What Can The Tarahumara Indians Tell Us About The Importance Of Running Long Distances?
Today’s article is coming from a Skribit question. It is:
Exercise? DeVany says no long endurance, contrast with Tarahumara Indians running.
I’m assuming that the question is something along the lines of “How do we reconcile DeVany’s (and others’) advice to do no long distance with tribes like the Tarahumara who run marathon distances daily?”
Just How Much Do The Tarahumara Run?
The simple answer: A LOT! If you’d like some clarification on just how much though, read on. From a Lehigh University term paper on Ultra Marathon Running comes a bit of information. The Tarahumara live in a rather rugged mountainous area with deep canyons, making travel by wagon and horseback difficult or impossible. That means foot travel is the mode of transportation. But why walk when you can run?
For the people to whom running is a lifestyle, ultra marathon running seems an old phenomenon, one that has been a part of daily life since its beginnings. Running more than twenty-six miles a day seems a menial task to a Tarahumara, a daily chore, while to the Americans running next to them it is an all consuming feat. …. The Tarahumara routinely run distances only covered by only the most advanced ultramarathon runners today.
We’ve all heard tales of hunter-gatherers running animals to death by simply not letting them stop to rest, known as persistence hunting. While a human can’t outrun a deer over one hundred meters, but continuing to run and forcing the deer to keep moving, a human can exhaust a deer. The Tarahumara are apparently excellent at this.
Tarahumara running is based on endurance not speed. This fact is exemplified by their hunting practices. In order to catch such wild animals as deer, wild turkeys, and rabbits, the Tarahumara simply chase after the animal until the animal drops from exhaustion. Their hunting practices are widely known in Mexico and ranchers have been known to hire the indians to chase down wild horses .
And What Does That Mean For Our Own Training?
The human body is almost infinitely adaptable. As I’ve mentioned before, cultures have survived on both low-carb and low-fat diets. And it’s easy to see that there are people that do quite well running miles upon miles while there are others that are just as healthy doing no distance work at all. How do we put it all together?
For the answer, let’s look back at this post listing the 10 physical skills of basic fitness. Notice the first one: “cardiorespiratory endurance”. That to me says that there is a place in a training program for distance training. The major failing of most training programs, however, is that they place the ability to run mile after mile as an ends in and of itself rather than as a means to achieving a well-rounded fitness profile. Remember, there are 10 physical skills and this is but one of them, holding an equal weighting in the overall profile.
Lyle McDonald has touched on this twice, first in his post Pole Vault Your Way To A Hot Body (looks like someone didn’t appreciate him hotlinking the photo of Allison Stokke) and then again in a Q&A dealing with the first article. As Lyle points out (and as I can attest from my own sprint training), sprinters do a good bit of low intensity work. Much of it is tempo work rather than miles on the road, but nonetheless, it’s not all max speed interval work. (In fact, max speed work typically involves exceptionally long rest periods). The benefit of a run, say heading out for 3-4 miles, is that it allows a low intensity active recovery day. The body is still in motion, but without being overly taxed.
So the answer is “yes, there is a place for including low intensity endurance work in your training.” You just have to be careful not to let it become your training program, unless endurance running is your sport. How often? No clue. I very rarely put in ANY miles, not even a 5k, yet I can go out and cut a 5k in an 8 minute/mile average. While that’s FAR from blazing speed, it’s at least average for most people that run 5ks. You can actually build quite a decent aerobic base from intervals, but to be able to run a marathon, you’re going to have to train specifically to run a marathon.
Closing It Up
We should be careful not to confuse the necessities of survival with being optimal for health. Why do some of us choose a diet based on that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors? Is it because that’s what our ancestors ate or is it because we allowed our ancestral diet to be a starting point for experimentation? For me, it’s not about dogmatically choosing something from pre-civilization; it’s about choosing what works best for the body. If a Paleolithic diet didn’t work for my body, I would frankly care less what historical basis it held.
