Last night, while visiting my parents and playing with their dog, it suddenly struck me. Are people one of the only animals that does not have a inner drive to keep their mobility. Everytime my parents dog has slept or been laying for any longer period of time, the first thing it does upon getting up is stretching. This dog is over 9 years old and still has, what looks like 100% mobility, compared to when it was a puppy.

Why aren’t humans doing the same? Upon standing from a meal, one can once in a while get the urge to stretch, but through social conditioning, we are taught that this is rude, and therefore abandons this behavior. But why are we not more persistent in keeping mobility? Or are we simply evolving and only keeping the bare minimum needed to go through our day?

There probably is no denying that, chairs and a rapid change in the way we work, has a huge influence on this matter. But it still seems a little counterintuitive to me, that we are not, ourselves, more driven to keep our mobility and thereby a big part of our health in check.