Endurance Exercise and Longevity – BionicOldGuy

I’ve talked in the past (here and here) about the concept of whether there is a point beyond which exercise becomes too much of a good thing. Since I’m always tempted to push the envelope on this, I decided to ask Google Gemini deep research to investigate it for me: Endurance Exercise Volume, Intensity and Human Longevity. It came up with this report, which is summarized in this podcast derived from the report. It is an interesting update. In the past some studies have seemed to show a “U-shaped curve” of longevity vs exercise volume: Exercise reduces all-cause mortality, with the benefit increasing with more exercise, up to a point. After that, mortality risk increases again. This is not born out in meta-analyses of the majority of studies, however. Instead, all-cause mortality continues to go down no matter how much you exercise. But beyond a certain point, we are at higher risk of developing certain cardiac abnormalities like Afib or scarring of the heart. This seems to be more likely for those doing a lot of high intensity training.

So if you’re like me and enjoy lots of endurance training, it’s a good idea to follow a system like polarized training where most of your training is at easy intensity, with a minority of workouts at higher intensity. Other recommendations are also given in the report like possibly undergoing cardiac screening to minimize the risk of cardiac abnormalities. Because I had a heart-valve replacement in the past I’m under the ongoing care of a cardiologist, and am glad to get periodically screened.