Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

bjsm.bmj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 556 posts

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#411

Post by weatherlite »

pjc50 wrote: post #376
weatherlite wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with people suggesting this. It should come from school counselors , college counselors, family doctors and therapists. The thing is all these people, statistically, are not exercising enough themselves so I find it hard to believe they will offer exercise as a first line.

It does. It's just that, as you've noticed, even those people giving the advice aren't exercising "enough" for you either because it's not as easy or rewarding as you think it is. Just saying "you should do more exercise" is completely useless because people tune it out like an advertising slogan they've heard 5,000 times before.

> because it's not as easy or rewarding as you think it is.

Neither is therapy or taking chemicals. Yet we whole heartedly push it on people. Is it easy to go to a complete stranger and start talking about your most intimate childhood issues? Sometimes for years on? That is if you're lucky enough to find a therapist you actually click with and who knows what he/she is doing which is far from guaranteed (and that is if you can even afford the whole thing). I don't think it is easy or rewarding at all, to me running sounds easier. But as a society we just became conditioned to operate in our current bizarre ways - it doesn't mean its easy or sensible it just is.

> Just saying "you should do more exercise" is completely useless

Since the vast majority don't see exercise as a viable mental health therapy (as far as I know) it is indeed a bit useless to say it. If it was taken more seriously by the mental health community and society in general - then people would take it more seriously. By taking it seriously I mean a whole societal change. I see no reason why exercise shouldn't be subsidized just like other therapies sometimes are. Yes you will get a subsidy for a personal trainer who will work with you because you need it for your mental health - why isn't this happening at all?

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#412

Post by herbstein »

lostlogin wrote: post #364
imtringued wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bicycle helmets are big. You can't just put them away in your bag when you're done with them. So you will have to carry the helmet alongside your bags etc.

Lock it up with the bike.

In Denmark, I don't even lock up my helmet. My bike, sure. But the helmet just casually hangs on the handlebars. I've never experienced, nor heard of, anyone losing their helmet when doing this.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#413

Post by vrc »

panick21_ wrote: post #410
bpizzi wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also value in spending some time in zone 5 [1]: this is where the heart is really trained as a muscle, and where the cardiovascular system is pushed to its limit (the famous vo2max: increasing vo2max is done in zone 5, for ex. with HIIT [2]). Zone 2 is all about giving the mitochondries a chance to get better at providing a steady energy flow over a long time, mainly by optimizing for burning fat as fuel inst…

Yes. That's why I march quickly with a heavy backpack. That should be zone 2. Then occupationally I try to do sprints uphill, walk down. Get ready for another uphill sprint. I have been lazy on that unfortunately. There is also a lot of evidence that sprinting is really good. I mean if you look at the bodies of Olympic sprinters vs Olympic runners, what do you want to develop?

Sprinters also lift a lot of weights. The extreme example is sprint cyclists, who are jokingly called weightlifters who happen to ride a bike [0]

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4xioza/track_cyclists...

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#414

Post by panick21_ »

squirrel6 wrote: post #216

I’m going to plug Peter Attia, MD again here. In his podcast with Mike Joyner, MD (an exercise physiologist of Mayo Clinic) there is fairly detailed discussion of the literature on this topic.

Yeah. I started walking with a backpack like he does. Its so much more enjoyable then jogging and I feel the impact on my whole body. Instead of slow jogging for Zone 2, rucking works well.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#415

Post by Eddy_Viscosity2 »

portaouflop wrote: post #288
Fricken wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise is a four letter word for many on HN. Content posted here touting the various benefits of exercise is always met with mental gymnastics from commenters who would rather do anything but go out and break a sweat.

I used to be like that- for some reason I started exercising this year and it completely changed my life. I feel better than ever and it’s not like I’m training a lot, a couple of times per week. If you’re on the fence and reading this definitely give it another shot

Second this, it doesn't just help your body. Your mental health will also see benefits.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#416

Post by weatherlite »

rincebrain wrote: post #350
weatherlite wrote: post #163

It's also absolutely amazing for mental health. It's a shame it isn't considered a first line of treatment for mental health because it's super effective (and free).

