Your grandmother never ‘exercised’ a day in her life, yet she was healthier than your Crossfit trainer. In 1960s Bangalore, a housewife climbed approximately 40 flights of stairs daily, walked 3.5 kilometres to and from markets, and spent 2,100 calories on household activities. Today, her granddaughter in a Whitefield apartment burns just 400 calories doing the same tasks, aided by food delivery apps, robot vacuums, and washing machines.
This is not a story about technology. It’s about how, in just three decades, we have systematically dismantled three million years of human evolution. In my clinic in RT Nagar, I see the casualties of this silent war against movement every day. Young tech professionals, their bodies struggling with what researchers call “evolutionary mismatch,” their genes still coded for a world of constant motion while their lifestyle delivers anything but. They come armed with Apple Watches and gym memberships, yet their bodies are crying out for something more primal, more fundamental: the simple art of moving through life.
The science backs this up with stunning clarity. A 2022 study in Nature Metabolism revealed that our ancestors maintained baseline activity levels five times higher than modern urban dwellers – not through organized exercise, but through what we now call NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). More remarkably, they maintained these levels well into their seventies. Their activity patterns looked nothing like our modern exercise routines. Instead of one intense hour followed by 23 hours of sitting, they maintained a steady, pulsing rhythm of movement throughout their waking hours.
Recent research from the Mayo Clinic shows that NEAT can burn up to 2000 calories daily – equivalent to running two half-marathons! Dr. James Levine’s landmark study revealed that individuals who naturally move more throughout the day gain less weight than those who are sedentary, even when fed the same excess calories. This is not just about weight loss; it’s about fundamental health. Studies show that high-NEAT individuals have a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a 30% reduced risk of metabolic syndrome, and significantly better blood sugar control.
I find living laboratories of human movement in the narrow lanes of old Bengaluru, where tradition still holds sway. One of my elderly patients, a 75-year-old from Avenue Road, laughed when I explained NEAT to her. “So now they have a fancy English name for what we have always done? Next, they will patent drinking water!” Her daily routine of maintaining her terrace garden, walking to the local market, and doing her housework keeps her healthier than many gym-goers half her age.
The transformation begins with simple changes. Start your day with traditional floor-sitting during pooja, getting up and down multiple times while arranging items. In the kitchen, hand-knead dough for rotis instead of machines, use a traditional stone grinder for chutneys, and stand while cooking. These activities aren’t just about maintaining tradition and reclaiming our biological heritage.
Through years of clinical practice, I have seen remarkable transformations. Take Janaki (name changed), a 32-year-old software engineer who came to me frustrated after six months of dedicated gym sessions yielded minimal results. Despite spending ₹40,000 on a gym membership, she burned fewer calories than her mother, who never “exercised” but managed their joint family household in Malleshwaram. After incorporating traditional household activities and mindful movement into her daily routine, she lost weight and saw significant improvements in her energy levels and mood stability.
The beauty of NEAT lies in its sustainability. Unlike structured exercise programs that often see high dropout rates, these activities are woven into the fabric of daily life. A 2023 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that urban Indians incorporating traditional household activities spent 35% more daily energy than those fully dependent on modern conveniences.
For working professionals, the opportunities for movement are endless. Take BMTC buses or Metro occasionally—standing in a moving vehicle constantly engages core muscles. During team meetings, suggest a walking discussion in the park instead of sitting in air-conditioned conference rooms. Simple choices like using a different floor’s restroom or taking the stairs can accumulate significant calorie burn throughout the day.
Dr. Manjunath, a senior cardiologist at a leading Bengaluru hospital, shares an interesting observation from his 30 years of practice: patients from old Bengaluru areas like Basavanagudi and Malleswaram, who maintain traditional lifestyles, show better cardiovascular health than those from tech hubs like Whitefield, despite the latter group’s access to modern gyms.
The irony runs deeper. In our quest for efficiency, we’ve created a world where movement has become optional – a luxury to be scheduled rather than a natural flow of life. We have replaced the cardiovascular workout of traditional cooking with the thumb exercise of food delivery apps. We have swapped the functional fitness of household chores for isolated muscle movements in climate-controlled gyms.
As my friend Dr. Seetharama Prasad quipped, “We have become so advanced that we pay to walk nowhere.” Think about that – we are the first generation to be reminded to move. Yet the solution doesn’t lie in more sophisticated fitness trackers or expensive gym equipment. It lies in returning to the wisdom of our grandmothers, who understood intuitively what science is now proving empirically.
I recall my grandmother in her kitchen, where the movement was her morning prayer. Listen to the melody of her day: the soft pat-pat of chapati rolling, the steady swish of rice being winnowed, the hollow thunk of coconuts being cracked open. Her body spoke an ancient language as she squatted by the earthen chulha, stretching to stir bubbling curries, bending to serve food on banana leaves. From dawn’s first task of milking cows to dusk’s final sweep of the courtyard, she danced with life itself. Each gesture had a purpose – the arc of her arm grinding spices on stone, the flowing pour of water between brass vessels, the graceful lift and bend of feeding workers from her kitchen. Now look at us, masters of stillness, summoning food with taps on screens, driving to gyms to remember how to move. We didn’t just lose her recipes; we lost her dance. But deep in our cells, that primal rhythm still pulses, waiting for us to rise and move as we were born to move.
