June 24, 2020 • 38 mins
In a sea of misinformation from self-described exercise influencers pedaling stories born out of clickbait headlines where the studies referenced are conveniently misrepresented to fit outrageous narratives, it is more important than ever to dig a little deeper and listen to what your body is telling you about your exercise routine. In this episode of Fitness Disrupted, Tom settles the score once and for all about the common misconception that you can have too much exercise.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. Take
it easy. Too much strenuous exercise may shorten your lifespans.
(00:24):
Study suggests. That's one. Here's another, this is what happens
to your body when you exercise too much. A third headline, Yes,
it's possible to exercise too much. Here are the signs.
A couple more. Too much exercise maybe bad for the heart.
Too much running tied to shorter lifespans, studies find, sorry,
(00:49):
running doesn't make you live longer. And then finally, how
much exercise is too much? So that's the topic of
today's episode of Fitness Disrupted, and it's one amongst many,
but one of the top topics in exercise that raises
(01:10):
my heart rate into the red zone, probably more than
doing a hard track workout. Too much exercise. This episode
could be two minutes because how many people are actually
doing too much exercise? And for those people that are
(01:34):
at the end of the episode, I'm going to tell
you why. For many of those people, it is okay,
and it's going to surprise you. And it's something that
it took me years to come to the conclusion of why.
And it sounds totally against everything I talk about, but
it will make sense when I bring it all home.
All right, So those were headlines, and those are just
(01:55):
a few. Those are just a few. Too much exercise,
all these studies about people doing too much exercise. Let
me just begin by talking about statistics. Let's talk about
the top eight causes of death in the United States.
Number one heart disease, over six hundred thousand per year,
(02:17):
heart disease, number two, cancer, number three, accidents, four chronic
lower respiratory diseases, five is stroke, six is Alzheimer's disease,
seven diabetes, eight the flu, and pneumonia. How many of
those can be prevented significantly through exercise, Um, just about
(02:42):
all of them. Where in that top eight causes of
death is too much exercise? It ain't there, and it's
not number nine ten, it's not connected to any of them.
But the number one cause of death heart disease, how
(03:04):
much does exercise help prevent that? And obviously healthy eating
and all those other things. But it's all connected. So
this is what drives me absolutely insane because people read
those headlines, read them a couple more times. People read
those headlines. You know what they do. They look at
guys like me or many of you who exercise frequently,
(03:27):
and they use it not only is excuse not to
do it or to think they're doing too much, but
to put down the people who are exercising frequently. And
that's not okay. You know, I've often said the fact
there's a term like an exercise nut or exercise fanatic,
and that there's some kind of negative connotation to it,
(03:47):
that's pretty crazy and that needs to change. So just
let me pull out a couple of these articles. One
one will start with, Okay, here's the great So headline is, yes,
it's possible to extra size too much. Here are the
signs and the subtitle. This is my favorite, hitting the
gym almost daily and still not seeing results. So if
(04:09):
you hit the gym almost daily, not seven days a week,
that's exercising too much. Now, obviously what you do there depends,
but this is insane. This is insane that we're even
having this conversation. And I get it, people, I'm all
about the science. We all need to know the optimal dose.
And if you've listened to any of my episodes so
(04:33):
far up to this point, you know my term excessive moderation.
So obviously I'm not for doing too much, but it
is not a problem. It is not a problem. And
doing anything to discourage people from exercising and wait to
hear what these studies are based on. I mean, it's
truly laughable. It's actually truly laughable, and and it shouldn't
(04:57):
be because this is actually life and death. So when
I say laughable, that's tongue in cheek because that's what
drives me nuts. And that's why I do this episode,
and that's why I do this show, is because this
is life and death, and it's not funny when people
twist the science and just to get headlines and clicks
(05:18):
and to be provocative and to confuse people, to confuse people,
I mean seriously hitting the gym almost daily and still
not saying it's not seeing results. And I'll talk about
overtraining syndrome, and I'll talk about the athletes heart, but
it's not a problem. We have so many other problems
(05:41):
when it comes to healthy lifestyles, and discouraging people and
confusing people about the value of exercise is insane. Quick break,
And when we come back, I got studies we're gonna
make you laugh. They're gonna talk about one of the
top ones that's out right now and why it's based
on kabuky dancers, Japanese kabuki dancers. That's where the study
(06:04):
comes from. All right, quick break, we'll be right back.
My heart's already elevated. I don't like that. I go
through my life as if I'm wearing a heart rate
monitor and nothing raises it. It's all a choice, right,
(06:25):
Stress is a choice. If you haven't come to that conclusion,
listen to that podcast. But this frustrates me, so let's
jump right into it. That first headline I read, you
take it easy. Too much strenuous exercise may shorten your
life's bans, studies suggests. Okay, okay, and there are a
bunch of other articles that were written about this study. Okay,
(06:51):
and you go, okay, what did they look at? Did
they look at runners who are running like really far,
you know, frequently? Was it swimmer? Was it CrossFit people?
Who was it? Who was it that this how much
exercises too much? Where was that relationship they found between
too much exercise and cardiovascular deaths? All right? Uh, Kabuki
(07:19):
dancers Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology have published
their findings from a study in which they analyzed a
group of kabuki performers against more sedentary artist groups. Now,
when they went into this study, they thought, well, kabuki
dancers and I'm not really familiar with I had to
look it up, heard of it. I guess an active
(07:41):
type of dance obviously, And when they started the study,
they thought, well, kabuki dancers would live longer than the
sedentary people because they're moving more. And what they found
was the opposite. Kabogi actors are living shorter lives than
they're more sedentary artist groups. They compared them against. So
two theories they came out with. The first common sense
(08:06):
but not really the constant excessive endurance training necessary for
performances effectively neutralizes the usual benefits of exercise. And that's
gonna come up. That's gonna come up. I'm gonna give
you about five, six, seven studies and you're gonna see,
first of all, that dose responds, Yeah, more is generally better.
More is better, especially given the current guidelines, especially given
(08:29):
the statistics which I'm gonna get to again. But here's
the other factor, here's the great one that you're not
gonna read. I looked through many of the articles that
were based on this study, and I thought one out
of about ten that gave this other reason conveniently left out.
So again, the first reason, they're saying, excessive endurance training
necessary for performances effectively neutralizes the unit usual benefits of exercise.
(08:53):
Could that be possible, of course. But here's the other
really interesting possible factor. The widespread use of containing white
powder as face masks as face makeup. Sorry, during kabuki performances.
