Endurance Exercise Is Bad For You?
I’ve been saying for years that I think endurance exercise is bad for you. I think the risk of injury outweighs the benefits. Now it appears that research agrees with me but for a far more significant reason. A sore knee is one thing but increased risk of heart attack? Take a look at this quote from the this article on the Mercola website.
“Clearly, when it comes to exercise, more is not always better. As I’ve learned in more recent years, the opposite is oftentimes true. Granted, this warning does not apply to the vast majority of people reading this, as most people are not exercising nearly enough. But it’s still important to understand that not only is it possible to over-exercise, but focusing on the wrong type of exercise to the exclusion of other important areas can actually do you more harm than good. Even if you don’t end up dying from sudden cardiac death during a race, years of marathon running can take a toll on your ability to achieve optimal health.”
This entry was posted on January 25, 2012 at 3:00 am and is filed under Fat Loss, Guest Authors, Injuries, Media, Random Thoughts, Training, Training Females with tags cardio training, endurance training, Marathon running, sudden death. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
24 Responses to “Endurance Exercise Is Bad For You?”
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Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog 
December 28, 2012 at 11:40 am
You are so cool! I do not think I’ve read anything like this before. So good to discover somebody with unique thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This web site is one thing that is needed on the web, someone with a bit of originality!
March 6, 2012 at 3:49 pm
David- good point. 2 min may or may not be HIIT. I know 2 min on the Airdyne done right is but, it remains to be seen.
March 6, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Aaron, you are doing interval training, but what you are most likely NOT doing is high intensity interval training. The higher the intensity of the training, the more recuperation time that is required.
Often, the answer isn’t more training; it is better training, more rest and better nutrition.
But to answer your question, good or bad, I am going to pose a question: how do you feel, what results are you seeing, what do your blood work ups say?
February 8, 2012 at 10:40 am
I think you can even feel it. After an endurance exercise, you don’t feel as good as after an maximum strength workout! I mean, just look at this picture! http://www.rippednaturally.com/images/endurance-vs-sprinter-male.jpg
I think there are no more words needed!
You have an cool blog! Please look at mine, too and let me know what you think!
February 7, 2012 at 3:16 am
Jordan- It’s funny though I don’t advocate distance running there are differences in cultures. Read Born to Run. Great read.
February 6, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Good article, Mike. Also, Joe Warne stated that “If we look at our evolutionary history, this was the activity of necessity.” I respectfully disagree. Early man was about “fight-or-flight”, not slow-paced, steady jogging (which is why I believe sprinting is far superior to jogging).
February 3, 2012 at 2:13 pm
All exercise creates forms of cellular damage. The question is whether or not the body’s response is worth the insult. The overwhelming answer is yes, yes, and yes. Using a population of old marathon runners to extrapolate a blanket recommendation is the same as asking what skinny people eat and telling fat people to eat the same things. It may work once or twice, but is blatantly spurious.
I respect intervals and Coach Boyle to the utmost but maybe there’s a chance the marathon is the motivation someone needs to get in shape. Maybe that motivation leads to years of better fitness. Are there better ways than 20 miles of running to get people fit? Sure. But be careful of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
February 2, 2012 at 7:42 am
conclusion: “Although short-term recovery appears complete, chronic structural changes and reduced RV function are evident in some of the most practiced athletes”. Complete recovery suggests to me that there’s no problem. ‘Some people” have chronic changes- some people die from peanuts too.
Same line of thinking would have us all stop doing resistance training because it is associated with elevated arterial stiffness. Cortez-Copper, M. Effects of high intensity resistance training on arterial stiffness and wave reflection in women.Am J Hypertens. 2005 Jul;18(7):930-4.
Cortez-Cooper MY,