The problem is that, if you're in a position where you are having serious depression, for example, it doesn't really matter how objectively or subjectively helpful it is, you can't even bother getting motivated to do things you are certain you enjoy, let alone something unknown. This is the same problem with CPAP machines - they nominally have a huge efficacy rate, and a rock-bottom rate of people sticking to them, b…

Imagine that on top (or even instead) of the chemicals and therapy a personal trainer would make sure you go to meet him (or he comes to your apartment) and does a session with you. This can work even with a severely depressed person. We prescribe these methods for physical therapy, so why can't there be physical therapy for the mind? We might be able to lower obesity/morbidity/depression by so much if we operated this way.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#417

Post by 01100011 »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #359
01100011 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you carrying excess weight? I've been overweight most of my life. For a while in my 40s I hiked a lot and my BMI dropped into the normal range. When that happened, I became a runner. It felt amazing. I would run 5+ miles and felt like I could keep going forever. Once I put the weight back on(new relationship with someone who liked to eat), I couldn't run. It hurt and didn't feel good. I don't know what the curren…

Unless you have actual mechanical problems with your joints or you're, as you said, heavy or out of normal BMI, then running is actually healthy for your joints. One caveat is the surface you run on. Running on softer surfaces than asphalt can be easier on your legs and feet. Most injuries from running come from repetitive motion overuse and are muscular. People go out way too hard then discover that their muscles ar…

I said jogging was hard on your joints, not running. Two very different mechanics there.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#418

Post by BenFranklin100 »

llm_trw wrote: post #356
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is about how morbidity and mortality relate to cardiovascular fitness. The fact that waist to hip ratio also is related to morbidity and mortality is a bit irrelevant in that specific context. One can imagine a person who vigorously rows every morning for 45 minutes and has a high cardiovascular fitness, but who also has a very poor diet and is thus fat.

One can imagine many a thing which doesn't exist. One should stick to the facts however.

[flagged]

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#419

Post by grantmuller »

djtango wrote: post #332
bo1024 wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, most of experienced runners' running is at a conversational pace, often literally (this is why running groups are popular). To explain why harder isn't better: improvement in running comes only a little from muscular strength, so that mental model is bad. Improvement is primarily based on aerobic development of the cardiovascular system. This is your body's ability to burn mostly-fat with oxygen, deliver the ene…

Yes.... I have been exclusively an anaerobic athlete for the past two years and my aerobic fitness has dropped to a shockingly low level. But I am oddly comfortable at 180-190bpm I am slowly building in more aerobic cardio into my training but man cardio is just such a chore for me. It's always the first to go so it takes constant maintenance and it's time consuming...

I’ve seen this happen. We call it having great cardiovascular fitness but not so great metabolic fitness. One of the reasons that zone 2 or maintaining aerobic fitness seems to have such an impact on longevity is that it requires and reinforces metabolic fitness.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#420

Post by ddek »

pjc50 wrote: post #378
danielbln wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been streak running (so running at least a mile per day with no exceptions, mostly 5ks during the week, 10-20k on weekends) for almost 8 years (2817 days). The single best tip I give to everyone is "slow down! run slow!" Of course, almost no-one adheres to it unless they are already well practiced. It's just deeply ingrained in peoples heads that "only if it's hard or painful it must work". Then people check out…

> It's just deeply ingrained in peoples heads that "only if it's hard or painful it must work". Yes - this meme is extremely prevalent and extremely effective at putting people off exercise.

Should add that with serious running training it is hard and painful, but more on aggregate. Even when I'm just base building, and maybe doing 1 or 2 'kinda hard but not all out' sessions a week, the accumulated load feels hard.
Post reply on HN