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Don’t overdo the running — 21 Comments

  1. I hate running long distance. It puts an extreme load on the body that’s often unnecessary. Should save that stuff up for when the bears and sabretooths come out.

  2. I hate running and always have. It’s nice to know I was right about it not being good for me.

  3. Neo – interesting article that reminded me of something I watched years ago on one of the news shows – like 60 minutes – it was one of those with the 30 min long segments. Anyway it was covering exercise benefits and comparing different types of exercise, and their benefits toward longevity.
    The researchers said that they studied all sorts of animals as well as people, and that each species, including humans, seemed to be born with an average number of heartbeats in a lifetime. And they cited similar data about long distance runners and swimmers, who did not seem to live any longer than those who just exercised moderatlely – so they set out to ask why. They studied all sorts of atheletes, sedantary people, weight lifters, walkers, etc. and experimented on mice and other critters. They gave the animals various exercise loads and studied their life expectancies. And concluded that all things being equal, a moderate amount of exercise was better for longevity. (they actually counted and monitored heartbeats of the subjects over long periods of time) . So they theorized a species has typical number of hearbeats, and that’s all it gets before it just wears out.
    From that research, and studying animals and the data about humans, they had postulated that you could actually use up your maximum number of heartbeats faster when you engaged in exercise that callled for extended elevated heart rates. It was probably a flawed study and it sounds a little nuttyu, but I’ve always thought it was an interesting way of looking at it — A bilogical machine behaves more or less like an artificial one. You can wear it out faster if you over use it, even if you’re taking care of it.

    For myself, I’ve gotten up to about 25 miles a week, but my knees are not holding up. So I needed this excuse to do something else – a heartfelt THANK YOU is in order.

  4. From a speech Mark Twain gave at a big celebration of his 70th birthday:

    I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any. Exercise is loathsome. And it cannot be any benefit when you are tired; and I was always tired. But let another person try my way, and see where he will come out.

    I desire now to repeat and emphasize that maxim: We can’t reach old age by another man’s road. My habits protect my life, but they would assassinate you.

    Full text here.

  5. I ran track and cross country in high school, and ran 3-5 miles a day in my twenties until my knees gave out. The best I ever did was 14 miles in 2 hours at 6000 feet altitude in Colombia. But when my knees started to creak, it was time to stop.

    These days, I walk 2-3 miles a day, as I have learned that if I do not, my weight creeps up- and up. I occasionally break out into a run- very occasionally.

  6. Well, I reckon we just wear out with use. Like cars. 😉

    Anybody ever hear about isometric exercise any more? I have some knee issues that have me looking at it, but it seems to have dropped out of the popularity polls.

  7. Swimmers too? Bleh. Well, thankfully I have a bad heart which keeps me more sedentary. *grins* Even so, I can’t exactly follow Clemens’ lead. But I can sure emulate it most of the time, just not by choice. Heck, my cats are jealous of my… ability to do nothing in such a focused manner.

    Did someone say “nap time”? It must be nearing nap-thirty somewhere. Later.

  8. Stress on the body, when not healed, destroys the body’s longevity and recuperation abilities. If your knees break down, then the body is using up vital anti aging and anti oxidant resources on those knees, which still are damaged, and not on other things that might need repairing. Thus additional stress, over time, can shatter the camel’s back.

    Deep breathing, Taiji Chuan, and Ancient Chinese chi gong were designed to produce longevity, not hyper specialized athletes that die after running (check Battle of Marathon).

    As for joint issues, mobility and flexibility training that is not isolated in one vector, such as what Scott Sonnon is researching, is what I consider modern research in physical rehabilitation.

    Swimming and running both interrupt the body’s exhalation cycles, using the oxygen for cardio work. That means the body does not have the oxygen and process recycling to heal injuries and recover from stress. Thus for every exhale in swimming, one must compensate with 2 deep breaths (inhalation length focus) when the heart is calm. This diverts the furnace of the gut and oxygen crunching, into higher priority tasks, instead of the task of 1. not drowning and 2. not falling face first into the concrete.

  9. I have a goal (that I usually make) of 30 miles per week. More than that and I feel run-down, less than that and I feel antsy.

    I do feel like I am wearing myself out faster than a more moderate lifestyle, but I have no self-control around food and would be horribly obese if I didn’t burn through 3,000 calories every week in this way.

  10. While running isn’t particularly useful for me, leg muscle acceleration and de-acceleration is closely linked in martial defense and offense movements.

    Thus I try to at least maintain one leg (piston) squats, and had once achieved one handed pushups.

  11. Humanity made it as a carnivore by way of ‘persistent hunting’ — namely we ran the other critters into the ground.

    Humans are the most energy efficient hunters on the planet. This also goes far to explain why T Rex was bipedal.

    Foot soldiers were always known to out march cavalry troops. You can’t convince a horse to keep on with a pep talk.

    Even the term pep talk is a dead give-away to our ancient primal hunting techniques.

    Having said all that, ancient man had a hard life and certainly bitched plenty — when he caught his breath.

    For once our brains overwhelmed all — we promptly learned to sit down.

    We invented instant caves (tents & blankets) and quasi-hibernated every night.

    What we’re learning is that our metabolism can take large doses of carbohydrates — but that they are harsh on our pancreas. (diabetes)

    The key in all of this is balance. The human body loves to be mildly stressed. This induces growth and re-growth. But, as Shakespeare could tell you, anything taken too far becomes a fault, and can overwhelm all positive attributes.

