High Intensity Exercise may be Dangerous - Link to Article

[darbyndoug]

Naturally I read this right in the middle of my intense interval training workout week! I like to throw in these weeks to shake up and change the routine a bit, but I definitely wonder if I push too hard.

[kali1]

Originally Posted by Pratima

It seems part of the debate is the definition of intensity. From the article:

They cited research that tracked the heart health of 50,000 people over 30 years: the 14,000 runners in the study were likely to live longer than non-exercisers, but only if they ran between five and 20 miles a week, not more.

I took up running recently (I'll be 40 next month) and only do about 10 miles a week. But for me, it's pretty intense exercise compared to what I've done before. Everyone mentioned in the article had some sort of unknown condition or extenuating circumstance (e.g. the drug mentioned) so it's tough to draw any solid conclusions.

As always, YMMV and you should do what works for YOU. Which, I've learned can easily vary over a lifetime.

Exactly. I think no matter what, there are certain things we will never be able to avoid health wise. It depends on family history and our bodies so I think it's best to just enjoy life and do what works and what we enjoy.

[Debbie S.]

Originally Posted by Pratima

It seems part of the debate is the definition of intensity. From the article:

They cited research that tracked the heart health of 50,000 people over 30 years: the 14,000 runners in the study were likely to live longer than non-exercisers, but only if they ran between five and 20 miles a week, not more.

I took up running recently (I'll be 40 next month) and only do about 10 miles a week. But for me, it's pretty intense exercise compared to what I've done before. Everyone mentioned in the article had some sort of unknown condition or extenuating circumstance (e.g. the drug mentioned) so it's tough to draw any solid conclusions.

As always, YMMV and you should do what works for YOU. Which, I've learned can easily vary over a lifetime.

It's usually an underlying conditions is the culprit, not the intensity of the workouts. There's been many cases of children collapsing and dying during a game. There have been seasoned runners who have died after a race.
Many had an underlying condition that had not been diagnosed.

[RedPanda]

Originally Posted by Debbie S.

It's usually an underlying conditions is the culprit, not the intensity of the workouts. There's been many cases of children collapsing and dying during a game. There have been seasoned runners who have died after a race.
Many had an underlying condition that had not been diagnosed.

My sentiments exactly. Besides, I firmly believe that a little high intensity from time to time - not high intensity all the time - is good for your body.

[slysam]

This article... I am not sure it really says anything. Most of the examples they give a people who died running marathons and one professional soccer player. And the news presenter who says he vigorously used the Rowing machine. The advice to stay away from the rowing machine--well, I can see why that gentleman might say that given his personal experience. But for the most part, rowing is non-impact, low injury risk and can be a s gentle, moderate or vigorous as the users chooses to make it. It is often classed with swimming as full body, low impact exercise. I think there probably is a good argument that can be made that "too much" exercise is unhealthy. I am not sure they really make it other than giving a few scary examples. I am not even sure the examples they give (other than maybe the tv presenter) were high intensity exercise. The athletes and marathoners, I would assume were doing a high quantity of training but probably not all hiit. I've never trained for a marathon, but don't they do at least some lower intensity, long duration cardio? I know marathoners are often used as a negative example by some of the people who promote hiit over longer duration, lower intensity cardio. (I don't think that is fair though).

It seems that usually when an athlete dies unexpectantly there is an underlying condition as Debbie mentioned. It is sad, but there seem to be a few every year. I am sure the pro teams must screen fairly carefully, but they don't catch everything. With the high school and college player examples of this, I wonder whether it might be that they don't really check the heart health of young, fit people very well. They might be a good example of why hiit is an issue, but more information needs to be shared to really make that case. Is it their vulnerability? Is it the mix of competititive adrenalin on top of exercise? How have they been training? Were performance enhancers involved in any way? Were they allowed enough recovery? Etc.

The study on running more than 20 miles a week is interesting, I've seen that before but am not really sure how to apply that to non-running fitness activity.

[hotncmom]

Here is the Katy Bowman (Restorative Exercise Institute) take on it:

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...lood-pressure/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...blood-physics/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...still-sitting/

[Negin]

Originally Posted by Mandy

[B]I think moderation is the key. I love VF community!

Yes to both. Moderation, and, I agree - love the VF community.

The key thing, I think, is to listen to your body. I can no longer do all that I did in my 20s and early 30s. I wish I could. Twenty years ago, when my dad was in his early 60s, he and I used to go jogging every morning. One day, we almost tripped over a body on the ground . Turns out the poor guy had just died, collapsed right there. He used to run every morning, but suffered from high blood pressure. Since my dad had been suffering from it also, I asked him to stop running and he never did again. He now walks, swims and cycles every day. He takes a milder approach.

[ellaenchanted]

I agree with moderation. I love to do some high intensity workouts or rotations but it can't be an all the time thing. Over time, you will start breaking down your body from all the wear and tear. I don't think this is really new information but it seems to come up every few months because some people keep overdoing it or not having a balanced approach and end up with injuries or illnesses.

[Lucky Star]

Originally Posted by hotncmom

Here is the Katy Bowman (Restorative Exercise Institute) take on it:

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...lood-pressure/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...blood-physics/

http://www.alignedandwell.com/katysa...still-sitting/

Really interesting reading. Thanks for posting these links!

[hotncmom]

Originally Posted by Lucky Star

Really interesting reading. Thanks for posting these links!

I think Katy's take on running is interesting. She says that if you look at exercise (in general) from a health standpoint, defining health as pain-free, injury-free, disease-free, medication-free, people who exercise intensely are actually worse off. She also says that running does not make you any healthier (defined by those terms) than walking. Running for performance or competition is one reason, it does make your heart larger, increase your VO2 max, etc. but those are not really measures of health but more of your ability to perform that activity. She does have other reasons why she thinks running can actually contribute to heart disease risk, but in general, she says if you are predisposed to heart disease, running in particular, or any intense exercise, will not reduce your risk.

And that does not even include the joint wear and tear from running that she talks about in other areas.

And she's not saying "Don't run". She's telling people not be be under the illusion that running will actually make them healthier than walking, and to be aware that there are detrimental effects (turbulent flow due to release of stress hormones with an increased heart rate, wear and tear on the joints).

Her paradigm of optimal heart health is not about making the heart larger, it's about using as many muscles in your body as possible through movement, not exercise, (exercise being defined as that which you do for 30 minutes for an hour a day before you go back to sitting). Using muscles creates a demand for blood from the arteries, opening up new capillaries and pathways throughout the body, which takes the burden off your heart, acting as a pump. The muscle contractions actually pull the blood away, out of the arteries. If you think of your major arteries as a highway of blood cells, if there aren't a lot of off-ramps (arterioles and capillaries), there's going to be a lot of traffic (pressure). But if you use your muscles all the time, you have essentially created new off-ramps on the highway to send the blood to new, previously underutilized areas, you are going to reduce traffic (pressure) in the major arteries. That's the nutshell of how you can help with blood pressure.

It's really interesting stuff. If any of you are interested in learning more, she offers the link to the first session of her Whole Body Alignment course free on her website. And of course there's a lot of stuff on her blog.