Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality • Hacker News Board

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

#531

Post by SamPatt » Sat, May 04, 2024, 11:41 AM UTC

pepa65 wrote: post #530

SamPatt wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same with lifting and adding muscle mass. If you've never lifted before and you hit the gym consistently and have the proper diet, you will get some serious "newb gains." The first year can be amazing. But if you've lifted seriously for a decade, it's totally different. Muscle mass is very hard to add now. Cardio gains from a coach potato introducing a serious routine will be incredible. I went from not bein…

Why would you want to add muscle mass when you've lifted seriously for a decade?

Many bodybuilders are aiming to add as much muscle mass as their genetic potential allows, which can take more than a decade.

The point is about how the body adapts.

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

#532

Post by Fricken » Sat, May 04, 2024, 1:32 PM UTC

Aperocky wrote: post #476

K0nserv wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely went on this journey with my running. At first I would run very short distances at very high pace(zone 4/5), but I fell out of it. I picked up running again last year and ended up more in zone 3/4, but for the last six months I've been aiming for zone 2 in most of my runs. I've had some knee pain recently so I've not been running much, focusing instead on knee strengthening exercise. On my last run I dis…

Try cycling, it uses completely different set of leg muscles and its my goto when my knees start hurting. The two sports also complements each other very well since the muscle groups support each other and cardiovascular side of things are the same.

I mostly cycle. When I run it is usually on trails, and during winter. It is much easier on the knees than running on pavement.

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

#533

Post by Hayatabad » Sat, May 04, 2024, 1:34 PM UTC

nojvek wrote: post #496

Hayatabad wrote: post #466

unless you're sprinting, jogging and any form of slow running destroys the knees, loses muscles mass, enlarges the heart and provides no health value. Bunch of amateurs.

Source?

Doug McGuff, "Body by Science". Downvotes to my very helpful and lifesaving original comment is by losers who will run till they die.

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

#534

Post by jdechko » Sat, May 04, 2024, 4:29 PM UTC

Aperocky wrote: post #476

K0nserv wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely went on this journey with my running. At first I would run very short distances at very high pace(zone 4/5), but I fell out of it. I picked up running again last year and ended up more in zone 3/4, but for the last six months I've been aiming for zone 2 in most of my runs. I've had some knee pain recently so I've not been running much, focusing instead on knee strengthening exercise. On my last run I dis…

Try cycling, it uses completely different set of leg muscles and its my goto when my knees start hurting. The two sports also complements each other very well since the muscle groups support each other and cardiovascular side of things are the same.

Careful there. By combining running and cycling, you’re 2/3 of the way to triathlons. And why suck at 1 sport when you can suck at 3?

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

#535

Post by jdechko » Sat, May 04, 2024, 4:33 PM UTC

bpizzi wrote: post #353

keybored wrote: post #266

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…

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…

I’ve heard about 75-85/25-15, but just round it to 80/20.

Zone 3/Tempo sessions can help to raise speed so that Z2 is faster for the same intensity.

Obviously lower intensity workouts can go for longer and the high z5 stuff for fairly short intervals across short sessions.

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

#536

Post by SirMaster » Sat, May 04, 2024, 5:39 PM UTC

weatherlite wrote: post #525

SirMaster wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I've never felt any "noticeable" positive effect of exercise either. I didn't exercise basically at all for well over decade. But I felt fine, wasn't overweight or gaining weight or anything like that. But I decided that I should probably exercise, so have been for awhile now. Fortunately I have what appears to be a very high amount of self control so I'm able to just force myself to go exercise even though I ha…

Interesting. What kind of exercise do you do? and how do you define Zone 2 (there are many contradicting definitions out there)? I would try going a bit to zone 3/4 at times (of course while being careful not to injure yourself) not only to get the 'noticeable' positive effect, but also because it seems like you get bored/frustrated a lot in your workouts and it doesn't have to be that boring. Anyway keep at it, I ho…

Well aside from weight lifting I mostly use the stair machine because I feel that it best matches the activity that I do like to do sometimes (hiking).

I was defining zone 2 mainly by how it feels. Not too hard and where I can breathe fairly normally and easily have a conversation. But also by the heartrate being in the 65-75% range, so for age 36 I was keeping it around 125-130. My resting heart rate is 52 but not sure if that matters. It's always been that even when I was more than a decade of sedentary.

Another reason I was doing all zone 2 is because I thought that I had some sort of aerobic deficiency syndrome thing from being sedentary for so long. Basically my heart rate would shoot up into zone 3 with pretty minimal exercise, and I read that the only way to fix this was to do lots and lots of long zone 2 exercise for months.