Actors who use that face paint often back then may
have done serious harm to their health, they're wondering. Okay,
(09:17):
so there might be other factors. And to have all
of these articles that come out of that study, that
study is insane. Now. I get it. We're about studies,
and we're gonna look at it all. But you know
it's a ven diagram. You've got the studies, you've got
the anecdotal, and you've got common sense. Okay, But when
(09:40):
you have all the headlines that I started to show
by reading, and there are so many more, it's so counterproductive,
it's frightening. Can we go to one more here, two more,
it's possible to exercise too much. Here's what it can
do to your body and your brain. And the bullet
points from this one exercise is supposed to be good
(10:01):
for you, supposed So many people are just gonna read
that line and go, oh, it's supposed it. Maybe it's not. No, no,
it's not supposed to be good for you. It is,
and I get it. We're gonna go to the extremes.
Extremes here it is exercise too much or running too
fast can have serious consequences for your body and your brain.
(10:22):
How many people have this problem? And listen, I googled it.
What what is the percentage of people that exercise too much?
Try to do a little research. The first thing that
came up said one in twenty. That is ridiculous. That
is ridiculous to anyone who's been in this industry long enough.
(10:42):
One in twenty people, in my experience, not even close,
not even close. One in twenty people exercising too much.
And in a second, I'm gonna say, what is exercise?
They don't even care? Is that strength training? Is that yoga?
Is that swimming? So we use these terms, and we
have these head lines three four word headlines that are
(11:04):
so vague and are based on kabuki dancer studies and
serve to discourage people from the thing they should be doing.
And that's not okay. That's not okay. And the second
bullet point from the same article, over exerting yourself could
actually undo the results you worked hard to get, and worse,
(11:25):
could damage your heart and arteries, lead to injuries and
make you addicted. Now again, I'm gonna always preface it
by saying I'm all about excessive moderation. So we're gonna
talk about frequency, intensity, duration, and mode. Okay, but this
(11:46):
is not a problem starting to uh, doing too much
too soon, of course, of course, but not exercising too
much as a way of life. And what I'm gonna
get to two is that our bodies are really smart
machines and they pretty much protect ourselves. I'll get to that,
(12:10):
all right. Here's one final one that Oh I just
wanted to reach through the computer screen and grab the
person who wrote this article and this headline, sorry running
doesn't make you live longer. I mean, I threw up
in my mouth a little bit when I when I
read that, Sorry, running doesn't make you live longer, and
(12:32):
in this totally convoluted article, and and even to call
it a examination of the research, it just garbage. And
again not a small website. And and here's the final
if you, if you got to the final paragraph, which
was really difficult for me to do. Here, here's the
author's main reasoning for why running doesn't make you live longer.
(12:55):
And again, most people aren't gonna come close to getting
to that final paragraph, guarantee it. The problem here is
the potential for people to think that they can run
a little and counteract other things they're doing that are
likely to shorten their lives, like smokers. Oh, I get it.
So running doesn't make you live longer if you finish
(13:17):
your three mile run and go smoke three packs a day.
People aren't that smart. So if you run and then
you go drink a bottle of you know, wine because
you think you can't? Where does where is the where?
Where does it say that? That extrapolation is so ludicrous? Actually,
like I consider not not even bringing it up, but
(13:40):
I have to because this is what people reading. Sorry,
running doesn't make you live longer. The vast majority of
people don't get past that. That's all they want to
see and this is just garbage. It's just garbage. You
getting worked up. Let me give final study here on
(14:02):
study a headline and then study to go with it.
So this is the one I read. How much exercises
too much? Okay, researchers find relationship between excess exercise and
cardiovascular deaths in heart attack. Once again, most people stop
reading right there. But let's take a little deeper, see
(14:23):
what this is about. Okay. Bottom line was they were
looking at people who ran more than thirty miles per week.
And then here they go at the end of these
findings that you know, too much exercise heart attack deaths. Uh.
They point out that our study population consisted of heart
(14:44):
attack survivors. That's kind of important to know. And most
people are gonna get that. They're just gonna go, oh,
exercise too much, healthy person. And they also say, uh, again,
thirty plus miles per week, it's just crazy, and so
the findings cannot be readily generalized to the entire population
(15:06):
of heavy exercisers. Okay, that's kind of important. That's kind
of important. And the statistics are nuts, by the way,
so good that you know, you know, if you actually
do your research a little bit. It's it's insane. Uh,
the number of people who actually find this here we
(15:27):
go cardiac rehabilitation. It's estimated that less than actually participate
in cardiac rehab phone discharge. Do you see the connection here?
So your people being told you're doing too much, then
they have a heart attack, and then this study comes out.
If you actually read enough, you go, oh my gosh,
I've been a heart attack. I probably I probably shouldn't
(15:49):
do much. And that less than fift actually participate in
cardiac rehab phone discharge. Do you think that's connected? Maybe
are not doing enough? If less than fifteen percent are
actually doing anything, I'm sorry, are doing anything? Dr Charles
(16:14):
Hennigan's lack of physical activity accounts for of coronary heart disease,
of colon cancer, eighteen percent of osteopoitic fractures, twelve percent
of diabetes and hypertension, and five percent of breast cancer. Again,
I would say those numbers are higher. I will take
those uh numbers fine. According to the CDC, hundred and
seventeen billion dollars in annual healthcare costs are related to
(16:37):
low physical activity. Four in five students in high school
do not get enough physical activity four in five, four
and five. How what are their adult lives going to
look like? Three and four adults do not get enough
physical activity three in four and again the numbers are
gonna be hired because those are self reports. Those are
people who are saying they do get enough and that
(16:57):
they do exercise intensely, and they do. But we're we're
coming out with these headlines too much exercise three and
four don't do enough, but we're worried about too much.
And so let's go back to defining the exercise because
it's not even in those headlines. It's not in those
headlines strength training. Can you do too much strength training?
You can do too much of anything. You can do
(17:21):
too much of anything. But that is not the problem.
But when it comes to these studies and what they're
talking about, generally speaking, they're talking about the heart, right,
they're talking about the heart, and so they're talking about runners.
So most of these studies they're talking about runners, okay,
but they're often twisting the research. Okay, here's one and
(17:45):
it's one specific doctor. I don't want to get into
him specifically, but he had a ted talk and he's
behind the you know, too much exercise. You know a bandwagon,
He's on that bandwagon, and that's gonna get you a
lot of press, a lot of press. And so one
specific study that he was involved with, and the researchers
(18:05):
behind the new study on the issue say, people who
either get no exercise or high mileage runners both tend
to have shorter lifespans than moderate runners. But the reasons
why remain unclear. Well that's probably important. Right. Here's the
thing when you break down that study, it's the Master's
running study. Anyone can fill it out. You can actually
(18:26):
go there and fill it out, and it's a series
of questions. The questions are how old you are, how
much you run, whether you have high blood pressure, how
often you take painkillers? And SAIDs, And that's it. There's
no follow up and there's no data on how long
you live. And that's where many of these articles came from.
And the data was divided into two groups, those who
(18:48):
ran more than twenty miles per week and those who
ran less than twenty miles per per week. And if
you actually look at the data, no difference. And then
if you look a little further there was one difference.