The same goes for the Tarahumara and their running. There’s no guaranteeing that they are the beneficiaries of prime health. Remember that all that’s required for a trait to be beneficial in an evolutionary sense is to achieve an age of procreation. I’d bet that the Tarahumara’s natural lifestyle, complete with a strong social structure and what I’d bet are relatively low-stress lives, helps them in staying healthy. Their diet, while very high carb (to the tune of 80% carbs, 10% protein, and 10% fat) is made of real foods. They aren’t gnoshing on low-fat pseudo-foods and processed garbage.
The only information I could find on the health of the Tarahumara points out that they have a life expectancy of only about 44 years old. But they also have an exceptionally high infant mortality rate and are unlikely to have access to modern medicine for curing infectious diseases and healing traumatic wounds. We can’t take a single data point, an average, and assume anything from it.
I’d also bet that along with lots of running, the Tarahumara lifestyle is active in other ways. Given their diet of predominantly corn, beans, and squash, it’s likely there is some heavy lifting and agricultural activities. When they chase down an animal, they then get to carry it back home. It’s all around a different lifestyle than most of us lead, not just a life with more running. That’s not to downplay the amount of running they do. It’s obviously a predominant activity for them, with competitive races between villages up to 150 miles in length (yes, they consider that “fun”).
In the end, you have to “exercise” for what your life requires. If your life requires moving long distances on foot, then running isn’t an optional exercise for you. If your life doesn’t require running marathons everyday, you can build a more well-rounded fitness profile.
What are your thoughts on the place of distance work in a training program? Is it a needed component? If so, how often would you prescribe it? If not, why?
About Scott
Scott Kustes loves to cook and loves to eat. He started Real Food University to help you get maximum enjoyment out of the meals that you eat. To find out more about how he has rebelled against the fast food culture and counting calories or carbs, join the Real Food Revolution.
14 Reader Comments
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Great post. I think you nailed it with the caveats about data points, their probable lifestyle, etc. Long distance can have a place, but it shouldn’t be ALL your do.
Also, it is becoming clearer to me that how you live directly impacts how your body responds to the fuel you put into it (and this is assuming a diet of “real” food). I’d like to know more about their diet – I assumed it was all grains until I read your corns, bean, squash sentence. Beans and squash were a surprise. So they get fiber and protein from beans, and eat starchy veggies, not just grain. What is the staple? All of those? Other veggies as well? And what is the protein/fat source? Game? Nuts? Seeds? All of the above? And how many calories do they eat (I’d assume the runners consume tons)? Does everyone run or just the men (division of work, etc)? If it is just one segment, what do the others do and how is their health? Have any been tested? What does their insulin response look like? Have they adapted to carbs in some way? What about lipid profiles (if those mean anything)?
I mean, the questions go on and on.
To answer both questions:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/32/4/905.pdf
and
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/35/4/741.pdf
and for fun a Men’s health article about them called, “The Men who Live Forever.”
http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?conitem=3b4b1ca01e91c010VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=1
Great article, and discussion of the topic. I feel running has its place and is a cornerstone of fitness but we shouldn’t run too hard or long. running for 2-4 miles a few times a week is essential for me to feel good and recover. Running seems to cleanse the body and works as a good flush of toxins and gets the lymphatic system flowing.
As a marathon runner I was happy to see both you and Mark (of Mark’s Daily Apple) tackle the topic of endurance running and long distance training in your blogs.
Mark’s Link: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/physical-effects-poor-training-marathon/
I agree with your statement that the body has an amazing ability to adapt and perform. Many runners I know (myself included) have difficulty in balancing their workouts. They might train long and hard, but will ignore speed, interval and weight training. Yes, I think you can be an endurance runner and be healthy and follow a paleolithic diet. You just have to do so carefully!
Great stuff Chris R! Thanks for those articles. I’m going to review them a bit more in-depth and do a follow-up from them.
Heather, you’re right about balance. When running marathons, there’s obviously some specific endurance training needed, but probably less than most people devote to it. I have a friend that runs half marathons at a 6:30/mile pace while doing little of endurance training anymore. Most of his workouts are CrossFit workouts…strength and metcon basically. Granted, he built up a strong aerobic base over the years and is now just maintaining it.
