The truth is that most people are not runners – and many engage in no form of exercise at all. The Huffington Post has an article about a recent study showing just how bad things have gotten.

For the study, scientists tracked the activity of 2,600 people for two years. They found that obese women average a mere 11 seconds a day of vigorous exercise (that’s about an hour a year), while men and women of normal weight exercised vigorously — engaging in fat-burning activities such as jogging or jumping rope — for fewer than two minutes daily, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The eleven seconds of exercise per day is appalling, but even more striking is the two minutes of daily exercise for people of “normal weight.” The article details the health costs resulting from the lack of exercise, which reach into the hundreds of billions each year.

Everyone would like a solution to getting more people to exercise, but imparting motivation to others is not easy. One option is to gently encourage people to go for an easy run with you or participate in slow paced fun runs with them.

Your reaching out could be the spark they need to begin a life of exercise and health.

[Huffington Post]

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The New York Times has an interesting article today on just how important exercise, such as running, is to reducing the negative effects of aging. The article highlighted a number of studies that have found exercise to be an important part of successful aging.

In one large-scale study published last fall that looked at more than 12,000 Australian men aged between 65 and 83, those who engaged in about 30 minutes of exercise five or so times per week were much healthier and less likely to be dead 11 years after the start of the study than those who were sedentary, even when the researchers adjusted for smoking habits, education, body mass index and other variables.

Although you may not have reached senior citizen status yet, get into the habit of prioritizing exercise now. Your efforts will provide you with the physical foundation needed to continue exercising far into the future.

[New York Times]

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One part of the article talks about a college professor who assigns the “happiness project” to students. 

Professor Betsy Allen-Pennebaker, who in addition to teaching Bodies instructs the first-year Core course Concepts of the Self (COR-110), said she assigns students a “happiness project” each semester to commit to one lifestyle change for a month that they believe will increase their individual happiness.
Most students choose one of two things: get more sleep or get more exercise. At the end of the month, students report on the experience from a psychological and neurological perspective. “All students report significant increase in how happy they are, but additionally how much energy they have, as well as their increased concentration and decreased fatigue in classes,” said Allen-Pennebaker.

Committing to one lifestyle change per month is a really neat idea. Instead of trying to change everything at once (which usually results in failure), choose only one thing you want to change.

One month might be increasing your weekly running mileage. The next month might be getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep per night. The focus in the third month might be to cut down on desserts after dinner. 

After a few months, the happiness project will enable you to make significant lifestyle changes that can last.

[Huffington Post]

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Just as running trains leg muscles to propel runners faster, running also trains the heart muscle, also known as the cardiac muscle, to pump blood with less effort. In order for the body run fast, the heart muscle must be able to pump oxygen-rich blood to the body’s muscles. Without an adequate supply of oxygenated blood, muscles such as the quadriceps and hamstrings will simply not have the fuel to propel the body at a fast pace. Therefore, with each training run, a runner trains the heat muscle to pump blood more efficiently.

The benefits of a stronger cardiac muscle include a lower resting heart rate because a stronger heart is able to pump a greater volume of blood per beat. Running also will assist in lower blood pressure by helping to keeping the arteries of the heart elastic. A lower heart rate and lower blood pressure are absolutely critical in keeping the heart healthy and preventing heart disease – a disease that is responsible for one out of four deaths in the U.S. per year.

While runners should take great pride in the effects that running has on strengthening their visible muscles, it is important to remember the tremendous effects that running has on an unseen muscle – the heart.

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A reader asks:

Can you explain why, in many big marathons, there is at least one runner who suffers a heart attack? I thought that running is supposed to be good for your heart.

I always feel awful when I read those news stories. Perhaps the greatest shock for me was when Ryan Shay, an extremely talented elite runner, collapsed and died during the Olympic Trials Marathon due to a heart condition.

However, keep in mind is that heart attacks during races are extraordinarily rare and that running has been shown to decrease the risk of having a heart attack. With that said, who is at risk for a marathon heart attack?

A recent article in the Arizona Republic lists three main reasons for the apparant rise of heart problems during races, including: 1) the number of participants marathons events has skyrocketed, which increases the risk that someone will have a heart issue, 2) the relative fitness of participants isn’t as good as it was years ago when almost all marathoners were experienced runners, and 3) there are more older runners participating in marathons.

I also add that some people simply have bad genetics. For example, Jim Fixx was one of the most popular authors of running books when he died of a heart attack during a marathon in 1984. Even though he ran lots of miles, Jim had multivessel coronary disease. This disease was caused by genes he had inherited from his parents, and, no matter how many miles he ran, nothing short of surgery was going to save him from a heart attack.

In closing, here are my thoughts about this issue: 1) If you train properly for a marathon you almost certainly have nothing to worry about, 2) If you have chest pains or other signs of heart trouble see a doctor and get cleared before you run a marathon.

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