__By Ron Kaspriske
__
When it comes to physical strength, we're all the equivalent of a 97-pound weakling. Remember that guy from the Charles Atlas Fitness advertisements? That's you, me, nearly everybody when compared to our ancestors from several millennia ago. If those people were to see us now, they'd wonder how we got so small and emaciated.
A recent paper by Dr. Colin Shaw of Cambridge University concluded that because of our relatively sedentary lifestyles, our bone density and muscle mass have been on a steady decline for several thousands of years. The minute the people of Central Europe put down their hunting spears and started farming, we no longer needed to look like Dolph Lundgren to survive.
Shaw arrived at this conclusion after comparing the skeletal remains of people from circa 7500 to 2000 B.C. with that of the average man today. You can read the paper here.
Considering that each generation of man seems to get a little scrawnier than the last, it makes you wonder what kind of shots our golf ancestors could have produced if given the modern equipment we use today.
Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor of Golf Digest.
(Tom Morris: Getty Images; Bubba Watson: Dom Furore)
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