OK, maybe not directly but they conribute. Here’s how…

Consider the humble vacuum cleaner (or even better, the robot that whirs while we sip tea). No doubt, it is a wonderful invention. Push a button, floors get clean. But before vacuums, we had to get up, bend, reach, sweep – dozens of small, useful motions stitched into everyday life. That’s just one labour-saving device among thousands: lifts and escalators replacing stairs, supermarkets and delivery apps replacing even walking to a shop. Each innovation saves effort; collectively they subtract movement from our days until any exercise at all becomes… optional.

But here’s the catch… our bodies weren’t really built for “optional.”

Humans evolved to be active when it was necessary (to get food, avoid danger, care for others) or genuinely rewarding (play, dance, social time). We didn’t evolve to “work out” for its own sake, and our brains are wired to conserve energy – a brilliant strategy in scarcity, not so helpful in a world of abundant sofas, screens, and same-day delivery.

That’s the mismatch: ancient hardware, modern software. When food is plentiful and movement is unnecessary, the energy-saver mode wins. We sit. We scroll. We choose the lift. Then joints creak, sleep slips, mood dips. Diet joins the plot: ultra-sweet, ultra-convenient foods nudge blood sugar and inflammation in ways our ancestors rarely faced. Chairs replace squatting and floor time; hips and backs make less effort throughout our comfortable lives and ultimately suffer (because when it comes to human biology, if you don’t use it, you lose it).

This dovetails with the core idea from the previous article: Balancing Act: How Dopamine Shapes Pleasure, Pain, and Survival. We’re tuned to make a lot of effort for a little gain. Effort makes reward meaningful; it calibrates the dopamine system. When the world offers constant “gain” with almost no effort – endless entertainment, food at a tap… pleasure spikes without the ballast of exertion and, paradoxically, satisfaction shrinks.

So what do we do in a world designed to remove effort?

We re-introduce it – on purpose – and we keep it broad. Walk more, move more, eat real food. It doesn’t matter whether the movement comes from housework, play, your favourite sport(s) or a gym session; what matters is using your body often and in many ways.

• Small daily frictions still help. Wash dishes by hand; take the stairs; walk errands.
• Planned exercise is great too. Make movement a standing appointment: brisk walks, strength training, cycling, swimming… whatever you’ll actually do.
• Aim for variety. Mix patterns your ancestors used: push, pull, carry, squat, hinge, rotate, balance. Add sprints, hills or something that gets your heart rate up now and then if you can; add long, easy rambles.
• Change your furniture habits. Sit on the floor sometimes, or at least vary your seats; if you’re feeling really adventurous, sprinkle in squat sits and hip openers.
• Nudge your food environment. Put fruit and whole foods in sight; keep ultra-processed sweets out of arm’s reach. Cook a bit more than you order.

Think of it as designing your habitat rather than rejecting technology. Vacuums and lifts are fine – use them as assistants, not replacements. Run the robot less often and sweep a room yourself. Walk the escalator. Park a little further away. Keep shoes by the door to bias toward short walks. Make play non-negotiable: a kick-about, a dance in the kitchen, a quick game in the park.

Treat rest as part of the plan. The point isn’t to rest less; it’s to move more. We evolved to rest when we could, so resistance to workouts isn’t weakness, it’s biology. Lower the activation energy so movement wins more often: shorter, more frequent bouts; social commitments; routines that piggyback on habits you already have; and activities you actually look forward to, not ones you do out of obligation.

We weren’t made for a world where movement is optional and abundance is constant. But we are astonishingly adaptable. Whether it’s washing instead of loading, stairs over lifts, a walk instead of wheels, or a proper training session, the goal is the same: keep using the body you live in – often, and in many ways. Do this long enough and you rebuild a life your body recognises: effort and ease back in balance, health carried by thousands of small, deliberate choices.