    Moderation is usually best.

  12. I really enjoy that ancient jjong-qing or whatever was designed for longevity. Who knew? How’d they do with their design? How’d they come up with it? Was that in Shangri-La? Where the life expectancy is always above average and nobody dies young?
    Seriously, I do not understand the Western veneration of ancient Eastern practices. I regard it as peculiar. I prefer facts to allegations of benefit which have never been objectively shown to be beneficial. Lots of people are getting lots of needles stuck into them with no objective benefit; it is all highly priced placebo effect. Sorry.

  13. Where the life expectancy is always above average and nobody dies young?
    Seriously, I do not understand the Western veneration of ancient Eastern practices.

    Why would anyone ignorant of physics think that there’s no answers to their question? Is that because they don’t have the right question or is that because they don’t understand the answers.

    Here’s an answer Westerners might understand. Why does birth classes and sniper classes both teaching breathing techniques and patterns?

    Oh wait, that’s a question, not an answer, but it performs the same function.

    You’re going to have to spit in the eye of a US Marine sniper before you can talk about placebos, DC. You’re getting up to that level.

  14. Some yes, most no, Con Darlos.

    For instance, Bagwhann Shree or whatever his name was. We hated him in Oregon. All that Beetle’s crap come home to roost. What a farce.

    But then, there’s something about Eastern martial arts, which is individual and resists the collective. It’s a good balancing act, which is a very Eastern thing. Not too much Western. We love the Ultimate. Why the East, then, accepted the totalitarian model, and the West resisted, I don’t know.

    Maybe it’s Judaism that has protected us.

    So, I don’t know. Eastern into Western (Schopenhauer) doesn’t translate exactly well and sometimes monumentally not well. I tend to think that one should be conservative and accept change with perception rather than hope and with proof rather than audacity.

  15. When I read “Taiji Chuan, and Ancient Chinese chi gong”, I hear “Ching, ching.”
    Sorry. I guess I’m just ornery. But there is something wrong when Anglicized Chinese words are turned into unspellables just so they sound more like spoken Mandarin, in English-speaking countries, just to keep the Chinks happy as they immigrate here and infiltrate our healthcare system with medical degrees from China that are pronounced “just as good”.
    What is “Washington” in Chinese? Or “Dubuque”? Or that ancient, “Christianity”?

  16. I’m a distance runner since 1972, 1/2 mile to marathon. Studies have indicated running doesn’t cause osteoarthritis. Some people don’t have good body mechanics for distance running, and ankle, hip, and knee problems follow. Just as some people run far too long (an old discarded fad in running was running 100 miles per week). Regarding the fixed number of heart beats in a lifetime; my resting heart rate is 40, not an unusual number for a long term runner, do the math and you will find that the lower heart rate translates to a predicted many year longer life expectancy (if I don’t get run over at a cross walk. Running, works for me, your results may differ,

  17. But there is something wrong when Anglicized Chinese words are turned into unspellables just so they sound more like spoken Mandarin

    There is no correct way to spell in roman letters, Chinese kanji, because the Chinese has about 2 or more dialects, including Mandarin and Cantonese, which means the sounds change. Since Chinese Kanji are universal, but the sounds are not, the roman letters are sound based and people optionally use one over the other.

    The Japanese solved that with katakana and hiragana, both set in stone phonetic alphabets, but the English spelling is still different.

    http://japanese.about.com/library/blqow33.htm

    It’s why Japanese spelling of Engilsh often turns out weird or Engrish, because they are used to spelling the words in their own native alphabet that uses different letters for different sounds. But it’s easy to transliterate between two phonetic set in stone alphabets. The Chinese Kanji can be read differently using different words and sounds, and they have two dialects, so they’re much more volatile.

    Taiji Chuan can be seen as Tai Chi. Chi gong as Qi Gong. Or Chi Kung using the sharp high toned Mandarin version. Kung fu is the Mandarin pronunciation and gong fu is the Cantonese or Southern pronunciation. There are some common words in both dialects that are easy to discern, so people sometimes use it interchangeably.

    If it makes people feel better, Chairman Mao went out of his way to destroy and exile martial arts families and burn martial books, because they were too ancient and not Western enough. Mao was “Westernizing” China. Hong Kong and Taiwan became a popular destination for Taiji Chuan and Southern Fujian martial art clans.

    Communism is a Dark Enlightenment or Anti-Enlightenment philosophy produced by European intellectuals and exported to various countries. It was not produced by the East, originally.

    To confuse 4000 years of Chinese traditional history with the few decades of Western Communism imported from Russia, is ignoring certain realities. Realities that the enemies of Mao Ze Dong, the Great Father as the brainwashed Chinese nationalists consider him, know far better than you, DC.

    People outside the US often times tell me that Republicans and Democrats are so and so, because of what they learned on tv. They often confuse the actions of Leftist backed CIA operations or Leftist caused disasters like the Bay of Pigs or the Assassination of Diem, as being the fault of Republicans or US nationalists. To the rest of the world, everything that is Chinese looks monolithic, cut from the same cloth.

    But that’s the same thing as believing Hussein and everyone here is of one mind, one soul, One Monolith on using American power to dominate the world. Every American is the same as every other American, and every American tradition is attached to the same US government power and nationalism.

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