Being Fit Was A Matter of Survival

Cliff Palace

You already know that I love fitness but what you may not know is that I am a closet archaeologist.  I've never traveled anywhere nor have I been on any digs but I do subscribe to Archaeology Magazine.  I just love history and ruins.  This weekend we visited Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado.  There the Ancestral Puebloans made this place their home for more than 750 years, from 550 AD to 1300 AD.  There are nearly 5,000 archaeological sites including 600 cliff dwellings.  Needless to say, I was in heaven.  You can't get to many of the ruins but can view them carved into the cliff faces.  To get to some of the larger sites you have to do some pretty strenuous climbing.  I always visualize what it might have been like to live there.  I couldn't help thinking about how fit the Puebloans must have been.  They didn't have railings to help them climb.  They used  hand and toes holds to navigate the cliff faces. They didn't have wide ladders affixed with metal and bolts and with landings to give you a rest every ten steps.  They made their own and precariously balanced them on boulders.  They had to grow their own food and make their own clothes.  All of that took a great amount of effort.  In order to survive you had to be able to move and have strength to do day-to-day chores like retrieve water which could be anywhere from a quarter mile to a mile and a half away.  That is after scaling down the rest of the cliff.  Also, I'm sure that looking lean and fit wasn't a priority for them but again a necessity because they wouldn't be able to get into their dwellings.  The doors were itsy bitsy.  I love technology but I am always worried about how much of our lives are now dominated by sedentary activities.  We should still have the mentality that in order to survive and live a healthy life, we need to choose activities that keep us fit and moving.

Cliff Palace in background

Kurt and Lisa above a Kiva.  Roof is long gone.

Grinding Stones built into the floor of one of the dwellings.

Toe and Hand holds from original trail.  This picture doesn't even come close to give you an idea how they would navigate around the cliffs like a spider.