Well I've always known it. But now more than ever before is strength rearing its powerful head as the King of Fitness, the Sultan of Health, the Premier of Wellness.
But before I lay at your feet some stunning and compelling evidence, a story.
A client came in the other day and told me about a new study that indicated that runners live longer than non runners. This client is a super guy, a lawyer and a strong family man. We've had, how should I put it, 'strong conversations' in the past about cholesterol and statins. He is the kind of client you dream about because, well, he cares.
The study he mentioned was not really a study. It was a survey taken over 21 years which indicated that people who run live longer than people who don't. He took this to mean running will make you live longer. As a family man he of course wants to be around to see his great-great grandkids - as I do. But like so many people who mean well but don't think critically enough he was easily misled by the survey.
I explained that people who run generally speaking don't smoke, drink less and eat better. Runners are also performing hard muscular work - work which lowers blood sugar, increases strength (a little), aids digestion, lowers blood pressure and increases mitochondria. This all leads to a greater sense of well being and less stress.
But at the same time it pulverizes your orthopedic health. Smokers claim that smoking calms their nerves. Should we all start smoking?
He was unfazed. "Fred" he said to me with the voice of a man who desperately wanted to believe but simply could not "I know you are a strong proponent of strength training and I see what it has done for me. I feel better than I ever have, my health is better, I've lost a ton of fat and build a large amount of muscle but..." He paused. I interjected "But what?" "I just think running will make me even fitter."
It is quite frustrating at times when the depth of the myths runs so deep in a client that it touches upon the impenetrable. I do believe that if the Lord himself popped into the room at that moment and said "Dan, Fred's right. You don't need to run if you're strength training." he'd be on the treadmill in the morning.
Lacking God's word, we do have
Download muscular_strength_mortality_in_men.pdf
In this paper we see that men (and there is every reason to believe this would be the case with women) men who were strong live longer and have less cancer and heart disease than men who were weak. (Details in the paper.)
The categories used were obese, lean, weak, strong, fit, fit and strong, weak and unfit, etc. The people in the strong and fit group fared the best. Strong was next, fit and weak next, and weak and unfit dead last of course. Obesity did factor in as having an ill effect on any of the parameters. In short, the leaner the better for the most part.
Now some experts have used this study to proclaim the superiority of doing strength training and aerobic exercise. But hold on a sec. The study did NOT separate the men who exercised from those who did not. BIG problem. Here's why.
We all know some men who are naturally strong. You shake their hand and they inadvertently crush your hand bones. They don't know their own strength. My father was such a person. 5'10" 240 pounds. Fat yes but not that fat with huge, mitt-like hands and wrists. (Alas I take after my mom.) He once asked me to get him a beer and I did. I handed him a bottle of Heineken. He took it, never taking his eyes of the Yankee game, and twisted on the cap. He said "Man this cap is tough" and POP it came off a not a split second later.
Heineken bottles are not twist offs.
But he never exercised a day in his life. He was over fat, drank a bit, smoked, ate like crap and died of liver and pancreatic cancer when he was 59.
So it is possible to be strong and unfit. Had he adopted a strength training program he'd have become even stronger, leaner and fit. I have never, ever met a person who was lean, who strength trained regularly and was unfit. I say to you all here and now that this is virtually impossible. The only way this could be is if there is underlying disease that has gone unnoticed.
The fit and lean men did NOT fare as well as the lean and strong. Fitness, as tested on a treadmill VO2 test as they did in this study, generally requires some degree of exercise. It is a less natural state of affairs than strength. I am indeed speculating here somewhat. Still, those who were strong and unfit fared better than those who were simply fit. This does tell you something.
To my mind, this paper indicates that men who strength train and are strong will fare as well as those who combine strength and aerobics because we know from other studies that strength training improves virtually all of the cardiorespiratory paramteres as aerobic exercise. See
for the skinny on this issue.
Stay strong and prosper!
Enjoy.
Yes, but Bob Atkins died because he slipped on an icy sidewalk and suffered traumatic brain injury. He'd probably still be around now otherwise, shaking his head in wonder at how stubborn the low-fat myth really is...
Posted by: Dana | January 06, 2009 at 11:04 PM
If you think marathon running is healthy, check this out from Art Devany (www.arthurdevany.com)
It's a bit lengthy,but worth the read.
Top Ten Reasons Not to Run Marathons
October 13th, 2008
I was speaking with some of the participants in the St. George Marathon which was held here last week to start the Senior Games. Most of them had chronic or recent injuries from this latest event. There was a sense of pride among them as though they had done something to prove something about themselves. Perhaps, but there are other goals one could have that are more heathful and fulfilling. Not one of them looked really fit or healthy. Most said they had formerly been sedentary and wanted to get up and show they still had it. A few had been doing it for many years; they really looked bad, wrinkled and skinny with no muscle and poor posture. Only a few natural runners looked OK.
I told them of the risks versus benefits of marathoning and all were astonished and in total denial. I sent them to this site and told them to look for a reprise of this old post. So, here it is. Let the complaints begin as
With my apologies to David Letterman, here are the top ten reasons not to run marathons.
10. Marathon running damages the liver and gall bladder and alters biochemical markers adversely. HDL is lowered, LDL is increased, Red blood cell counts and white blood cell counts fall. The liver is damaged and gall bladder function is decreased. Testosterone decreases.
From Wu, Worl J Gastroenterol. 2004 Sep 15: 10 (18): 2711-4, “RESULTS: Total bilirubin (BIL-T), direct bilirubin (BIL-D), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) increased statistically significantly (P<0.05) the race. Significant declines (P<0.05) in red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb) and hematocrit (Hct) were detected two days and nine days d after the race. 2 d after the race, total protein (TP), concentration of albumin and globulin decreased significantly. While BIL, BIL-D and ALP recovered to their original levels. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) remained unchanged immediately after the race, but it was significantly decreased on the second and ninth days after the race. CONCLUSION: Ultra-marathon running is associated with a wide range of significant changes in hematological parameters, several of which are injury related. To provide appropriate health care and intervention, the man who receives athletes on high frequent training program high intensity training programs must monitor their liver and gallbladder function.”
