Doing this type of exercise, could be damaging your heart

shannashannabobana

Oh here I found an article that cites a NEJM study: http://www.livingfithealthyandhappy.com/2012/01/marathon-runners-can-die-from-heart-attacks.html
"It's interesting to note that most of the heart attack victims were on average 42 year old men"

The study forund that out of nearly 11 million marathoners, 42 had fatal heart attacks.

That is a rate of about .4 of 100,000

To put this in context the rate of you dying by being hit by lighteneing is .8 of 10000.

So the risk of dying from running a marathon is half that of dying from getting struck by lightning.

You also have a much greater chance of dying in a car accident while driving to the gym to do your tradmill HIIT session.

In the greater scheme of things this is not much to worry about.

Absolutely agree. Was going to pop on and say even if there is an increase in risk, it is pretty small, but got busy.

I understnad your point though I'm not sure you get to 50, even 30, miles a week without loving it.

Probably true, although I do think some people think if X is good, X+1billion is better. A physician on another site talks about 'minimum effective dose'. I think that is a good way to look at exercise for fitness alone (not just for joy). What is the minimum effective dose of cardio, weights, etc to reach your goals.

scott091501

People who do Ironman triathlons, marathons, etc don't do it for the health benefits for the most part. We do it because we enjoy the hell out of it. The health benefits are a nice side effect. If you told me I was going to lose 5 years off my life by doing multiple Ironman events every year I wouldn't really care. I participate in these events for the competition, the camaraderie, and a litany of other reasons. You don't spend 20 hours a week (on peak weeks) training because of health benefits.