Great article, how I Hutchinson amazing author. The difference was
the people who ran less than twenty miles a week
took more anti inflammatories. But there was no data to
(19:10):
offer explanation as to why high mileage runners might die earlier.
Correlation causation, and I would just constantly go back to Yes,
excessive moderation is exactly what I preach. Don't do a
lot of exercise a little bit, do a little bit
(19:32):
of exercise a lot? And how much do I talk
about variation? Yesterday I swam, I do paddle board, was traveling.
I try to do so many different modes, especially at
fifty one, to be as balanced and as healthy as possible. Okay,
but you may have heard of athletes heart. Right when
(19:53):
I go into the doctor, my my e k G
and my heart rate resting heart rate causes is an
initial red flag because it's called the athletes heart. So
as you exercise, your heart registers a larger volume of blood. Okay,
and over time, the left ventricle especially adapts and it
(20:14):
gets bigger. It enlarges athletes heart. But this larger cavity
holds more blood and it ejects more blood per beat.
Even at rest. The heart is a muscle The more
you train that muscle, the stronger it gets. And yes,
it hypertrophees as well. Over time. With chronic cardio exercise,
(20:37):
your resting heart rate drops because every beat delivers a
bigger amount of blood and fewer beats are needed, so
your heart is working less. Heart okay, every squeeze more
blood comes out. Average resting heart rate sixty two D.
(20:59):
You know, different, sixty to a d D. But in
that number true endurance athletes fort forties, fifties. It takes
work off of your heart. And this is why cardio
exercise is so important for heart health. This is a
healthy thickness, okay from exercise. Your heart can get thick
(21:21):
from high blood pressure, not healthy, or get thick from exercise,
and that's what we want. It's not a medical condition,
athletes heart. It's the normal changes, the normal adaptations that
occur in the hearts of people who exercise frequently. It's
positive changes. According to the American College of Sports Medicine,
(21:45):
treatment is not required for individuals diagnosed with athletes heart.
No evidence has been found of any long term danger
from the changes regular exercise may cause to the heart.
All right, So, athletes heart, it's connected to exercise, positive
changes and Brady cardio low resting heart rate. That's a
(22:06):
red flag too initially, but it's a good thing. Alright,
final break. When we come back, I'm gonna give you
the good news, the studies, the counteract this garbage, this
super unhelpful, super dangerous way of trying to just completely
distort exercise and get people to do less because they're
(22:28):
they free of dying. Not okay, we'll be right back,
and we are back talking about too much exercise, and
I'm here to tell you don't worry about it. At
(22:49):
the end of the day. Don't worry about it, and
I give you the studies in a second, but really quickly.
The body is a ridiculously smart machine. So I will
do a separate episode on over training syndrome, but tend
if you start to do too much exercise, guess what
your body says enough and two things generally happen. You
get injured muscular injury, or you experience over training syndrome,
(23:14):
which is fatigue, irritability, and decreased performance. So your body
is pretty much tells you when you're doing too much.
So it's really hard to do too much. And if
you do, the body slows you down really quickly, really quickly.
You know this comes from someone who has participated. I've
gone to the extremes. But even going to the extremes,
(23:37):
I train so much less than many of the people
because the my toughest day is the race day. So
training that's when most people get hurt and they do
too much. So even though I trained for some pretty
intense events, my training for them is balanced because I
(23:58):
don't want to be injured and I don't want I
want to be healthy. I want to be doing this
when I'm ninety, and my main claim to fame is
being injury free. That's what I'm most proud of. Okay,
let's get to the studies. Great stuff. Study number one
leisure time physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity and mortality,
a large pooled cohort analysis. Okay, this was a bunch
(24:20):
of research and it was in plus uh two thousand twelve.
Researchers used data gather during six studies, six previous studies,
including a total of nearly six hundred and forty thousand
men and women ages forty and over. Here the takeaways. Okay,
six studies. They looked at exercise. Okay, forty and over
(24:42):
when higher levels of activity were linked Uh, I'm sorry.
While higher levels of activity were linked to even longer
life expectancies, moderate activity was beneficial. So that's the great news.
You don't have to do a lot, nor should you.
How many times have I talked about taking only and
just out of your vocabulary when it comes to exercise,
and that minutes matter. And this is not conflicting messages
(25:05):
that I'm giving you here. What I'm saying is we
don't have to worry about too much exercise because a
the vast majority of people aren't even coming close and
be your body will slow you down. That's why, that's why,
all right, the same study, greater amounts of physical activity
were associated with Yes, additional life expectancy gains. At the
(25:29):
highest level of activity four hundred and fifty minutes per week,
the game was four and a half years. Wow. It
kind of goes against too much and you don't have
to do that much. But if you do more, generally speaking,
when it's quality more and that's all in the show,
it's better. Here's a quote from Mark Tremblay, director of
(25:53):
the Healthy, Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the
University of Ottawa, Canada involved in this study. The of
finding provides further evidence that there is a clear direct
dose response relationship between volume of physical activity and years
of life gained. Let me read that again. Their finding
provides further evidence that there is a clear direct dose
(26:16):
response relationship between volume of physical activity, how much you do,
and years of life gained. The findings also suggest that
physical activity at recommended levels or higher may further increase longevity.
Great news. Study number two, Health Benefits of Physical Activity.
(26:37):
The evidence This was in Canadian Medical Association Journal March
two thousand six. It was a narrative review of numerous
studies as well. And here's the quote. There is in
controvertible evidence that regular physical activity contributes to the primary
and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases and is associated
(26:59):
with a reduce risk of premature death. And here we go.
There appears to be a graded linear relation between the
volume of physical activity and health status, such that the
most physically active people drum roll are at the lowest risk.
People who engage in exercise at levels above those recommended
(27:22):
in the guidelines are likely to gain further health benefits.
All right. Study three now We're getting into running, because
that's what so much of this noise was about. So
let's let's look at it. Let's look at it. Study three.
Is running associated with a lower risk of all cause
cardiovascular and cancer mortality? And is the more the better?
(27:44):
A Systematic review and meta analysis, British Journal of Sports Medicine. Okay,
fourteen studies from six perspective cohorts with two hundred and
thirty thousand participants were included. Conclusion, and surprise you that
I'm including, I give you everything. Increased rates of participation
in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to
(28:07):
substantial improvements in population health and longevity. Any amount of running,
even just once a week, is better than no running.
And here's study that kind of goes against what I'm
talking about. We're putting it all in here. But higher
doses of running may not necessarily be associated with greater
mortality benefits. That's one study. And what I'm going to
(28:29):
talk about at the end is why, but linear relationship.
