Human Locomotion
Chapter 9: Broad-Based Functional Fitness for Longevity
Epilogue: Expanding Your Horizons
Appendix: Suggested “Cardio 2.0” Workouts
- How the “endurance runner hypothesis” of evolutionary biology is irrelevant to most modern citizens, whose genetic endurance gifts are buried under excess body fat, insufficient daily activity, weak musculature, and dysfunctional feet caused by a lifetime in shoes.
- How to avoid the shocking 50 percent annual injury rate among regular runners by slowing down, improving foot functionality and implementing a correct midfoot landing technique.
- How running does not help you lose excess body fat, and in fact can prompt genetic signaling for increased appetite, carb dependency, fat storage, poor metabolic and hormonal health, and a “skinny fat” physique.
- How an extreme devotion to endurance training can increase cardiovascular disease risk, compromise gut health, and suppress immune and hormonal function.
- How the misplaced competitive intensity and struggle & suffer ethos of modern running culture can promote and unhealthy obsession and a high risk of burnout.
- How marketing hype, distorted cultural values, and unsavory peer influences lure you into events like marathons and ultras that are inherently antithetical to health.
- How aerobic conditioning at comfortable heart rates is the foundation of all fitness endeavors, and improves performance at all higher levels of intensity.
- How to identify your ideal training pace using “fat max” heart rate–likely a brisk walk for most runners.
- How the world’s greatest endurance athletes train in a relatively less stressful, more sensible manner than the average novice, and how you can refine your approach to honor their protocols.
- Why humans have a genetic imperative to walk extensively every day to support cognitive, immune, hormonal and mitochondrial function.
- How walking can be a great catalyst for fat reduction by improving metabolic flexibility, regulating appetite and satiety hormones, and prompting an “under-the-radar” increase in metabolic rate.
- How going barefoot or wearing minimalist shoes with flat, flexible soles and individual toe articulation can strengthen feet and reduce injury risk–and why you should walk in them, but not run.
- How to implement an ancestral-inspired, broad-based functional fitness program, where your workouts are aligned with human genetic expectations for health. This approach will get you fitter, leaner, and stronger than ever–without the pain, suffering, and sacrifice of the typical approach to endurance training.
Mark Sisson is always disrupting and innovating health & fitness culture. Born To Walk comes at an opportune time, as many endurance athletes are rethinking their extreme approaches that lead to exhaustion and burnout-myself included. It’s time to respect a broad-based, ancestral approach to fitness, with walking as an absolute non-negotiable centerpiece.
Thomas DeLauer
YouTube Fitness leader, nutrition and athletic performance expert
It takes a great runner, like my friend Mark Sisson, to finally have the courage to expose the dirty truth and dangers of the modern running craze. And he has done just that in Born to Walk. From the start, where he exclaims “The running boom is over; don’t shoot the messenger,” you know that you are in for a fact-filled wild ride (walk?) into how the modern running craze endangered Mark’s health, my health, my wife’s health, and literally millions’ of others. But fear not, you die-hard runners; after all the warnings, Mark has a brilliant plan to get you on the right path to protect your joints and your heart for the long term. A must read for runners or the runners in your life!
Steven R. Gundry, MD
Multiple NYTs bestselling author of “The Plant Paradox” series.
Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns’ paradigm-shifting Born to Walk will completely transform the way you think about intensive endurance athletics. In a world where marathons and extreme endurance are often heralded as the pinnacle of health, Born to Walk uncovers the surprising truth about what’s truly best for our bodies — and it’s not what mainstream advice might have you believe! Born to Walk equips you with the tools to rethink your approach to exercise and wellness, embracing a path to longevity that is both less grueling and more sustainable. The insights will inspire you to rethink, recalibrate, and rediscover the joy of movement, all while prioritizing what truly matters for long-term health. It’s an essential read for anyone ready to walk their way to a healthier future.
Melanie Avalon
Host of Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast, bestselling author of What, When, Wine
As lifelong competitive athletes, we’ve faced our share of injuries, requiring us to rehab and re-educate our bodies to move correctly. Time and again, we’ve been reminded of the importance of a solid foundation in everyday movement and basic physical functionality to continue pursuing peak performance. It all starts with walking—the most basic and foundational of all human movements. Born to Walk is an outstanding guide to help you establish your own “human” base, and avoid the negative impact of overdoing things–as endurance athletes often do.
