We Get It, We Love Running Too…….
The two of us have long flirted with the extremes of fitness. Maybe it was a longing to continually recreate our competitive youths, maybe a misplaced desire to prove something to ourselves and others, or just a very strange outlet for stress and self inflicted fun. Whatever the motivation was (or is), there is no denying that while we both accomplished some great things; all the extreme endurance endeavors we performed may have done us more long term harm then good.
Throughout the years, I was an accomplished runner with a career that culminated in qualifying for the esteemed Boston Marathon at 25 years old. Dr. Matt was a collegiate Rugby player who ran multiple marathons, ultra marathons, clean and jerked 330 pounds, squatted nearly 500 pounds, qualified for age group national championships in triathlon, and ran rim to rim to rim in the grand canyon in a single day. No small feats.
Let’s Face It, You Can Exercise Too Much….
Years of running extreme distances ultimately led to the demise of our previous endeavors. Dr. Matt has a couple abnormalities on his EKG that doctors have chalked up to “athlete’s heart” (nothing dangerous, just a common normal variant, but still not something you want to play around with). And I did untold damage to my metabolism by constantly going out and burning thousands of calories in a single run.
In recent years the two of us have taken a far different approach to training and life. We recognized (often times due to injury and sickness) that reaching for the extremes, especially in endurance events, isn’t the healthiest way to approach fitness. In fact, some studies have shown that intensive exercise programs that subject the user to more than 5-8 hours per week of higher intensity exercise can be just as dangerous to your health as no exercise at all.
Gone are the days of 6 day workout weeks, totaling 40-60 running miles per week. Instead we prefer focused strength training 2-4 days per week and gaining aerobic fitness through low to moderate intensity aerobic training, and walking 8,000-12,000 steps every day (no matter what).
Along the way in this journey we have written and spoken extensively about our approach (and frankly, it isn’t much different that what we have always tried to teach our patients to do). To date, our pleas have mostly fallen on deaf ears. When we try to tell folks to get out and go for walks 2-3 times per day, our patients who are less inclined to exercise won’t heed our advice at all, and our over-exerciser patients decide that running or booty boot camp class 2 times a day is more appropriate. Both of these are ill advised approaches.
Were Humans “Born to Run?” Or Were We Simply “Born to Walk?”
Enter the book, “Born To Walk,” by Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns. Sisson and Kearns are both in their older years now and were very accomplished marathon runners and triathletes during their athletic peaks. The book “Born To Walk” is a cautionary tale about the broken promises and hidden dangers of the reinvigorated running boom.
Throughout the nearly 300 pages, the authors break down why distance running is not appropriate for everyone, how too much cardio can actually harm your heart and metabolism, how super cushioned running shoes actually cause more injuries, and most important how to go about a healthy exercise routine that gets you the benefits of proper exercise while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive training. Like we have said for a long time, an intelligent approach to exercise begins simply by walking! After all, walking is what humans have been doing a lot of since the beginning of our species!
If this approach sounds familiar to you, it should! We have been trying to teach these very same topics for the past decade! Thankfully, this book came along and tells the tale in a fun, entertaining, and often blunt manner.
Check out the book “Born To Walk” and give it a read. You will be happy you did!