More so, the news for this is you don't have
to run insane number of miles per week. And here's
what I'm gonna skip ahead, because it's time people who
run that far, in my experience, are doing so for
different reasons, mental reasons, and many of those people, if
(28:52):
they didn't run more than thirty miles per week, in
my experience, would have major issues mental and physical. This
is there medication. They many of them, and again this
is my experience, this is not many of them would
probably not live as long for other reasons because they
(29:13):
need it. I'm thinking of one in particular, and there
are many that I've come across in my life doing
iron Man and Ultra marathons and marathons. This one person
marathon Ultra every weekend. And I used to be so negative,
you know, when I would look at this person was
starting out, that's too much. And then I realized this
person needed it. This person needs it, and they would
(29:37):
probably live along healthy life too, probably live. But it's
for the mind for this person. First, it's for stress
and anxiety, and that is not looked at in the
research enough when it comes to these high volume exercisers.
All right, so sure it's it's still higher doses. Is better?
(30:00):
Is there a a crossover point? Of course, I want
to do too much and you don't have to, but
that line is so high for most people and those
people who are crossing it are doing so for a
different reason. All right, a couple more Study number four,
long term marathon running is associated with low coronary plaque
formation in women. Let me backtrack a little bit. So
(30:23):
there was a study in two thousand seventeen that was
widely reported and it was about running, and it basically
said running is bad for your heart. Too much running
marathon bad for your heart. And it was older mary
endurance athletes um with a low risk for heart disease
were more likely to have a greater amount of calcium
plaque in their coronary arteries. And the media ran with
(30:43):
this too much running marathons bad for your heart. Well,
even the study researchers question the significance of this observation.
Why because the plaques with calcium are more stable than
non calcified plaques and therefore there less likely to cause
a heart attack, so probably not a problem. So was
(31:05):
they found this one abnormality that wasn't really a big deal,
simplifying a big time And then that goes to this study,
So women, long term marathon running is associated with low
coronary plaque formation and women, And they looked at women
who ran at least one marathon per year for ten
to twenty five years. They underwent a battery of tests.
(31:28):
What did they find? Women marathon runners had minimal coronary
artery calcium counts, lower coronary artery plaque prevalence, and less
calcified plaque volume compared with sedentary women. Oh my gosh.
Two more quick studies. Study number five they looked at
let Me Condense it down two thousand and fifteen. Finished study.
They looked at former elite endurance athletes and they found
(31:51):
that they had a five to six year increase in
life expectancy, not decrease, with significant decrease in the risk
of stroke and heart disease. And this study was in
the British Journal of Sports Medicine two thousand fifteen and
the title was All cause and disease specific mortality among
male former elite athletes with an average fifty year follow up.
(32:13):
That's a big deal. And finally, last one study looked
at sixty seven ultra marathon runners. What did they find.
This is so interesting and this is where we're going
with all of this in the future. They had an
eleven percent longer telomeres. You go, what the heck is that. Okay,
telomere length is recognized as a marker of biological age,
(32:34):
and the shorter telomere length is associated with an increased
risk of cardiovascular disease. So this is really interesting and
this is this is where the science is going. The
telomeres right and their protective caps at the end of
our chromosomes, that again are a marker of biological aging,
and in this study it corresponded to a sixteen point
(32:57):
two year younger biological age compared with the healthy counterparts. Okay,
lots of studies, lots of studies. So the takeaway from
all this is this, it is really, really, really hard
to do too much exercise. For most people. They don't
have to worry about it. And if you're listening and
(33:19):
you're you're one of those people who does too much.
Now I'm not talking too much too soon. There are
some you know, listen to my podcasts on you know,
AM Wrap and things like that. I'm talking frequency and
mixing it up, and that most people don't have to
worry about it, and those people who do have to
worry about it, they are shut down really quickly. They're
(33:40):
the people who come to me and say I have
bad X, I have bad this. They have injured themselves
from too much, too soon, too much too soon, doing
the wrong type of exercise for your fitness level. Yes
you have to start gradually, Yes you have to build
a base of strength. We need to mix it up.
(34:04):
But my point is, do not take from these headlines
that exercise at Really, you know, high frequencies and intensities
are bad for you. When it's bad for you, the
body will slow down. When it's bad for you, and
you do it wrong, you're gonna get hurt. But that's
(34:24):
why my shows are about excessive moderation and that we
need to do it all day long. And then going
to the gym can be part of your routine, but
that's not where we get healthy. By and large. Sure
you can build strength, and absolutely you're gonna confer benefits,
and I still go. But it's what we do all
day long. We need to move, we need to mix
(34:48):
it up. Running is good for you. Runners live longer.
Statistics are there. Runners have a lower incidence of osteo
arthritis than non runners. One of the primary reasons in
my experience and research. One of them is you weigh less.
You're carrying around the less weight. What do you think
is more detrimental on your body running thirty minutes three
(35:09):
times a week, four times a week or carrying around
thirty extra pounds twenty four hours a day. Come on.
So this is where common sense comes in. And that's
why it's not just about the research. A lot of
people I know who are in the ivory towers who
have never exercised and are talking about exercise and and
that's part of the problem. So we have to look
(35:31):
at their studies. We have to pull them apart. We
have to look at the anecdotal people who are actually
doing it. We have to take experience, we have to
take common sense, and then we see where it meets.
And where it meets is we need to do a
lot more. Three and four people are not getting enough exercise.
Why the heck are we worried about too much? Not
a problem? Not a problem? Okay, all right, I go,
(35:54):
I need to go for a run. Get my heart
rate back. It's incredible, is how much I love my
job and how passionate I am. I I get really
frustrated with the bad information. It's bad information. Pull it back,
scroll back, get myself worked up where is it. Sorry,
(36:15):
running doesn't make you live longer? Okay, buddy, sure, really helpful?
All right? Studies are there, get in lots of different
types of exercise, strength training. If you haven't listened to
my episode on the five Components and fitness, and then
throw in the other podcast where I did the six
that I think should be added in. That's what it's about.
(36:37):
It's not about doing one type of exercise exclusively. That's
no good. That's no good. Doesn't matter how healthy it is.
You need to mix it up. You need to mix
up your intensities. Some days you do endurance, some days
you don't do the same thing over and over again.
But when you do many different things and you mix
it up, it's more fun. It's sustainable, excessive modern ration.
(37:01):
I am living proof of it at fifty one, and
my clients as well. That's where success comes long term.
We're all about the short term. You know. We were
not wired to worry about the future. We were wired
to worry about are you gonna get eaten by a
tiger in the next hour? And that's part of the problem.
(37:22):
That's another episode. All right, thank you for listening. I'm
Tom Holland. If you have not subscribed yet to this podcast,
you have to. Why would you not. I have one
goal is to help you have the best information so
you can live your best life. I have no bias.
My bias is helping people giving you the best information.
(37:46):
And that's tough for you, most of you who don't
spend your time digging into the research. And there's some
people with letters after their names who are really confusing
you and they shouldn't be, but it makes them money
and that's part of the problem. If you have not
rated the show, please do so. And if you have,
(38:07):
thank you very much. Tom h Fit is my Instagram
and Twitter. You can reach out to me there as
well as Fitness disrupted dot com. Thank you so much
for listening. I love what I do and we are
in control of three things. How much we move, what
we put into our mouths and our attitudes, and that
(38:30):
is amazing and that is awesome. Thank you for listening.
