Are Endurance Sports Good For You?

[Abui]

Originally Posted by Nagaredama

Pulled from the NY Times. While I doubt anyone here has enough time on their hands to train like a professional anything. It does raise concerns over endurance sports. An activity many people believe the human body was never designed to do. I'm sure I'll be flamed to all hell for this post but thought everyone would benefit from reading it.

It is important to read the links in the post as well.

http://theclimb.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../index.html?hp

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/0...rcise_hea.html

http://v-tach.blogspot.com/

From v-tach:

But knowing what I know now I would certainly encourage everyone to STOP RIDING while sick or over-tired.

[chucky212]

This is a video from a 24 hour ski race. The guy who is featured the most in the video had kidney failure a few hours after the race. Pushing TOO far has its consequences.

24 hours of Sunlight Race

[allison]

Originally Posted by chucky212

This is a video from a 24 hour ski race. The guy who is featured the most in the video had kidney failure a few hours after the race. Pushing TOO far has its consequences.

24 hours of Sunlight Race

Similar to what happened to Craig Gordon after the 24Solo win he had over Eatough a few years ago.


I don't think any of us are gonna be doing that any time soon

Luke - take note

[Nagaredama]

Originally Posted by chucky212

This is a video from a 24 hour ski race. The guy who is featured the most in the video had kidney failure a few hours after the race. Pushing TOO far has its consequences.

24 hours of Sunlight Race

Could have died of Rhabdomyolysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

Originally Posted by DBD

That was a mis-type, I meant food saturated with fat.

Only carbohydrates initiate a insulin response which tells your body to add or release fat.

[Solo]

Getting back to the initial question, I think this is the basic principle of adaptation. There are many things that humans can do today that weren't possible even as recent as 100 years ago.

It's the natural response to changing stimuli (i.e. training, conditioning, learning, etc.).

No doubt genetics plays a large role and adaptation is a slow process that crosses several generations.

Probably not a good idea though for a mid lifer who has sat on the couch for most of their life eating ...KFC... to jump up and go run a marathon.

[Jslow]

Did anybody see the things on the news around 2 months ago about the 101? yr old guy that stopped to smoke and have a beer in the middle of his marathons?

Inspiring.

[Impy]

While it may be a concern that a few athletes may have some heightened cardiac risk, I think that overuse injuries, including worn out joints, blown vertebral discs, osteoporotic fractures etc, will be the cause of more significant debility in some athletes as our cohort ages.

No, I'm not advocating stopping exercise. Things just happen, to all of us, and you never know where the wheel of fortune will stop in the case of your health, although you can delay or avoid some things by healthy living.

By the way, rhabdomyolysis is no joke. I have seen many cases. One was a patient of mine who decided to go balls out in spin class after being essentially a coach potato & developed temporary renal failure.