Gabby Reece and Laird Hamilton
Authors, entrepreneurs, and America’s iconic fitness couple
Born to Walk highlights the benefits of building endurance and aerobic capacity the right way, with an active, outdoor-oriented lifestyle: extensive time on your feet walking, jogging, hiking and enjoying long interactions in nature. Every endurance runner knows what it’s like to push too hard, get injured, and lose fitness. It’s time for a more sensible, enjoyable approach–and one that’s within reach of people of all fitness levels.
Don Freeman and Scott Warr
Hosts of the #1 ranked Trail Runner Nation podcast
I strongly advocate leading a healthy, fit lifestyle. But I know what it’s like to overdo it and plunge into burnout, injury, and illness. This is particularly true for hard-driving, multi-tasking females trying to balance career, family life, and hormonal changes associated with perimenopause and menopause. Walking is often taken for granted, but it delivers comprehensive fitness and metabolic benefits without the risks associated with overly stressful exercise. Born To Walk will help re-educate the fitness masses that they can take it easy and still get results, and also balance overall life stress more effectively.
Cynthia Thurlow, Nurse Practitioner
TEDx speaker, author of Intermittent Fasting Transformation, host of Everyday Wellness podcast
The human urge to walk arises out of an “active phenotype,” which requires adequate skeletal muscle conditioning. Walking is not the “first step” to fitness; you must develop muscular strength to be safe and benefit maximally from walking. I appreciate the emphasis on full-body, functional fitness in Born To Walk and also it’s about time to put the final nail in the coffin of the running boom.
Dr. Doug McGuff
Emergency room physician, strength training expert, bestselling author of Body By Science
I’m a big fan of rucking as delivers fantastic aerobic conditioning without the impact trauma and risk of overuse injury, exhaustion, and depletion that comes with running. For all manner of fitness goals, you need a safe way to maintain a strong aerobic base. Born To Walk walks you through how to do it!
Drew Manning
“Fit to Fat to Fit” personal trainer, author, and podcast host
Why run when you can walk? You’ll build great aerobic fitness, fix injuries, and be happy! A walking-oriented lifestyle balances the extremes of today’s sedentary patterns, and a fitness culture that thrives on overly stressful programming–pounding the pavement to the point of injury and exhaustion. Unlike overly stressful workouts, walking builds both health and fitness. Highly recommended: Try it… you’ll love it!
Dr. Phil Maffetone
Author of The Big Book Of Endurance Training And Racing, aerobic training pioneer, barefoot running expert
Born To Walk is a great concept for a book! I’m constantly converting my runners into brisk and athletic walkers. Thanks to our egos and the overzealous fitness movement, many people push too hard. From a medical perspective, I can assure you that this does more harm than good in the form of injuries, hormonal and metabolic problems, and higher dropout rates.
Dr. Ronesh Sinha
Internal Medicine Physician, author of The South Asian Health Solution, host of the Meta Health Podcast, Director of Corporate Wellness for Sutter Health in Silicon Valley
As a doctor specializing in metabolic health it’s heartbreaking to see people coming in with preventable injuries that ultimately derail their fitness dreams, often for years if not permanently. Too many programs fail to meet people where they are or take their age, weight or sex into consideration. Walking is the first step toward reducing your risk of the prevailing metabolic and cognitive disease patterns of sedentary modern humans. Born To Walk is a great guide for how to improve your lifestyle with a simple plan to move more and sit less.
Cate Shanahan, MD
Bestselling author of Deep Nutrition and Dark Calories
As a lifelong powerlifter and bodybuilder, the gym has always been the centerpiece of my fitness experience. However, I have always had an innate sense that walking was an extremely important element of overall fitness and health-a fantastic complement to the power-oriented workouts in the gym. Walking has been a mandatory part of my daily routine for years-so much so that I was able to pick up endurance running quickly and achieve my crazy goal of completing the 2023 Boston Marathon. Born To Walk will give you a sensible and sustainable way to get fitter than ever.
Mark Bell
The “Meathead Millionaire”, Power Project podcast host, world-record powerlifter
As a physician for US military veterans, lifelong competitive marathon runner and longtime coach, I can tell you that running is not for everyone. Trying to run 30 miles a week off of a sedentary-dominant lifestyle and poor overall functional fitness is a recipe for recurring overuse injuries and hormonal burnout. On the other hand, frequent everyday movement is the key to health and longevity; emerging research suggests general movement is more important than adhering to a serious workout regimen. Born To Walk explains the rationale for slowing down and getting fit the right way.