I am Tom holland this is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself.
Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart
(38:53):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. Take
it easy. Too much strenuous exercise may shorten your lifespans.
(00:24):
Study suggests. That's one. Here's another, this is what happens
to your body when you exercise too much. A third headline, Yes,
it's possible to exercise too much. Here are the signs.
A couple more. Too much exercise maybe bad for the heart.
Too much running tied to shorter lifespans, studies find, sorry,
(00:49):
running doesn't make you live longer. And then finally, how
much exercise is too much? So that's the topic of
today's episode of Fitness Disrupted, and it's one amongst many,
but one of the top topics in exercise that raises
(01:10):
my heart rate into the red zone, probably more than
doing a hard track workout. Too much exercise. This episode
could be two minutes because how many people are actually
doing too much exercise? And for those people that are
(01:34):
at the end of the episode, I'm going to tell
you why. For many of those people, it is okay,
and it's going to surprise you. And it's something that
it took me years to come to the conclusion of why.
And it sounds totally against everything I talk about, but
it will make sense when I bring it all home.
All right, So those were headlines, and those are just
(01:55):
a few. Those are just a few. Too much exercise,
all these studies about people doing too much exercise. Let
me just begin by talking about statistics. Let's talk about
the top eight causes of death in the United States.
Number one heart disease, over six hundred thousand per year,
(02:17):
heart disease, number two, cancer, number three, accidents, four chronic
lower respiratory diseases, five is stroke, six is Alzheimer's disease,
seven diabetes, eight the flu, and pneumonia. How many of
those can be prevented significantly through exercise, Um, just about
(02:42):
all of them. Where in that top eight causes of
death is too much exercise? It ain't there, and it's
not number nine ten, it's not connected to any of them.
But the number one cause of death heart disease, how
(03:04):
much does exercise help prevent that? And obviously healthy eating
and all those other things. But it's all connected. So
this is what drives me absolutely insane because people read
those headlines, read them a couple more times. People read
those headlines. You know what they do. They look at
guys like me or many of you who exercise frequently,
(03:27):
and they use it not only is excuse not to
do it or to think they're doing too much, but
to put down the people who are exercising frequently. And
that's not okay. You know, I've often said the fact
there's a term like an exercise nut or exercise fanatic,
and that there's some kind of negative connotation to it,
(03:47):
that's pretty crazy and that needs to change. So just
let me pull out a couple of these articles. One
one will start with, Okay, here's the great So headline is, yes,
it's possible to extra size too much. Here are the
signs and the subtitle. This is my favorite, hitting the
gym almost daily and still not seeing results. So if
(04:09):
you hit the gym almost daily, not seven days a week,
that's exercising too much. Now, obviously what you do there depends,
but this is insane. This is insane that we're even
having this conversation. And I get it, people, I'm all
about the science. We all need to know the optimal dose.
And if you've listened to any of my episodes so
(04:33):
far up to this point, you know my term excessive moderation.
So obviously I'm not for doing too much, but it
is not a problem. It is not a problem. And
doing anything to discourage people from exercising and wait to
hear what these studies are based on. I mean, it's
truly laughable. It's actually truly laughable, and and it shouldn't
(04:57):
be because this is actually life and death. So when
I say laughable, that's tongue in cheek because that's what
drives me nuts. And that's why I do this episode,
and that's why I do this show, is because this
is life and death, and it's not funny when people
twist the science and just to get headlines and clicks
(05:18):
and to be provocative and to confuse people, to confuse people,
I mean seriously hitting the gym almost daily and still
not saying it's not seeing results. And I'll talk about
overtraining syndrome, and I'll talk about the athletes heart, but
it's not a problem. We have so many other problems
(05:41):
when it comes to healthy lifestyles, and discouraging people and
confusing people about the value of exercise is insane. Quick break,
And when we come back, I got studies we're gonna
make you laugh. They're gonna talk about one of the
top ones that's out right now and why it's based
on kabuky dancers, Japanese kabuki dancers. That's where the study
(06:04):
comes from. All right, quick break, we'll be right back.
My heart's already elevated. I don't like that. I go
through my life as if I'm wearing a heart rate
monitor and nothing raises it. It's all a choice, right,
(06:25):
Stress is a choice. If you haven't come to that conclusion,
listen to that podcast. But this frustrates me, so let's
jump right into it. That first headline I read, you
take it easy. Too much strenuous exercise may shorten your
life's bans, studies suggests. Okay, okay, and there are a
bunch of other articles that were written about this study. Okay,
(06:51):
and you go, okay, what did they look at? Did
they look at runners who are running like really far,
you know, frequently? Was it swimmer? Was it CrossFit people?
Who was it? Who was it that this how much
exercises too much? Where was that relationship they found between
too much exercise and cardiovascular deaths? All right? Uh, Kabuki
(07:19):
dancers Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology have published
their findings from a study in which they analyzed a
group of kabuki performers against more sedentary artist groups. Now,
when they went into this study, they thought, well, kabuki
dancers and I'm not really familiar with I had to
look it up, heard of it. I guess an active
(07:41):
type of dance obviously, And when they started the study,
they thought, well, kabuki dancers would live longer than the
sedentary people because they're moving more. And what they found
was the opposite. Kabogi actors are living shorter lives than
they're more sedentary artist groups. They compared them against. So
two theories they came out with. The first common sense
(08:06):
but not really the constant excessive endurance training necessary for
performances effectively neutralizes the usual benefits of exercise. And that's
gonna come up. That's gonna come up. I'm gonna give
you about five, six, seven studies and you're gonna see,
first of all, that dose responds, Yeah, more is generally better.
More is better, especially given the current guidelines, especially given
(08:29):
the statistics which I'm gonna get to again. But here's
the other factor, here's the great one that you're not
gonna read. I looked through many of the articles that
were based on this study, and I thought one out
of about ten that gave this other reason conveniently left out.
So again, the first reason, they're saying, excessive endurance training
necessary for performances effectively neutralizes the unit usual benefits of exercise.
(08:53):
Could that be possible, of course. But here's the other
really interesting possible factor. The widespread use of containing white
powder as face masks as face makeup. Sorry, during kabuki performances.
Actors who use that face paint often back then may
have done serious harm to their health, they're wondering. Okay,
(09:17):
so there might be other factors. And to have all
of these articles that come out of that study, that
study is insane. Now. I get it. We're about studies,
and we're gonna look at it all. But you know
it's a ven diagram. You've got the studies, you've got
the anecdotal, and you've got common sense. Okay, But when
(09:40):
you have all the headlines that I started to show
by reading, and there are so many more, it's so counterproductive,
it's frightening. Can we go to one more here, two more,
it's possible to exercise too much. Here's what it can
do to your body and your brain. And the bullet
points from this one exercise is supposed to be good
(10:01):
for you, supposed So many people are just gonna read
that line and go, oh, it's supposed it. Maybe it's not. No, no,
it's not supposed to be good for you. It is,
and I get it. We're gonna go to the extremes.