Cheers
Scott
Chris R,
Those studies really irritate me when they place more emphasis on macronutrients than on specific foods. The most important figure they could have given us is a list of foods eaten, ranked by calories, and a description of how their foods are prepared. Cooked? Raw? Fermented? Soaked? That’s critical information.
A macronutrient table is fine, as a bonus, but it’s nothing more than icing on the cake. There are hunter-gatherer and non-industrial groups throughout the world (past and present) that were extremely healthy eating high-fat diets, low-fat diets, high-protein diets and everything in between! The focus on macronutrients is misleading, because it implies that they are the factors that influence health, when the data really don’t support that.
I’m probably preaching to the choir here; thanks for letting me rant.
Good post. It’s also worth pointing out that distance work isn’t the only (or necessarily even the primary) driver of cardiorespiratory endurance. CrossFit Endurance has had some impressive success training people to run/bike/swim/row endurance events with very little distance work.
What you won’t read about the Tarahumara in the scientific journals is that they are all heavy binge drinkers of corn beer. In fact, the scientific journals are lying, because a significant percentage of their diet must be alcohol, rather than merely carbs, protein and fat. The scientists writing their articles must have known this, if they had visited the Tarahumara–every else visiting them comments on their prodigious drinking. This is probably a result of PC BS. Their drinking may be a cause of their unusually high triglyceride levels. Whether it helps or hinders their long distance running abilities is an interesting question. In any case, it seems likely that modern society has now disturbed their traditional food supply, since I saw on a recent television show that several of the Tarahumara are now fat. The young men still run, but I doubt that the fat middle-aged ones now do much running.
Sasquatch, I concur. From what I’ve read on your site Hyperlipid, high carb diets tend to be doable so long as gluten is avoided. That’s probably an overly general statement, but gluten seems to be quite the bastard. The corn they eat is treated with limestone (nixtamalization) in the traditional manner to liberate more of the nutrients…that’s certainly something too.
Steve C, definitely. My endurance is all built from CrossFit-style workouts or my anaerobic track workouts. But I also lack the endurance to go out and run a marathon. Depending on the level of endurance one seeks, I think you definitely have to lean more towards true road work to achieve the longer distances. That becomes specialization of course.
Walter, the Men’s Health article posted above actually makes mention several times of their love of the drink. In the first couple paragraphs there’s a mention that they drink like a rap star’s roadies. But yeah, the studies aren’t showing us the whole picture.
Cheers
Scott
Scott,
My current thinking is this: paleo carbs are fine, as long as you have a buff pancreas and insulin-sensitive tissues. The problem is, there’s something about the American diet that kills our ability to handle glucose! That’s why low-carb diets are so effective and why I still think they work for weight loss and general health. I don’t know whether a person can fully recover his or her ability to handle carbs; it probably depends on the extent of damage they’re starting with.
I suspect grains and/or a deficiency of fat-soluble vitamins are the main factors that make us intolerant of carbohydrate. The two may actually be linked, as I’ll be posting about soon. I’m still working on trying to understand it.
[...] Running – The Tarahumara Indians Just saw a cool article about the Tarahumara Indians. Apparently they are extremely good at running ultramarathons … these events are usually over [...]
Hola…Pretty good article and picture of Arnulfo–Wonder where ya got it–:]
Sorry to disappoint ya’all, but, the truth is the tarahumara hardly run; that is, they do NOT train and only run when there is a tribal ball race and something to be gained, or when they are in a hurry to get somewhere. They walk quite a bit over rugged terrain, and that is changing with all of the road building going on for various reasons–probably the biggest intrusion into the lifestyle and culture of the Raramuri people. I encourage you to come see for yourself, and consider running with us…..Paz,
Caballo Blanco
Way back when I was temporarily under the influence of Nathan Pritikin, I remember him citing the Tarahumara Indians as good examples of health because they ate 80/10/10 diets… and predictably, that wasn’t exactly the whole story. Thanks for putting the tales of the Tarahumara in context.
I have had this book: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307266303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265886503&sr=1-1 as an audio book on my mp3 player during a couple of long runs. It’s about the tarahumara as well, and in that book their excessive alcohol consumption is not ignored. The book is the best inspiration ever on long runs, I would really recommend it.