ABSTRACT
Multiple studies have evinced a curvilinear relationship between the volume of exercise a person undertakes and the concomitant health outcome, with the greatest benefits accruing when sedentary individuals undertake at least a modicum of physical activity. Motorised transport enabled man to move from one location to another without needing to expend physical energy. The model for human physical activity patterns was established not in gymnasia, athletic fields, or exercise physiology laboratories, but by natural selection acting over eons of evolutionary experience. Movement-based activities remained a significant feature of daily life in Western societies until the technological advancements that characterised the industrial revolution during the 18th and 19th centuries changed irrevocably the relationship between physical activity and lifestyle. Technological innovation has created a high-tech, sedentary, urban society in which only a minimal expenditure of energy above resting level is required to meet the demands of daily life.