Extremes here it is exercise too much or running too
fast can have serious consequences for your body and your brain.
(10:22):
How many people have this problem? And listen, I googled it.
What what is the percentage of people that exercise too much?
Try to do a little research. The first thing that
came up said one in twenty. That is ridiculous. That
is ridiculous to anyone who's been in this industry long enough.
(10:42):
One in twenty people, in my experience, not even close,
not even close. One in twenty people exercising too much.
And in a second, I'm gonna say, what is exercise?
They don't even care? Is that strength training? Is that yoga?
Is that swimming? So we use these terms, and we
have these head lines three four word headlines that are
(11:04):
so vague and are based on kabuki dancer studies and
serve to discourage people from the thing they should be doing.
And that's not okay. That's not okay. And the second
bullet point from the same article, over exerting yourself could
actually undo the results you worked hard to get, and worse,
(11:25):
could damage your heart and arteries, lead to injuries and
make you addicted. Now again, I'm gonna always preface it
by saying I'm all about excessive moderation. So we're gonna
talk about frequency, intensity, duration, and mode. Okay, but this
(11:46):
is not a problem starting to uh, doing too much
too soon, of course, of course, but not exercising too
much as a way of life. And what I'm gonna
get to two is that our bodies are really smart
machines and they pretty much protect ourselves. I'll get to that,
(12:10):
all right. Here's one final one that Oh I just
wanted to reach through the computer screen and grab the
person who wrote this article and this headline, sorry running
doesn't make you live longer. I mean, I threw up
in my mouth a little bit when I when I
read that, Sorry, running doesn't make you live longer, and
(12:32):
in this totally convoluted article, and and even to call
it a examination of the research, it just garbage. And
again not a small website. And and here's the final
if you, if you got to the final paragraph, which
was really difficult for me to do. Here, here's the
author's main reasoning for why running doesn't make you live longer.
(12:55):
And again, most people aren't gonna come close to getting
to that final paragraph, guarantee it. The problem here is
the potential for people to think that they can run
a little and counteract other things they're doing that are
likely to shorten their lives, like smokers. Oh, I get it.
So running doesn't make you live longer if you finish
(13:17):
your three mile run and go smoke three packs a day.
People aren't that smart. So if you run and then
you go drink a bottle of you know, wine because
you think you can't? Where does where is the where?
Where does it say that? That extrapolation is so ludicrous? Actually,
like I consider not not even bringing it up, but
(13:40):
I have to because this is what people reading. Sorry,
running doesn't make you live longer. The vast majority of
people don't get past that. That's all they want to
see and this is just garbage. It's just garbage. You
getting worked up. Let me give final study here on
(14:02):
study a headline and then study to go with it.
So this is the one I read. How much exercises
too much? Okay, researchers find relationship between excess exercise and
cardiovascular deaths in heart attack. Once again, most people stop
reading right there. But let's take a little deeper, see
(14:23):
what this is about. Okay. Bottom line was they were
looking at people who ran more than thirty miles per week.
And then here they go at the end of these
findings that you know, too much exercise heart attack deaths. Uh.
They point out that our study population consisted of heart
(14:44):
attack survivors. That's kind of important to know. And most
people are gonna get that. They're just gonna go, oh,
exercise too much, healthy person. And they also say, uh, again,
thirty plus miles per week, it's just crazy, and so
the findings cannot be readily generalized to the entire population
(15:06):
of heavy exercisers. Okay, that's kind of important. That's kind
of important. And the statistics are nuts, by the way,
so good that you know, you know, if you actually
do your research a little bit. It's it's insane. Uh,
the number of people who actually find this here we
(15:27):
go cardiac rehabilitation. It's estimated that less than actually participate
in cardiac rehab phone discharge. Do you see the connection here?
So your people being told you're doing too much, then
they have a heart attack, and then this study comes out.
If you actually read enough, you go, oh my gosh,
I've been a heart attack. I probably I probably shouldn't
(15:49):
do much. And that less than fift actually participate in
cardiac rehab phone discharge. Do you think that's connected? Maybe
are not doing enough? If less than fifteen percent are
actually doing anything, I'm sorry, are doing anything? Dr Charles
(16:14):
Hennigan's lack of physical activity accounts for of coronary heart disease,
of colon cancer, eighteen percent of osteopoitic fractures, twelve percent
of diabetes and hypertension, and five percent of breast cancer. Again,
I would say those numbers are higher. I will take
those uh numbers fine. According to the CDC, hundred and
seventeen billion dollars in annual healthcare costs are related to
(16:37):
low physical activity. Four in five students in high school
do not get enough physical activity four in five, four
and five. How what are their adult lives going to
look like? Three and four adults do not get enough
physical activity three in four and again the numbers are
gonna be hired because those are self reports. Those are
people who are saying they do get enough and that
(16:57):
they do exercise intensely, and they do. But we're we're
coming out with these headlines too much exercise three and
four don't do enough, but we're worried about too much.
And so let's go back to defining the exercise because
it's not even in those headlines. It's not in those
headlines strength training. Can you do too much strength training?
You can do too much of anything. You can do
(17:21):
too much of anything. But that is not the problem.
But when it comes to these studies and what they're
talking about, generally speaking, they're talking about the heart, right,
they're talking about the heart, and so they're talking about runners.
So most of these studies they're talking about runners, okay,
but they're often twisting the research. Okay, here's one and
(17:45):
it's one specific doctor. I don't want to get into
him specifically, but he had a ted talk and he's
behind the you know, too much exercise. You know a bandwagon,
He's on that bandwagon, and that's gonna get you a
lot of press, a lot of press. And so one
specific study that he was involved with, and the researchers
(18:05):
behind the new study on the issue say, people who
either get no exercise or high mileage runners both tend
to have shorter lifespans than moderate runners. But the reasons
why remain unclear. Well that's probably important. Right. Here's the
thing when you break down that study, it's the Master's
running study. Anyone can fill it out. You can actually
(18:26):
go there and fill it out, and it's a series
of questions. The questions are how old you are, how
much you run, whether you have high blood pressure, how
often you take painkillers? And SAIDs, And that's it. There's
no follow up and there's no data on how long
you live. And that's where many of these articles came from.
And the data was divided into two groups, those who
(18:48):
ran more than twenty miles per week and those who
ran less than twenty miles per per week. And if
you actually look at the data, no difference. And then
if you look a little further there was one difference.
Great article, how I Hutchinson amazing author. The difference was
the people who ran less than twenty miles a week
took more anti inflammatories. But there was no data to
(19:10):
offer explanation as to why high mileage runners might die earlier.
