Walk, Don't Run, To The Gym

Glenn linked to this WSJ story that just about gave me a heart attack:

One Running Shoe in the Grave

New Studies on Older Endurance Athletes Suggest the Fittest Reap Few Health Benefits

...

A fast-emerging body of scientific evidence points to a conclusion that’s unsettling, to say the least, for a lot of older athletes: Running can take a toll on the heart that essentially eliminates the benefits of exercise.

“Running too fast, too far and for too many years may speed one’s progress toward the finish line of life,” concludes an editorial to be published next month in the British journal Heart.

My marathoning days are lost in the mists of antiquity (and the Reagan tax cuts). And the WSJ coverage isn't really new news - Drs. O'Keefe and Lavine (two of the authors of this new paper) were mentioned last summer for an earlier paper issuing the same warning.

But we have some good news! In a glossier version of their earlier paper, the good doctors included some specific recommendations for fitness buffs:

Avoiding Exercise-Induced CV Damage
Suggestions for an exercise routine that will optimize heath, fitness and longevity without causing adverse cardiovascular structural and electrical remodeling:

• Avoid a daily routine of exhaustive strenuous exercise training for periods greater than one hour continuously. An ideal target might be not more than seven hours weekly of cumulative strenuous endurance ET.

• When doing exhaustive aerobic ET, take intermittent rest periods (even for a few minutes at an easier pace, such slowing down to walk in the middle of a run). This allows the cardiac output normalize temporarily, providing a ‘cardiac rest period’ when the chamber dimensions, blood pressure and pulse come down closer to baseline resting parameters before resuming strenuous exercise again.

• Accumulate a large amount of daily light-tomoderate physical activity, such as walking, gardening, housekeeping, etc. Avoid prolonged sitting. Walk intermittently throughout the day. Look for opportunities to take the stairs. Buy a pedometer and gradually try to build up to 10,000 steps per day.

• Once or twice weekly, perform high-intensity interval exercise training to improve or maintain peak aerobic fitness. This is more effective in improving overall fitness and peak aerobic capacity than is continuous aerobic exercise training, despite a much shorter total accumulated exercise time spent doing the interval workout.

• Incorporate cross training using stretching, for example, yoga, and strength training into the weekly exercise routine. This confers multi-faceted fitness and reduces the burden of cardiac work compared to a routine of daily long-distance endurance exercise training. 

• Avoid chronically competing in very long distance races, such as marathons, ultra-marathons, Ironman distance triathlons, 100-mile bicycle races, etc., especially after age 45 or 50.

• Individuals over 45 or 50 years of age should reduce the intensity and durations of endurance exercise training sessions, and allow more recovery time.

For a similar perspective, Mark Sisson of the Primal Blueprint railed against "chronic cardio" a while back.

So don't let the WSJ scare you - plenty of forms of exercise are great for your health. But maybe putting a marathon on your list of New Year's resolutions is not such a great idea.

PUSHBACK: It's full speed ahead at Runner's World.

PUMPING IRON: Here is a cohort study showing that muscular strength is inversely associated with mortality risk:

CONCLUSION:

Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.

However, we aren't talking about Arnold Schwarzwenegger here among the ironworkers. Per this chart, to break into the top third on upper body strength a guy had to bench press 185 lbs. one time (on a Universal machine.)

Comments

[maryrose]

daddy:
There is a movie coming out of those 3 authors called"Kill the Darlings"

[Tommie Tree]

Can we stop with the yoga, already? Most overrated thing next to running.

[maryrose]

TT:
I disagree. If Yoga relaxes you it is a good thing. People have a lot of stress in their lives. That is bad for your health. Yoga can relieve some of that.
TM: This is kind of a successful health thread. Well done!

[daddy]

Thanks Maryrose, I just googled and read the plot line:

"A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs."

I still think my plot line for "Monty Python and the Ice Breaking Ferryboat reads better:

"Two US Senators get Federal Funding for a guy named Guido to build an 80 Million Dollar Ice Breaking Ferry Boat in Ketchikan, the home town of one of the Senators. But then its discovered that there aren't any ferry terminals in Alaska so they decide to give the Ice Breaker away for free to South Pacific Islanders in order to beat paying taxes."

You be the judge.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--we know beyond doubt that sedentary lifestyles are literally killing us, and driving up health-care costs along the way.

Posted by: bunkerbuster | November 29, 2012 at 05:31 PM--

Of course! Sitting on the couch drives up health care costs which clearly effects interstate commerce.
Congress should act now to institute mandatory calisthenics nationwide; we can call the daily version the Two Minute Weight while Michelle can lead our annual Weight Week and we can sing Weight Songs against those fat slackers in Eastasia.

All right thinking fiscal conservatives can get behind this cost saving plan, I'm sure.

