Here are some recent articles I found interesting:
First, is a study on Olympic Athletes living longer:
Please remember, even if this study is properly adjusted, there could be embedded bias in the results. For instance, maybe athletes who end up Olympians are merely genetically superior with a predisposition to live longer.
Next, is an article about a study indicating endurance athletes may not benefit, and even suffer deleterious effects, from working out too much, or too hard:
This is not the first study on this subject, and mortality rates of high performing athletes in old age may suffer bias, maybe not. For instance, it would be interesting to see a further breakout of PERSONALITY traits associated with mortality rates of athletes rather than just how fast you run miles. WHY?
Consider that someone with a higher VO2 MAX may run miles easier generally than someone with a lower VO2 MAX. And adjust for AGE, and WEIGHT too. I often address this issue in my blogs. My advice is to maximize performance with a minimal of training, and use HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) methods, rather than indulge obsessive behaviors. If you have read my previous blogs, you know I feel that most training schedules are counterproductive to achieving better performance efficiently while trying to decrease all sorts of risks.
Add to this that there is a predisposition of endurance sports ATTRACTING obsessive compulsive behavior type folks, and ....you get the idea. The doctor in the article prolly is a bit OC to begin with. In the United States at least, the selection process of kids into medical schools greatly favors OC behaviors, IMO. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing, and if I start on this subject, I may rattle on for quite a while while alienating a whole new class of people I heretofore have not previously offended. Then this Doc in the article, in OC fashion, goes on to DOMINATE his races, while, we must all presume, run a practice and raise a family. Now THERE's a balanced approach! And now, in OC fashion, he's AGAINST what he did. Whew! No wonder world peace is so tough!
My thoughts are that you will lead a kinder, gentler life by keeping your exercise in perspective, and in fact the training regimens I recommend generally avoid OC behavior, or at least reign it in. As I have often stated, nobody will chisel your marathon time on your gravestone, and nobody really gives a crap about your time. But other athletes will care how you treated them on the course and in training runs. So the balance may be in approach, not performance, based on genetic gifts or detriments, and how you accept your gifts or limitations as you try and execute careers and be good parents.
Ordinary people view everything as a blessing or a curse, warriors view everything as a challenge.
The upshot of all this is that we should consider SOME validity to these studies, and examine them in a scientific fashion, rather than fitting this information to what we want to believe.
(Carl Sagan says it way mo betta than me)
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