Correlation causation, and I would just constantly go back to Yes,
excessive moderation is exactly what I preach. Don't do a
lot of exercise a little bit, do a little bit
(19:32):
of exercise a lot? And how much do I talk
about variation? Yesterday I swam, I do paddle board, was traveling.
I try to do so many different modes, especially at
fifty one, to be as balanced and as healthy as possible. Okay,
but you may have heard of athletes heart. Right when
(19:53):
I go into the doctor, my my e k G
and my heart rate resting heart rate causes is an
initial red flag because it's called the athletes heart. So
as you exercise, your heart registers a larger volume of blood. Okay,
and over time, the left ventricle especially adapts and it
(20:14):
gets bigger. It enlarges athletes heart. But this larger cavity
holds more blood and it ejects more blood per beat.
Even at rest. The heart is a muscle The more
you train that muscle, the stronger it gets. And yes,
it hypertrophees as well. Over time. With chronic cardio exercise,
(20:37):
your resting heart rate drops because every beat delivers a
bigger amount of blood and fewer beats are needed, so
your heart is working less. Heart okay, every squeeze more
blood comes out. Average resting heart rate sixty two D.
(20:59):
You know, different, sixty to a d D. But in
that number true endurance athletes fort forties, fifties. It takes
work off of your heart. And this is why cardio
exercise is so important for heart health. This is a
healthy thickness, okay from exercise. Your heart can get thick
(21:21):
from high blood pressure, not healthy, or get thick from exercise,
and that's what we want. It's not a medical condition,
athletes heart. It's the normal changes, the normal adaptations that
occur in the hearts of people who exercise frequently. It's
positive changes. According to the American College of Sports Medicine,
(21:45):
treatment is not required for individuals diagnosed with athletes heart.
No evidence has been found of any long term danger
from the changes regular exercise may cause to the heart.
All right, So, athletes heart, it's connected to exercise, positive
changes and Brady cardio low resting heart rate. That's a
(22:06):
red flag too initially, but it's a good thing. Alright,
final break. When we come back, I'm gonna give you
the good news, the studies, the counteract this garbage, this
super unhelpful, super dangerous way of trying to just completely
distort exercise and get people to do less because they're
(22:28):
they free of dying. Not okay, we'll be right back,
and we are back talking about too much exercise, and
I'm here to tell you don't worry about it. At
(22:49):
the end of the day. Don't worry about it, and
I give you the studies in a second, but really quickly.
The body is a ridiculously smart machine. So I will
do a separate episode on over training syndrome, but tend
if you start to do too much exercise, guess what
your body says enough and two things generally happen. You
get injured muscular injury, or you experience over training syndrome,
(23:14):
which is fatigue, irritability, and decreased performance. So your body
is pretty much tells you when you're doing too much.
So it's really hard to do too much. And if
you do, the body slows you down really quickly, really quickly.
You know this comes from someone who has participated. I've
gone to the extremes. But even going to the extremes,
(23:37):
I train so much less than many of the people
because the my toughest day is the race day. So
training that's when most people get hurt and they do
too much. So even though I trained for some pretty
intense events, my training for them is balanced because I
(23:58):
don't want to be injured and I don't want I
want to be healthy. I want to be doing this
when I'm ninety, and my main claim to fame is
being injury free. That's what I'm most proud of. Okay,
let's get to the studies. Great stuff. Study number one
leisure time physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity and mortality,
a large pooled cohort analysis. Okay, this was a bunch
(24:20):
of research and it was in plus uh two thousand twelve.
Researchers used data gather during six studies, six previous studies,
including a total of nearly six hundred and forty thousand
men and women ages forty and over. Here the takeaways. Okay,
six studies. They looked at exercise. Okay, forty and over
(24:42):
when higher levels of activity were linked Uh, I'm sorry.
While higher levels of activity were linked to even longer
life expectancies, moderate activity was beneficial. So that's the great news.
You don't have to do a lot, nor should you.
How many times have I talked about taking only and
just out of your vocabulary when it comes to exercise,
and that minutes matter. And this is not conflicting messages
(25:05):
that I'm giving you here. What I'm saying is we
don't have to worry about too much exercise because a
the vast majority of people aren't even coming close and
be your body will slow you down. That's why, that's why,
all right, the same study, greater amounts of physical activity
were associated with Yes, additional life expectancy gains. At the
(25:29):
highest level of activity four hundred and fifty minutes per week,
the game was four and a half years. Wow. It
kind of goes against too much and you don't have
to do that much. But if you do more, generally speaking,
when it's quality more and that's all in the show,
it's better. Here's a quote from Mark Tremblay, director of
(25:53):
the Healthy, Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the
University of Ottawa, Canada involved in this study. The of
finding provides further evidence that there is a clear direct
dose response relationship between volume of physical activity and years
of life gained. Let me read that again. Their finding
provides further evidence that there is a clear direct dose
(26:16):
response relationship between volume of physical activity, how much you do,
and years of life gained. The findings also suggest that
physical activity at recommended levels or higher may further increase longevity.
Great news. Study number two, Health Benefits of Physical Activity.
(26:37):
The evidence This was in Canadian Medical Association Journal March
two thousand six. It was a narrative review of numerous
studies as well. And here's the quote. There is in
controvertible evidence that regular physical activity contributes to the primary
and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases and is associated
(26:59):
with a reduce risk of premature death. And here we go.
There appears to be a graded linear relation between the
volume of physical activity and health status, such that the
most physically active people drum roll are at the lowest risk.
People who engage in exercise at levels above those recommended
(27:22):
in the guidelines are likely to gain further health benefits.
All right. Study three now We're getting into running, because
that's what so much of this noise was about. So
let's let's look at it. Let's look at it. Study three.
Is running associated with a lower risk of all cause
cardiovascular and cancer mortality? And is the more the better?
(27:44):
A Systematic review and meta analysis, British Journal of Sports Medicine. Okay,
fourteen studies from six perspective cohorts with two hundred and
thirty thousand participants were included. Conclusion, and surprise you that
I'm including, I give you everything. Increased rates of participation
in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to
(28:07):
substantial improvements in population health and longevity. Any amount of running,
even just once a week, is better than no running.
And here's study that kind of goes against what I'm
talking about. We're putting it all in here. But higher
doses of running may not necessarily be associated with greater
mortality benefits. That's one study. And what I'm going to
(28:29):
talk about at the end is why, but linear relationship.
More so, the news for this is you don't have
to run insane number of miles per week. And here's
what I'm gonna skip ahead, because it's time people who
run that far, in my experience, are doing so for
different reasons, mental reasons, and many of those people, if
(28:52):
they didn't run more than thirty miles per week, in
my experience, would have major issues mental and physical. This
is there medication. They many of them, and again this
is my experience, this is not many of them would
probably not live as long for other reasons because they
(29:13):
need it. I'm thinking of one in particular, and there
are many that I've come across in my life doing
iron Man and Ultra marathons and marathons. This one person
marathon Ultra every weekend. And I used to be so negative,
you know, when I would look at this person was
starting out, that's too much. And then I realized this
person needed it. This person needs it, and they would
(29:37):
probably live along healthy life too, probably live. But it's
for the mind for this person. First, it's for stress
and anxiety, and that is not looked at in the
research enough when it comes to these high volume exercisers.
