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- Extreme endurance cardio, such as marathon running, actually damages
your heart, and can negate the health benefits you’d otherwise reap
from a regular fitness program. Research has shown that once you reach
40-50 minutes of vigorous exercise per day, the benefits from your
efforts plateau, and further efforts do not convey further improvements
in life expectancy.
- Extended extreme cardio sets in motion inflammatory mechanisms that
damage your heart. So while your heart is indeed designed to work very
hard, and will be strengthened from doing so, it’s only designed to do
so intermittently, and for short periods—not for an hour or more at a
time.
- Veteran endurance athletes have a five-fold increased risk of atrial
fibrillation, a dangerous irregular heart rhythm. Worse yet, some
endurance athletes also present ventricular tachycardia, which can lead
to ventricular fibrillation—a leading cause of sudden cardiac death.
- To optimize the health benefits from running, you’ll want to run
5-20 miles per week—the ideal amount being 10-15 miles per week. Once
you reach 25 miles or more per week, the benefits actually disappear.
Running too fast (faster than 8 miles per hour) or more than five times
per week also negates the health benefits of running.
- The best survival rates among runners are in those who run at a slow
to average pace for a total of 1 to 2.5 hours per week, divided between
two to three runs per week.
For more information, check out:
Extreme Endurance Cardio May Do More Harm than Good
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