Measure of a real man !

NEARLY every man on the planet is an inferior version of men that have come before, a visiting author says.

Peter McAllister believes modern man fails to live up to his legacy because his predecessors had to be faster, stronger, smarter and fitter to survive.

Botanic Gardens of Adelaide trainee horticulturalist Hugh Matthews, 21, is a rare example of a dying breed.

He thrives on hard work and a passion for plants. "You can go to the gym for a few hours but manual labour gives you a different build - you're a lot stronger," he said.

McAllister argues that most men fall short of their genetic potential.

Others are pre-destined to have poor eyesight, simple minds, and weak muscles and bones.

He is in town for science week, promoting his book Manthropology, the Science of the Inadequate Modern Male. Tonight's free public event at the RiAus Science Exchange is fully booked.

"Men in the past were challenged very much more than men are today and they developed to a much higher level in all sorts of ways," he said.

"Even though we have a view of ourselves as being very highly developed, we're not anywhere near as developed as what we think. We don't challenge ourselves as much as men throughout even our recent history did."

Our male ancestors were bigger and stronger. Their lives depended on their ability to hunt and defend their territory. Modern males drive to the local shop, eat more than they need and avoid hard labour.

But as palaeo-anthropologist McAllister knows, the human body is designed to respond to stress. "That happens with your bones. The more mechanical load is placed on them, the more robust they become," he said.

The fossil record is filled with bigger bones, which suggest bigger muscles. Few people alive today have the strength of people from ancient times.

"If you look at the arm bones of elite tennis players, they have bone shafts nearly as thick as (the human ancestor) Homo erectus," he said.

"They have placed a lot of stress on their bones and they have developed quite strongly. That goes to show you that in ancient times everybody was equivalent to elite athletes."

Roman soldiers were fitter than elite solders of today and aboriginal people have better eyesight, four times better than those with a farming culture.

"It's a use it or lose it phenomenon," he said. gives you a different build - you're a lot stronger," he said.

"Through work I'm stronger and fitter than my gym mates. What we do is labour-intensive. It can be drawn out over a long time, so your exposure to exercise is a lot greater."

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