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

bjsm.bmj.com

441–450 of 556 posts

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

#441

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

[deleted]

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

#442
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why they can’t track cardio indoors. Perhaps because the watch doesn’t link up to most / any treadmills and is generally totally inaccurate with respect to distance and speed?

it's just the V02 max estimate which is only validated for those scenarios

That's correct, distance plays a role in the estimate somehow so they limit it to when they can verify via GPS. They don't seem confidant on their distance relative to running on a treadmill. I find my watch is pretty close to the treadmill readout most of the time except when I start getting tired and holding onto the handles, then it begins to diverge.

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

#443

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

I think conventional wisdom is "zone 2 for fitness / endurance, zone 3+ for performance." The interesting thing about this meta-analysis is it's discussing "baseline cardiorespiratory fitness" which - as I understand it - does correlate with vo2max.

As I understand it you can increase vo2max with exactly the type of training you are describing. Long efforts at zone2 can improve vo2 max, but the best improvements involve training at higher zones.

I certainly remember all the stories / headlines "walking is as good as running for cardiovascular health" etc which support the "just train zone 2" approach, but this study seems to me (a layperson) to contradict that.

Can anybody who is more versed in the research chime in? Does this study suggest that HIIT could reduce all cause mortality by improving vo2 max which improves baseline CRF (which is the value this the meta-analysis actually examined)?

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

#444
post #305
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither is public healthcare system but if a free helmet for everyone reduces healthcare costs globally, ultimately it’s other people paying less. (I guess it doesn’t work if you don’t have public healthcare)

Saying other things that aren't free doesn't make the first thing become free. People who don't use helmets don't do it because they are too expensive. They do it because it's not convenient to carry, because it's not cool, because it messes your hair, because you need somewhere to store it. (Not) Free helmets solve zero of these problems, it's just a bad idea.

I’m not the op of this proposal, I never said it was a good idea (neither that it’s bad, I just don’t know). I just said that IF it was a good idea, it would cost less overall.

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

#445

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

I watch TV-series on the treadmill. The fastest walking pace where I can still keep up with the story and keep the shaking low enough to have a steady picture.

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

#446

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

I've recently come to the same realization. I've always considered myself a more short-distance athlete, having been a sprinter and played more "burst" sports in high-school like football. My wife is a more long-distance runner. I've never understood why people like her were able to run for miles and miles without stopping. I could maybe keep up with her for the first mile, maybe 2, but then I was toast.

It's only recently when I learned about Zone 2 training that I came to understand that my training approach has always been backwards. I have always indexed my pace on what has always been a "respectable" mile time, on the assumption that if I run at that pace over and over, eventually I'll be able to go for longer at that pace. And that kind of is true, but not ever to the extent I can keep up with my wife.

Now, I am attempting to approach my running from a "time spent running > speed", and I'm finding that I indeed can run for 40+ minutes straight with no stopping, at a much lower pace than what I had been, and that it is much easier to make progress by running slowly for 40 minutes and gradually increase my pace over time than it is to run quickly for as long as I can and gradually increase the distance.

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

#447

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

[deleted]

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

#448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. VO2max is influenced mostly by muscle recruitment - different muscle group trained would be a hindrance if anything

"VO2max is influenced mostly by muscle recruitment" This is incorrect - the primary factor is heart and lung function. Yes, muscle training can play a factor, but is relatively minor compared to that.

Lung capacity is genetic and heart is only trainable up to a small limit bc there’s a layer of fascia around it preventing further expansion. That’s the “supply” side of vo2. The “demand” side is the recruitment and efficiencies you’ve developed which are exercise dependent. This is why you dont see a lot of cross training (except for recovery) and a lot of z4 work in the professional training programs

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

#449

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

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…

Generally it’s harmful to spread memes of movement being something to fear.

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

#450
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…

You’re right, but for someone who doesn’t like running and isn’t a runner, keeping it simple and saying run slow is more helpful.

For someone who doesn't like running and isn't a runner... I'd advise them to try a different exercise ;-)

Seriously, I have a friend who assumes that exercise == going to the gym... and she hates the gym. But she keeps trying to force that round peg into a square hole!

I've tried asking her, "well, do you like tennis? Dancing? Rock climbing?" But apparently those don't count.

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