All right, so sure it's it's still higher doses. Is better?
(30:00):
Is there a a crossover point? Of course, I want
to do too much and you don't have to, but
that line is so high for most people and those
people who are crossing it are doing so for a
different reason. All right, a couple more Study number four,
long term marathon running is associated with low coronary plaque
formation in women. Let me backtrack a little bit. So
(30:23):
there was a study in two thousand seventeen that was
widely reported and it was about running, and it basically
said running is bad for your heart. Too much running
marathon bad for your heart. And it was older mary
endurance athletes um with a low risk for heart disease
were more likely to have a greater amount of calcium
plaque in their coronary arteries. And the media ran with
(30:43):
this too much running marathons bad for your heart. Well,
even the study researchers question the significance of this observation.
Why because the plaques with calcium are more stable than
non calcified plaques and therefore there less likely to cause
a heart attack, so probably not a problem. So was
(31:05):
they found this one abnormality that wasn't really a big deal,
simplifying a big time And then that goes to this study,
So women, long term marathon running is associated with low
coronary plaque formation and women, And they looked at women
who ran at least one marathon per year for ten
to twenty five years. They underwent a battery of tests.
(31:28):
What did they find? Women marathon runners had minimal coronary
artery calcium counts, lower coronary artery plaque prevalence, and less
calcified plaque volume compared with sedentary women. Oh my gosh.
Two more quick studies. Study number five they looked at
let Me Condense it down two thousand and fifteen. Finished study.
They looked at former elite endurance athletes and they found
(31:51):
that they had a five to six year increase in
life expectancy, not decrease, with significant decrease in the risk
of stroke and heart disease. And this study was in
the British Journal of Sports Medicine two thousand fifteen and
the title was All cause and disease specific mortality among
male former elite athletes with an average fifty year follow up.
(32:13):
That's a big deal. And finally, last one study looked
at sixty seven ultra marathon runners. What did they find.
This is so interesting and this is where we're going
with all of this in the future. They had an
eleven percent longer telomeres. You go, what the heck is that. Okay,
telomere length is recognized as a marker of biological age,
(32:34):
and the shorter telomere length is associated with an increased
risk of cardiovascular disease. So this is really interesting and
this is this is where the science is going. The
telomeres right and their protective caps at the end of
our chromosomes, that again are a marker of biological aging,
and in this study it corresponded to a sixteen point
(32:57):
two year younger biological age compared with the healthy counterparts. Okay,
lots of studies, lots of studies. So the takeaway from
all this is this, it is really, really, really hard
to do too much exercise. For most people. They don't
have to worry about it. And if you're listening and
(33:19):
you're you're one of those people who does too much.
Now I'm not talking too much too soon. There are
some you know, listen to my podcasts on you know,
AM Wrap and things like that. I'm talking frequency and
mixing it up, and that most people don't have to
worry about it, and those people who do have to
worry about it, they are shut down really quickly. They're
(33:40):
the people who come to me and say I have
bad X, I have bad this. They have injured themselves
from too much, too soon, too much too soon, doing
the wrong type of exercise for your fitness level. Yes
you have to start gradually, Yes you have to build
a base of strength. We need to mix it up.
(34:04):
But my point is, do not take from these headlines
that exercise at Really, you know, high frequencies and intensities
are bad for you. When it's bad for you, the
body will slow down. When it's bad for you, and
you do it wrong, you're gonna get hurt. But that's
(34:24):
why my shows are about excessive moderation and that we
need to do it all day long. And then going
to the gym can be part of your routine, but
that's not where we get healthy. By and large. Sure
you can build strength, and absolutely you're gonna confer benefits,
and I still go. But it's what we do all
day long. We need to move, we need to mix
(34:48):
it up. Running is good for you. Runners live longer.
Statistics are there. Runners have a lower incidence of osteo
arthritis than non runners. One of the primary reasons in
my experience and research. One of them is you weigh less.
You're carrying around the less weight. What do you think
is more detrimental on your body running thirty minutes three
(35:09):
times a week, four times a week or carrying around
thirty extra pounds twenty four hours a day. Come on.
So this is where common sense comes in. And that's
why it's not just about the research. A lot of
people I know who are in the ivory towers who
have never exercised and are talking about exercise and and
that's part of the problem. So we have to look
(35:31):
at their studies. We have to pull them apart. We
have to look at the anecdotal people who are actually
doing it. We have to take experience, we have to
take common sense, and then we see where it meets.
And where it meets is we need to do a
lot more. Three and four people are not getting enough exercise.
Why the heck are we worried about too much? Not
a problem? Not a problem? Okay, all right, I go,
(35:54):
I need to go for a run. Get my heart
rate back. It's incredible, is how much I love my
job and how passionate I am. I I get really
frustrated with the bad information. It's bad information. Pull it back,
scroll back, get myself worked up where is it. Sorry,
(36:15):
running doesn't make you live longer? Okay, buddy, sure, really helpful?
All right? Studies are there, get in lots of different
types of exercise, strength training. If you haven't listened to
my episode on the five Components and fitness, and then
throw in the other podcast where I did the six
that I think should be added in. That's what it's about.
(36:37):
It's not about doing one type of exercise exclusively. That's
no good. That's no good. Doesn't matter how healthy it is.
You need to mix it up. You need to mix
up your intensities. Some days you do endurance, some days
you don't do the same thing over and over again.
But when you do many different things and you mix
it up, it's more fun. It's sustainable, excessive modern ration.
(37:01):
I am living proof of it at fifty one, and
my clients as well. That's where success comes long term.
We're all about the short term. You know. We were
not wired to worry about the future. We were wired
to worry about are you gonna get eaten by a
tiger in the next hour? And that's part of the problem.
(37:22):
That's another episode. All right, thank you for listening. I'm
Tom Holland. If you have not subscribed yet to this podcast,
you have to. Why would you not. I have one
goal is to help you have the best information so
you can live your best life. I have no bias.
My bias is helping people giving you the best information.
(37:46):
And that's tough for you, most of you who don't
spend your time digging into the research. And there's some
people with letters after their names who are really confusing
you and they shouldn't be, but it makes them money
and that's part of the problem. If you have not
rated the show, please do so. And if you have,
(38:07):
thank you very much. Tom h Fit is my Instagram
and Twitter. You can reach out to me there as
well as Fitness disrupted dot com. Thank you so much
for listening. I love what I do and we are
in control of three things. How much we move, what
we put into our mouths and our attitudes, and that
(38:30):
is amazing and that is awesome. Thank you for listening.
I am Tom holland this is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself.
Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart
(38:53):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
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