I'm sure if I did more fun things it would be easier to be enthusiastic about it, but I am not even sure what active activity I would like. Sure I like hiking, but that's something I like to do on a trip somewhere exotic like a state or national park, not something I can easily do regularly locally.

My energy levels honestly feel somewhat more depleted when I am working out. Like I just want to take a nap after a workout and I feel like nodding off. Not like instantly, but maybe like an hour after or so.

I just haven't been able to understand or feel the connection people find with exercise. Like I said, I never felt any issue or lacking in my energy levels or mood, or sleep or focus when I was more or less completely sedentary, and I always watched what I ate so I was healthy in that regard (perfect scores on biometric blood tests), normal weight, etc.

So exercise just feels like a time waster, just an uncomfortable time sweating etc and overall possibly a little more tired and drained because of it.

My only motivation for keeping doing it is the prospect that it will help prevent some sort of future complications and health issues, and I guess that's good enough for me to convince myself to keep going.

Hating it is maybe too strong of a word, but I definitely don't look forward to it in any way and I just want to get it over with for the day so I can move onto something that I actually enjoy. It just feels like a chore. Something that we need to do to live a good life, so we do it.

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

#537

Post by saltcured » Sat, May 04, 2024, 7:39 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #460

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.

For HN's that want to get active, I cannot suggest getting a (higher tier) Garmin watch enough. I know you have the money so just drop the $800. It's stats on stats on stats and essentially creates a "character health" panel for your own body. Charts, metrics, real time tracking and exportable data. There are achievement badges and social connections if that's your thing too (good for you and your SO). For me, being…

Just saw this, but for others wanted to add that you don't need the $800 watch for access to most of the health and fitness metrics and supporting features.

Pretty much any of the more recent Forerunner series will do. The Forerunner 165 starts at $250 and the Forerunner 255 has been discounted to this level several times as well. They both have nearly all the available metrics and many sports modes, as well as triathlon modes most of us probably never need. They sync with the same (free) Garmin Connect smartphone app and cloud service.

So with any of these watches, you can sample the Garmin features. Upgrading to a more expensive watch later would mostly be for case material and size, aesthetics, or conspicuous consumption reasons.

The biggest functional difference between their lower price and expensive watches is that they limit on-watch mapping to only the expensive watches starting around $400-600 when on sale. The cheaper watches can only show a "breadcrumb" trail of your path in an ongoing activity, but no mapping of the surrounding terrain, roads, or landmarks.

There is also a funny distinction where their "outdoor" watches work a bit differently than their "health fitness" watches, developed in separate product divisions. But, these differences seem to be narrowing in recent years.

The other major feature tier is "music" which is a roughly $50-100 premium for the Forerunner 165 and 255 having non-music and music variants. This is where the watch can store and play music through bluetooth headphones, without a phone being present.

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

#538

Post by smileysteve » Sat, May 04, 2024, 11:38 PM UTC

sonofhans wrote: post #171

smileysteve wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's real data out there that while a helmet has better survival rates than not; but cars give more room to bicycles without helmets, so the incident rate is lower.

The only data I’ve seen on that is one guy who self-sampled and self-reported. I’d be happy to see more.

Appears he did self sample, but reporting was quantitative with a ultrasonic sensor.

In the UK.

https://drianwalker.com/overtaking/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-...

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

#539

Post by smileysteve » Sat, May 04, 2024, 11:40 PM UTC

jjtheblunt wrote: post #214

smileysteve wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's real data out there that while a helmet has better survival rates than not; but cars give more room to bicycles without helmets, so the incident rate is lower.

Where’s that data?

It's in the UK, using ultrasonic sensors. Dr. Ian Walker has provided follow-up as well

https://drianwalker.com/overtaking/

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

#540

Post by lostlogin » Sun, May 05, 2024, 12:45 AM UTC

headsupernova wrote: post #430

lostlogin wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like being able to extract the most value out of the lowest time investment Biking to work using Strava is like this for me. It gamifies exercise in a very addictive manner. Getting a PR, being quickest on a segment or becoming a local legend. There is always someone or something to beat.

Ha I had to stop tracking my bike commutes because I was going way too hard for Strava times on them. It got to the point where it was sorta dangerous... Love the app for my fun rides tho!

You sacrifice a segment then go like a mad thing for the one you need to win. And you curse if a dog walker gets in the way, sort of encouraging antisocial behaviour. But if you can get past that stage it’s pretty rewarding to ignore segments and go for longer records (eg 20km, 50km etc).