‍Studies show that excessive running can cause strain on your heart, especially for older generations, and negate all the cardiovascular benefits.

Here are the highlights of the study:

• People who exercise regularly have markedly lower rates of disability and a mean life expectancy that is 7 years longer than that of their physically inactive contemporaries. However, a safe upper-dose limit potentially exists, beyond which the adverse effects of exercise may outweigh its benefits.

• Chronic intense and sustained exercise can cause patchy myocardial fibrosis, particularly in the atria, interventricular septum, and right ventricle, creating a substrate for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.

• Chronic excessive sustained exercise may also be associated with coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, and large-artery wall stiffening.

• Veteran endurance athletes in sports such as marathon or ultramarathon running or professional cycling have been noted to have a 5-fold increase in the prevalence of atrial fibrillation.

• Intense endurance exercise efforts often cause elevation in biomarkers of myocardial injury (troponin and B-type natriuretic peptide), which were correlated with transient reductions in right ventricular ejection fraction.

Now like all studies, you have to take the conclusion (and highlights) with a grain of salt and look at the other variables.  For instance the study primarily focuses on people who train very high volumes for very long distances, and that statistic alone takes most of us out of the risk category.  Unless you’re training for marathons, triathlons or some other endurance event on a consistent basis, I don’t think you have much to worry about.  Also, the study didn’t take into account other important variables like diet, rate of recovery (like how many hours of sleep do you get a night), lifestyle and work (other factors that can increase stress on your body) and so on.

That being said, the study does make an interesting point and it’s something you should take into consideration, if long distance running is predominantly your form of exercise.  And let’s keep in mind that your body has to absorb shock from your feet hitting the ground over and over again which can be very taxing on your joints… leaving you prone to overuse injuries.

So if excessive strain on your heart and joints is a concern, mixing up your fitness routine may be just what you need.

In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons why I started doing short but high intensity workouts to begin with. After years of high volume training, my body was completely broken down.  I pretty suffered from every possible repetitive injuries you can think of including…but not limited to…shoulder bursitis, elbow, knee and ankle tendonitis and plantar fasciitis.  Not to mention the beating my immune system took from over training and not recovering enough.  I can’t remember a time during the those years when I didn’t have a cold or some type of viral infection that I was trying to fight off, all while still training.  All of this pain and suffering in the pursuit of athletic excellence… which at the time was worth it.  BUT since I’ve gotten a little older, my goals have changed and health & longevity have now become my main focus.

So after I stopped competing, I decided I needed to change my fitness regimen in order to recover from my injuries and prevent further strain on my body.  And after some research, I decided to cut my training down to about 1/8 of what I used to do, from 20 - 30 hours week to 3 - 4 hours a week and shift my focus from quantity of work to quality of work.  That meant intensity over volume, so each workout session would only last 25 - 40 minutes in length but would be performed at a much higher intensity.

At the time it was an extreme adjustment, and I was very skeptical of the new training regimen.  It just seemed too short to do any good…but as my injuries started to dissipate and my energy levels started to increase, my skepticism slowly disappeared and I started to get encouraged.  Along with a big improvement in my general well being, I also noticed an improvement in my physique.  At the time I was training a lot, I wasn’t much into my looks… to me it was irrelevant as long as I was performing well.  However, I was admittedly very skinny with little to no muscle definition and even though I was putting in 20 - 30 hours of training in a week, I actually had a small (but relatively noticeable) amount of lower stomach fat in my lower abdominal region.  So it was a very pleasant surprise to see my physique improve.  I gradually put on lean muscle (gained 20 pounds over a course of 6 - 8 months) and the layer of fat around my lower stomach area completely disappeared!  To my amazement after 6 - 8 months of training 25 - 40 minutes a day, I actually had a six pack…first time in my life. That was almost 20 years ago.

I haven’t trained much more then 25 - 40 minutes a day 3 - 6 times a week since and I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life.  I don’t suffer from chronic overuse injuries anymore and I have more energy now than I did in my 20’s.  I still support a six pack, although as I get older it’s becoming less important to “look” a certain way. But nonetheless I’ve been able to keep a defined lean physique with little training.

Now, don’t get me wrong, if your goal is to achieve your maximum athletic potential, then you probably need to push your physical boundaries.  With that comes risk of injuries and even possible health risks, which is all part of pursuing athletic excellence.  I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that…I did it for 20 years and I don’t regret it all…as long as you know the risk to benefit ratio, so you can make your own decisions.  However, if you’re more inclined to maximize your health and get a lean fit body, you’re much better off keeping your training volume to a minimum, eat a healthy diet and balance your life with other enjoyable pursuits.

P.S.  Outside of changing my fitness regimen, I also drastically changed my diet.  I went from a typical high carb, low fat diet to a low carb diet while consuming adequate amounts of quality protein and fat.  And I think that had a huge impact on the improvement of my health and healing of my numerous injuries.  I especially started to pay attention to inflammatory foods and how I could best combat inflammation in my body.  And that’s when I discovered the importance of essential fatty acids, particularly the need to consume Omega-3 fatty acid, which is fights chronic inflammation in your body.  Since then I’ve been religious about taking my Omega-3 fatty acids supplement and it’s done wonders for my body.  If you’re suffering from nagging injuries, I highly recommend that you start introducing Omega-3 fatty acids into your diet.