9. Marathon running causes acute and severe muscle damage. Repetitive injury causes infiltration of collagen (connective tissue) into muscle fibers.
From Warhol et al Am J Pathol. 1985 Feb: 118 (2): 331-9, “Muscle from runners showed post-race ultrastructural changes of focal fiber injury and repair: intra- and extracellular edema with endothelial injury; myofibrillar lysis, dilation and disruption of the T-tubule system, and focal mitochondrial degeneration without inflammatory infiltrate (1-3 days). The mitochondrial and myofibrillar damage showed progressive repair by 3-4 weeks. Late biopsies showed central nuclei and satellite cells characteristic of the regenerative response (8-12 weeks). Muscle from veteran runners showed intercellular collagen deposition suggestive of a fibrotic response to repetitive injury. Control tissue from nonrunners showed none of these findings.”
8. Marathon running induces kidney disfunction (renal abnormalities).
From Neyiackas and Bauer, South Med J. 1981 Dec; 74 (12): 1457-60, “All postrace urinalyses were grossly abnormal…We conclude that renal function abnormalities occur in marathon runners and that the severity of the abnormality is temperature-dependent.”
7. Marathon running causes acute microthrombosis in the vascular system.
From Fagerhol et al Scan J Clin Invest. 2005; 65 (3): 211-20, “During the marathon, half-marathon, the 30-km run, the ranger-training course and the VO2max exercise, calprotectin levels increased 96.3-fold, 13.3-fold, 20.1-fold, 7.5-fold and 3.4-fold, respectively. These changes may reflect damage to the tissues or vascular endothelium, causing microthrombi with subsequent activation of neutrophils.”
6. Marathon running elevates markers of cancer. S100beta is one of these markers. Tumor necrosis factor, TNF-alpha, is another.
From Deichmann et al in Melanoma Res. 2001 June; 11 (3): 291-6. “In metastatic melanoma S100beta as well as melanoma inhibitory activity (MIA) are elevated in the serum in the majority of patients. Elevation has been found to correlate with shorter survival, and changes in these parameters in the serum during therapy were recently reported to predict therapeutic outcome in advanced disease.”
From Santos et al Life Sci. 2004 September: 75 (16): 1917:24, “After the test (a 30km run), athletes from the control group presented an increase in plasma CK (4.4-fold), LDH (43%), PGE2 6.6-fold) and TNF-alpha (2.34-fold) concentrations, indicating a high level of cell injury and inflammation.”
5. Marathon running damages your brain. The damage resembles acute brain trauma. Marathon runners have elevated S100beta, a marker of brain damage and blood brain barrier disfunction. There is S100beta again, a marker of cancer and of brain damage.
From Marchi, et al Restor Neurol Neurosci, 2003; 21 (3-4): 109-21, “S100beta in serum is an early marker of BBB openings that may precede neuronal damage and may influence therapeutic strategies. Secondary, massive elevations in S100beta are indicators of prior brain damage and bear clinical significance as predictors of poor outcome or diagnostic means to differentiate extensive damage from minor, transient impairment.”
Other studies indicate confusion in post-event marathon runners.
4. Marathons damage your heart. From Whyte, et al Med Sci Sports Ecerc, 2001 May, 33 (5) 850-1, “Echocardiographic studies report cardiac dysfunction following ultra-endurance exercise in trained individuals. Ironman and half-Ironman competition resulted in reversible abnormalities in resting left ventricular diastolic and systolic function. Results suggest that myocardial damage may be, in part, responsible for cardiac dysfunction, although the mechanisms responsible for this cardiac damage remain to be fully elucidated.”
3. Endurance athletes have more spine degeneration.
From Schmitt et al Int J Sports Med. 2005 Jul; 26 (6): 457-63, “The aim of this study was to assess bone mineral density (BMD) and degenerative changes in the lumbar spine in male former elite athletes participating in different track and field disciplines and to determine the influence of body composition and degenerative changes on BMD. One hundred and fifty-nine former male elite athletes (40 throwers, 97 jumpers, 22 endurance athletes) were studied. …Throwers had a higher body mass index than jumpers and endurance athletes. Throwers and jumpers had higher BMD (T-LWS) than endurance athletes. Bivariate analysis revealed a negative correlation of BMD (T-score) with age and a positive correlation with BMD and Kellgren score (p < 0.05). Even after multiple adjustment for confounders lumbar spine BMD is significantly higher in throwers, pole vaulters, and long- and triple jumpers than in marathon athletes.”
The number two reason not to run marathons,
2. At least four particiants of the Boston Marathon have died of brain cancer in the past 10 years. Purely anecdotal, but consistent with the elevated S100beta counts and TKN-alpha measures. Perhaps also connected to the microthrombi of the endothelium found in marathoners.
And now ladies and gentlemen the number one reason not to run marathons,
1. The first marathon runner, Phidippides, collapsed and died at the finish of his race. [ Jaworski, Curr Sports Med Rep. 1005 June; 4 (3), 137-43.]
Now there is a recommendation for a healthy activity. The original participant died in the event. But, this is not quite so unusual; many of the running and nutritional gurus of the past decade or two died rather young. Pritikin, Sheehy, Fixx, and Atkins, among many other originators of “healthy” practices died at comparatively young ages. Jack LaLanne, the only well-known guru to advocate body building, will outlive us all.
Posted by: Audley | November 03, 2008 at 09:04 AM