[Barbara]

The luncheon speaker at a seminar I attended in the 1990s was a tall, fit, elderly gentleman who didn't believe in all of this intense exercise fitness stuff. His recipe for a long stress-free life was, "If you don't have to stand, sit down. If you don't have to sit, lie down." Seemed to work for him.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Burroughs, Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, etc.

Too bad -- Alan really was one of the great poets of his generation.

[Sue]

I love yoga.

[narciso]

'The Ministry of Silly Boats' you may steal liberally,

[Jay Stevens]

I figure that knees are good for 70 years or 70,000 miles. I am high mileage. After a military career, I have two bad knees and a bad hip.

My running days are pretty much over.

[RichatUF (at my secret, undisclosed location)]

Charlie (CO)-

Great effort and hope you have continued success. The facebook idea seems pretty good too (although I am loath to use it). Maybe I should look at doing something like that for my training regime for my west coast expedition.

[iwanabeanon]

cigarette smoking, why some people get cancer and some don't....it may be genetic and related to activity of an enzyme breaking down compounds from the smoke (not nicotine) into carcinogens

link here

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2235714

abstract

[The role of aromatic hydrocarbon hydroxylase in the pathogenesis of lung cancer].
[Article in Polish]
Pilarska-Machowicz A.
Source

Oddziału Ftizjopneumonologii Kliniki Pneumonologii i Alergologii IMW AM w Lodzi.
Abstract

Aromatic hydrocarbons hydroxylase (AHH)--an enzyme of monooxydases group--catalyzes hydroxylation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons yielding compounds of the direct cancerogenic properties. Inducibility determined genetically is a characteristic feature of AHH. Inducibility of AHH in patients with cancer of the lungs is higher than that in healthy population. According to some authors general population may be classified into three groups of : high, moderate, and low degree of AHH inducibility. A significant increase in the incidence of neoplasms related to an exposition to PAH was noted in patients with increased AHH inducibility. These neoplasms include: carcinoma of the lungs, mouth and larynx, cancer of the pharynx and leukoplakia. Moreover, the onset of these neoplasms is earlier than in subjects with moderate and low inducibility of AHH.

[iwanabeanon]

Benefits of nicotine links....what?

just one minute.....

by the way I do not smoke and like to exercise

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/drugs-alcohol/nicotine-health-benefits.htm/printable

http://www.forces.org/evidence/hamilton/other/nicotine.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/14/science/researchers-investigate-horrors-nicotine-s-potential-benefits.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

http://www.thehindu.com/health/medicine-and-research/article2928850.ece

http://www.tobaccoharmreduction.org/faq/nicotine.htm

[iwanabeanon]

why is cigarette smoking so damn cool?

It may be explained by signaling theory, advertising genetic fitness and robustness why doing something apparently dangerous....ie. my genes are so strong I can smoke and still look this good....therefore you should mate with me to get some of these awesome, super tough genes...good for the kids you know.

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/donath.html

-----------------

Information Exposure: Signaling Imperviousness

Excessive risk taking is another behavior that may seem irrational, but when viewed as a signal, can be seen as a way of claiming a high level of fitness. From lion-hunting Masai warriors to cigarette-smoking, drag-racing American teenagers, people (often young) perform risky acts to prove that they are so fit or skilled that they can afford to be daring

---------------------

[iwanabeanon]

even second hand smoking is cool,

from The Onion

http://www.theonion.com/articles/secondhand-smoke-linked-to-secondhand-coolness,1112/?ref=auto

WINSTON, NC—Americans have known for years that smoking is a direct cause of coolness. But a recent study funded by R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and several other cigarette conglomerates proves conclusively that the cool effects of smoking are not limited to the smoker.

In these photos provided by the Tobacco Institute, an average-looking nobody (inset) becomes a really cool guy, simply by sitting near a smoker.

According to the study, secondhand smoke is a leading cause of coolness, and is only slightly less cool than actual smoking.

[Brian]

I'm 48 and I use an eliptical three or four times a week at 30 minutes at a time. I burn about 400 calories and my bpm are about 140. Works for me, my bp is generally about 118 over 78. And I don't have any leg/foot/knee problems or pain.

[mojo]

"Whenever I get the urge to jog, I sit down until it goes away."
-- Some comic in the 80's

[Jarno Rasimus]

For me it is good that you always walking everyday and i think you have a point that we need to avoid so much exercise because sometimes it make's us unhealthy it is better that you are in a moderate mode.In Helsinki Finland many personal trainer suggest to go daily in gym and take an hour for an exercise which is really a good amount of time for me for exercising.

[BR]

Hello Jarno in Finland! Here's my favorite exercise, and smoking while dancing :)

Lambada