Too Much Exercise Bad for Us Old Guys?
Well, this will probably generate a great deal of discussion amoungst the interwebs. I am never sure how I feel when I read these types of cautions, except to wonder if a bit of caution on my end is not the better part of valor.#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
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"Critics of the newer research say that the idea that running can harm the heart is based on research showing only an association—meaning that exercise may not be the cause of the problem."
Since my foundational goal in doing triathlons is to discover and demonstrate what's possible as we get older, this and similar studies and opinions will not change my lifestyle.
I am reassured, though, by the finding that the cut-off is 20-25 miles a week. I've found good results at about 1050 miles a year running, or about 20 miles a week (range 10-35). I do run faster than 7:30 min miles, and I'm glad I am capable of that, and will keep doing it until I can't.
Some thoughts which I find reassuring when confronted with data like this:
So, I'm still planning on doing a 5K and a half marathon in December, my usual quota of 2-4 running races a year, done in conjunction with triathlon, not run-specific training.
Exercise
Diet
Die anyway
my two cent is stats are 1 out of 1 nobody gets out alive
I'm 57 (58 in 3 weeks) and when I go out to run, I'm much more worried about getting hit by a car or by lighting than I am about my ticker stopping. Like Al, I do tris to see what I can do at my age. I know many people at work and in my social life who are amazed that I have finished multiple IMs, and most of them have bad hips, knees, etc and are 20-50 pounds over weight. I'll take the lifestyle of a triathlete any time over their sedate lives. I know that some day I won't be able to finish an IM, or even a 5k race, but I'm going to keep training/racing until I no longer can or until God calls my number. It is how I choose to live my life, and I could care less if it might mean fewer days on the planet for me,especailly when the medical community is divided on this topic.
I am still PRing a HIM I do every year (for the last 5 years), so I still have upside to my performances. The advantage of starting slow LOL.
BTW, as a data analyst for the last 40 years, I go nuts when I see studies that suggest one factor (or several) cause something else.
In most cases the study shows no such thing — they almost always show an association, and that said, the statical ability of those doing the studies are almost always seriously lacking in rigor.
I am so impressed by the amazing group of athletes in EN that are over 50. You all have inspired me, and I hope I'm doing as well as you in ten or twenty years.
John - thanks for the data-based update. Confirms my long held view of "Use it or Lose It". And the value of weight training and/or persistent anaerobic exercise, including such things as downhill skiing and mountain biking, as well as the stuff we do in the OS on the bike and track.
It just seems that saying "Too much exercise is a bad thing" is the same as saying "Being too alive is a bad thing."
"One Running Shoe in the Grave" - title is a little sensational, and perhaps misleading... but there are topics here worth our attention.
One of my early running heroes was Dr. George Sheehan. His Runners World columns and books on the mental aspects of running were and are among my favorites. He once said that "each of us is an experiment of one" and that I believe.
I am now 62 and my PRs are way, way back in my rear view mirror. However, at this point I still cannot see me doing it just for the health of it. Because while I may be getting slower, I still find it a necessary requirement for the soul and my well being to get out there, push when I can and continue to press onward and forward. Plus, those old guys in my AG continue to be tough old competitors who refuse to give an inch.
I think you old guys...you, not me, cuz I'm not...just need to look at your peer group and compare your health and quality of life to theirs.
I almost never mix / socialize with civilians (non endurance athletes) because of the life that I lead. But when I do and the issue of age and health comes up, I am LIGHTYEARS ahead of them. My jaw drops when they tell me their age. Folks I think are ~5-10yrs older than me are often 5-10yrs younger.
I don't need no Dr SmartyPants doctor telling me what my eyes can see
A budy a corporate gave eme a copy of the article and said " I don't expect this to change what you do a bit". A smart man!
I would point out a few other, much better studies looking at long term outcomes of "extreme athletics."
Tour de France riders outlive the general population.
In your 50s, your ability to perform athletically as measured by the MET scale is a BETTER predictor of mortality than your cholesterol, BMI, etc.
The incidence of cardiac hypertrophy in elite Scandinavian Nordic skiers is lower than in the general population.
The longevity in China is highly associated with using cycling as transportation. Avg person cycles 2 or more hours a day. They just call it transportation instead of exercise.
Lifetime Nordic skiers in Scandinavia have the equivalent performance ability in their 80's of sedentary individuals in their 40's.
These studies are better because they set out to look at the effects of athleticism and are powered to answer that question specifically. In the other study, they studied a large population for a different question and then pulled out a very limited subset and performed a pretty meaningless analysis and then inflated the magnitude of their results to make the front page of the WSJ, NYT, etc. A study that shows exercise is good for you is a dime a dozen, one that shows that by God it'll kill you makes headlines no matter how inappropriate the data and analysis scheme.
Here is something a friend sent me:
http://m.runnersworld.com/health/too-much-running-myth-rises-again
Ive been thinking about adding my $0.02 for a while so here is my treatise on the overarching topic:
I read the article and several others in recent years that were similar and they don’t mean anything to me. Just like everyone else here – it’s not about improving health, it’s about doing cool stuff with the fitness you have during the time you have. More importantly, we do not know just how much time we have so we, I, need to do what we can now. I know this first hand. I have seen too much death close to me to think I am wrong in my way of living.
Years ago (ok, decades) when I was 18-21 and coming of age in the Adirondacks, I took to rock climbing, ice climbing and winter camping in a big way. My father would scold me for being so irresponsible and unaccountable. He told me I needed to begin a career – any career. He also told me that I should wait till I retire. Only then could I go gallivanting off doing what ever, because only then would I have earned it.
