For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise • Hacker News Board

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#41

Post by xupybd » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 8:36 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #30

ren_engineer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is not a scientific argument, but if you build up conditioning safely, i think running should be excellent for you the problem is that running/jogging is usually the first thing people turn to for "getting in shape" and these people are often significantly overweight. Starting off with a high impact exercise is a recipe for disaster. Put on a 50-100lb weight vest and try running around and feel the impact on yo…

If you are 50lbs "overweight" your body has built the strength to carry that weight. Look at any champion powerlifter or "strongman" champion, they all look overweight. It's not all fat, it's the muscle to move that weight around as well. So it's not really the same as a normal-weight person putting on a weight vest. But long term overweight is hard on your joints, no disupting that.

As someone that is about 30kg overweight, no my body can't carry that weight for a run. I used to run 5km 3 times a week. That was about 15kg ago. It was okay but now my knees just can't take that punishment. My shoes can't handle it either at well over 120kg they get destroyed after a few runs.

I would consider myself above average in strength after spending most of my 20s lifting regularly but that doesn't counter the impact of being this fat. It is shocking the impact it has on your life.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#42

Post by DeltaCoast » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 9:09 PM UTC

Temporary_31337 wrote: post #8

This is music to my ears, as I've started re-emphasizing gym workouts over my cycling workouts. It's already widely known that aging and inactivity tend to reduce muscle mass (muscle atrophy) and longer aerobic/endurace exercices such as cycling or running will improve your stamina and will lower your body fat, but will not increase your muscle mass by much. I've gone this rabbit hole of doing bicycle training and ve…

For the past few months I've been doing cycling,10-15 minutes, on a stationary bike right before lifting for about 30-45 minutes. And then trying to squeeze a longer bike ride 30 minutes at the end of the week. I find cycling beforehand makes the overall workout more intense.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#43

Post by helph67 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

"Tryptophan is among the nine amino acids our body can't make and we must consume in foods like turkey and soybeans so we can perform essentials like making protein. The researchers also think the fuel sends signals to cells, ones that aging stem cells apparently don't get." https://scienmag.com/major-research-initiative-explores-how-...

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#44

Post by gamblor956 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

sonthonax wrote: post #14

I’ve always thought there’s something misguided about the legions of “want to get fit” types who self flagellate with long runs. Running is terrible exercise. Terrible because it’s extremely hard on the body unless you’re on the lower end of the BMI scale. If you do any sport with a high mobility requirement, you can feel how tight a single run makes you. The killer in old age is immobility, of your knees and hips. R…

Running is what made us human...

It defined a large part of our genetic makeup: our (relative) lack of body hair, the way we sweat, our bone structure, the function of our leg muscles in pumping blood back to the heart, a cardiovascular system with more endurance than any other land mammal.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#45

Post by Temporary_31337 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 9:48 PM UTC

ren_engineer wrote: post #20

feels like a correlation/causation thing once again. If you are in good enough health to lift weights at an older age by definition you are healthier because you aren't suffering from a debilitating illness. People who are dedicated enough to lift weights are also probably following a much better diet than the average person regardless it's good to see strength training getting some love instead of the cult of cardio…

it almost doesn't matter if the chicken or egg was first - if you're in the cohort that is exercising beyond cardio sports, your odds of being healthy/alive at any particular age actually go up with age.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#46

Post by michaelg7x » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 10:04 PM UTC

I listened to a FoundMyFitness [0, transcript] podcast [1, audio] on this subject and was struck by the simple anecdote of how when ageing we will eventually need to hurry out of the way of some approaching car — and struggle to do so, and thereafter perhaps stop going out, reinforcing our decline. Interesting episode. [0] https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/stuart-phillips [1] https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9wb2RjYXN0LmZvdW5...

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#47

Post by sn9 » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:41 PM UTC

jackschultz wrote: post #3

> Running, swimming, playing soccer and other aerobic exercise do a lot for the cardiovascular system — our heart and blood vessels — but they don’t do much for overall muscle mass or strength. Preface: like most people here, I'm not a doctor or physiological specialist. I am decently active, and what I've found from the papers and science that gets brought up, and from my own self experimentation, is that the majori…

You're on the right track but you can get more benefits out of doing work at a rate of 120-150 bpm and still be considered "low intensity" aerobic work.

You can even do this while incline walking at a moderate pace.

100 bpm is probably just barely an increase over your typical heart rate throughout the day.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#48

Post by swalling » Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

altdataseller wrote: post #19

sonthonax wrote: post #14

I’ve always thought there’s something misguided about the legions of “want to get fit” types who self flagellate with long runs. Running is terrible exercise. Terrible because it’s extremely hard on the body unless you’re on the lower end of the BMI scale. If you do any sport with a high mobility requirement, you can feel how tight a single run makes you. The killer in old age is immobility, of your knees and hips. R…

Is that the case for cycling too?

No, quite the opposite. Cycling is a very low impact activity, especially compared to running. Many runners get on a bike to develop or maintain aerobic fitness when they are healing from overuse injuries like stress fractures.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#49

Post by snordgren » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 1:11 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #30

ren_engineer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is not a scientific argument, but if you build up conditioning safely, i think running should be excellent for you the problem is that running/jogging is usually the first thing people turn to for "getting in shape" and these people are often significantly overweight. Starting off with a high impact exercise is a recipe for disaster. Put on a 50-100lb weight vest and try running around and feel the impact on yo…

If you are 50lbs "overweight" your body has built the strength to carry that weight. Look at any champion powerlifter or "strongman" champion, they all look overweight. It's not all fat, it's the muscle to move that weight around as well. So it's not really the same as a normal-weight person putting on a weight vest. But long term overweight is hard on your joints, no disupting that.

Your body builds the strength necessary to support your activity level. Unless you already have an active exercise regimen, an overweight person has generally only built the strength to support walking shorter distances. So the more overweight you are, the more careful you need to be when increasing distance while running.

Alternatives like cycling and swimming are better for the knees, especially for the old and overweight.

Re: For longevity, muscle strength may be as important as aerobic exercise

#50

Post by Daishiman » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:27 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #30

ren_engineer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is not a scientific argument, but if you build up conditioning safely, i think running should be excellent for you the problem is that running/jogging is usually the first thing people turn to for "getting in shape" and these people are often significantly overweight. Starting off with a high impact exercise is a recipe for disaster. Put on a 50-100lb weight vest and try running around and feel the impact on yo…

If you are 50lbs "overweight" your body has built the strength to carry that weight. Look at any champion powerlifter or "strongman" champion, they all look overweight. It's not all fat, it's the muscle to move that weight around as well. So it's not really the same as a normal-weight person putting on a weight vest. But long term overweight is hard on your joints, no disupting that.

But powerlifters still have terrible conditioning and those who do it competitively will tell you that they're uncomfortably overweight for a lot of their daily activities.