The truth about ultrarunning tribes
The real reason the Tarahumara tribe runs can improve your endurance.
Post summary
The Tarahumara tribe became famous in books, articles, and videos for being a tribe of “superhuman” runners.
But Harvard researchers found that most of the information about the tribe and their running is false.
We’re covering the real reasons how and why the tribe runs.
It can help you find new and powerful dimensions of running.
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The post
On Monday, we covered 7 benefits of trail running.
Today, we’re exploring what I consider one of the biggest and most unique benefits of trail running. It’s why I run trails every Sunday morning.
To understand it, we need to understand why humans have traditionally run—before we invented exercise and started tracking pace and heart rate.
Trail running surged about a decade and a half ago after a series of books, shows, and articles highlighted the Tarahumara, an indigenous tribe in Mexico’s Copper Canyon.
This media claimed the tribe trained to become “superathletes” and were “the greatest runners of all time.” They ran anywhere and everywhere barefoot or in rudimentary sandals to build their endurance. They could naturally run hundreds of miles without becoming tired or suffering from aches and pains.
But anthropologists at Harvard recently studied and lived with the tribe and found “nothing could be further from the truth.”
Most members of the tribe don’t run all that often. And they don’t run just to run—i.e., for exercise.
In fact, when one of the Harvard researchers asked a tribe member how he trained, the tribe member had never heard of the concept of “training,” or running for the purpose of running.
So what is the truth? That’s what we’re exploring today.
The real reason the Tarahumara and many other tribes run reveals deeper dimensions to running. It can help us get new, more profound benefits from running, hiking, cycling, rucking, and more.
Let’s roll …