I did not listen to my father. I played hard until I got married at the age of 27. As a husband and young father, I stopped the more risky activities but still enjoyed camping and hiking. Life was good. I had a wife and son as the center of my universe. My wants were simple: to build a life and home for my family, swim, hike, xc ski. All very pedestrian, all wonderful things to do with your family.
.......
My father whom I loved and respected never got to fulfill his dream. Five years after he retired as he began to build his ‘dream’ home he was diagnosed with lung cancer and had his right lung removed. Recovery seemed to be going well but he died suddenly the following year at the age of 63 from internal bleeding.
Two years later my wife developed Chicken Pox while 7 months pregnant with our second child. She pass away 5 days later at home. She was only 31 years old. I was devastated and proceeded to spend the next 30 months as a drunken single parent. Finally I woke up and got sober. Returned to school and am happy to say I have not had a drink since January 1992.
In 1997 my sister died at the age of 44 from a drug related coma. Her entire life after the age of 13 had been defined, manipulated and tortured by drugs and alcohol. It was the way she lived and how she died.
I continued my pedestrian outdoor pursuits until my son graduated HS. I had to do everything in my power to be there for him as he grew to be a young man. Once off to college with his expenses provided for, I took up where I left off so many years ago. First it was whitewater kayaking, next it was marathons, then triathlon and now Ironman. I’m not sure what is next but I am certain I will be looking for a new challenge in a few years. But I figure I still have a few more Ironman events to complete first, than I’ll move on to something new.
.........
I do this stuff now because I can. I do it because it makes me feel alive. Back in my Paul Smith’s days in the ADKs, I read a lot of Thoreau but there was one passage that moved me more than any other. It inspired me then and still, to this day, inspires me to seek ‘life’ and devour it to its fullest extent.
I don’t want to live to be an old man. That’s not to say I am ready to give up. On the contrary, I wish to live fully and completely. I do not care my age when I pass, only that I have not tried to postpone the inevitable. I do not seek to prolong my life at the expense of living.
Steven
Wow.. thats all I have to say.
That, and that I'm going to add your quote 'I do not seek to prolong my life at the expense of living' to my email signature. That is fantastic.
I, too, lost people close to me when they were at a very young age (mom 49 - dad 59 - not a single relative lived past 60).
Although I didn't lose a spouse or had to raise a child on my own the way you did, I suffered from a severe depression in 2010 that had me at 95 lbs, in bed for about 23.5 hours/day and completely disconnected from life when I had been a competitive athlete for years. Once the conventional treatment were exhausted and provided next to no relief, in a brief moment of clarity (or insanity according to my doctor), I decided to quit all the meds cold turkey and go back to what I knew plugged me into this world; exercise. "Training" was a major part of my recovery (I even wrote myself a plan) and I firmly believe that in addition to the support of the people close to me, it helped me reconnect one session at a time (the first one being a walk to the mailbox) with the person I was and am again. So if it isn't good for me, it certainly helped me greatly.
I train and race from a very different place now...just as fiercely and as committed as ever but from a different place .
And you are right, to feel fully alive...for as long as that might be. Because if it weren't for exercise/training/whatever you might call it, I am not entirely convinced that my life would feel as good as it does today.
Steve, Nathalie ... you guys are each so inspiring. Simply deciding to be human is sometimes very hard work, but in the end so worth it.
Wow...Steve and Nathalie. Whenever I think I'm having a bad day, I'm gonna come back here and re-read your posts to get some real perspective to stop feeling sorry for myself. Then I'm going to go for a swim, bike ride or a run...or maybe all three. And feel lucky and alive that I get to do this stuff no matter how fast or slow I go. Thanks for sharing your life stories.
I think most understand my reason for the long post but just to be clear I want to define my purpose: To demonstrate my perspective on why articles like in the one in the OP are irrelavant to me and possibly most endurance athletes.
Individually our reasons may be different but in the end, we as a collective group, are not trying to live longer - we seek to live a more rewarding life. My specific point is that life is fickle and fleeting. We have no idea when our days are over. Some live long, others die young. As I have posted to other threads in the past, the only day we have is today. Be here now and live it.
@ ;Ryan - good catch! I never gave that phrase a second thought - it just came out.
@ Nathalie - To grab the seat of your own pants and purposefully drag youself back into the daylight from the depths of were you were is amazing. The internal strength you must posess will always be there for you. Nothing I know of can compare to strength of our own willpower.
@ ;Al - you my friend, may have more drive and tenacity than most to achieve what you have after such a devastaing accident not so long ago. You are an inspration to me. I would like to think that if I was in a similar situation that I would have half the courage of someone like you.
@ ;David and Bruce - my past is just that, the past. The only thing I bring forward from that is inner strength. We all have events in our history that we can draw on. It's in all of us. For me it just happened to be blunt and obvious - maybe thats what I needed before I could recognize the true meaning of MY life. Now that I have it, I use it to drive myself when things seem dark and bleak.
So, in the end, I have no reason to fear the possiblity of a shorter life from excessive training and racing. To me, those things define life, not limit it.
Thanks for reading......
Steven
I have nothing to add and yet ... Steve, Nathalie, I would add Matt, your stories of strength and getting through harder blows than I have ever known are moving and inspiring. Thank you for being willing to share stories that are so personal.
Being one of those "old guys" now ... ... I have to say this thread brought tears to my eyes
thank you for sharing Steve and Nathalie
If you don't use it, you lose it. Simple, but true.
I'm not a superstar triathlete. I doubt I'll ever place in my AG unless I'm still doing this in my 80s.
Still, I'd rather be out of breath running up the beach to T1 or climbing an endless hill on my bike, than be out of breath getting up off the couch to sweep the Cheetos crumbs off of my enormous belly.
I see Flesh Zeppelins lumbering around Disney World with a turkey leg in each hand and it makes me sick. Sick, and angry, because I'm going to end up paying for their health care.