Mark Cucuzella
Physician, Professor, author, runner, health advocate
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Step-by-step instructions to implement a primal-style fitness program. You’ll learn how to integrate extensive low-level cardio, brief, intense strength training sessions, occasional all-out sprints, outdoor play, and the importance of rest and recovery.
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About The Authors
Mark Sisson
New York Times bestelling author, media personality, ex-endurance athlete, entrepreneur founder of the PRIMAL KITCHEN® and PELUVA® brands.
Mark, a pioneer of the Primal/Paleo lifestyle, is known for his bestselling books and top-ranked blog. A former marathon runner and Ironman triathlete, he founded Primal Kitchen, revolutionizing healthy condiments before its 2018 acquisition by Kraft-Heinz. An advocate of barefoot-inspired living, Mark launched the Peluva minimalist footwear company in 2021, aiming to “change the way the world walks.”
Brad Kearns
Author, podcast host, professional speedgolfer, USA #1 ranked (55-59) masters high jumper, and former professional triathlete.
Brad is Mark Sisson’s longtime writing partner, including the New York Times bestseller, The Keto Reset Diet. He is a former US national champion and #3 world-ranked professional triathlete, Guinness World Record professional speedgolfer, and elite masters track & field sprinter and high jumper. His B.rad podcast is a top-10 ranked podcast in Apple Podcasts’ “Fitness” category.
Born To Walk Buzz
JJ Virgin
Celebrity nutrition & fitness expert, 4x NYT bestselling author
Listen Up Cardio Junkies! It’s time to get off the treadmill and go out for a long walk. Couple that with some resistance training that involves strength, power, balance and mobility and you have the recipe for powerful aging. You’ll understand why in Mark Sisson’s seminal book, Born to Walk. It’s a game-changer that flips the script on the running craze with science-backed insights and and takes us back to our movement roots. Mark cuts through the myths surrounding endurance training and makes a powerful case for walking as the ultimate movement our bodies were designed for. His deep dive into the hidden downsides of chronic cardio is our wake-up call to replace outdated fitness dogma with the right strategy to boost longevity and vitality. This isn’t just a book—it’s a guide to living in alignment with your body’s genetic blueprint. If you’re ready to rethink what fitness means and adopt a sustainable, life-enhancing approach to movement, Born to Walk deserves a top spot on your reading list.
David Perlmutter, MD
Author, #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain, and Drop Acid
Mark Sisson’s Born to Walk redefines how we view fitness by emphasizing walking as a vital, foundational practice for health and longevity. Rather than pushing extreme endurance, Sisson makes a compelling case that walking—not running—best aligns with our genetic blueprint, promoting physical resilience, metabolic balance, and mental clarity. With a practical approach, he advocates a walking-centric lifestyle that prioritizes gentle movement over high-intensity strain, helping readers enjoy sustainable, lifelong wellness. It’s the perfect guide to being kinder to your body.
Dr. Kelly Starrett, DPT, and Juliet Starrett
Mobility coaches, founders of TheReadyState.com and 3x bestselling authors
In books like Becoming A Supple Leopard, Deskbound, and Built To Move, we stress the importance of a lifestyle of constant movement. This simple suggestion is now the gold standard to support general health, peak performance, recovery, and injury prevention. Fancy training protocols are great for elite athletes, but most of us simply need to get up and start moving more every day. It starts with walking, especially in barefoot-style shoes, to reawaken your kinetic chain functionality. Born To Walk is a great guide for getting fitter and avoiding overtraining.
Ben Greenfield
Coach, speaker, bestselling author of Boundless, host BenGreenfieldLife.com
I’ve certainly pushed the limits of human peak performance in a variety of extreme, mildly masochistic athletic challenges, but walking is now my absolute foundation. I try to step as much as possible throughout the day as a top full body health and mobility priority. My friend Mark Sisson has once again succeeded in challenging flawed and dated conventional wisdom about fitness in his new book Born To Walk, which will help awaken you to an empowering new approach to an enjoyable, time-efficient, active, energetic lifestyle.
Katy Bowman, M.S.
Author of the bestselling Move Your DNA
It’s been said ‘we must learn to walk before we run’, but we rarely hear Born to Walk’s important message: running isn’t required. We can just keep on walking, or, we can return to walking when running doesn’t pan out the way we thought it would.