Unraveling the J Curve of Exercise and Heart Health

It's a heart-to-heart on Spotlight today, as Gareth and Ross kick off by discussing a Discourse question about whether running marathons is bad for your heart? Ross describes five cardiac "risks" that have been documented, giving context and a bit of reassurance in response to theory that excessive endurance training is damaging to heart tissue. We then talk about maximum heart rate, and why it's an imperfect anchor for training prescription and a poor comparison between people. We shift from heart to brain to briefly discuss whether coaches should be sanctioned when players tackle poorly in rugby, and end off with a brief look at two teen phenoms competing in Australia last week, wondering whether their trajectories are inviting unreasonable pressure at too young an age.

Discourse

As always, Spotlight is inspired by your engagement in our Discourse community, and you can become a member by visting the Patreon site, and pledging a small monthly amount that gets you access and an opportunity to engage with, and learn from, fellow listeners.

Show notes

• Ian's question about heart risk from marathon running, and some excellent Discourse replies - Members only
• The research paper on troponin elevation after marathons, which kicked off the Discourse discussion at the front of today's show
• Good insight and discussion on whether too much exercise is bad for you?
• Here's that article i mentioned where Tim Noakes punched some holes in the theory that marathon runners would be protected against coronary artery disease
• Ultimately, sudden cardiac death in marathon runners is rare. Here's a review that explores just how rare, and explains the risks
• A Discourse thread on max HR and why it's a limited anchor and set ceiling for training prescription and management
• Here's a paper that describes that sub-max HR test that can be used to identify training adaptation, overreaching and early signs of illness by looking at HR recovery after exercise
• Compound Score revisited and re-explained - following last week's Spotlight, Ross shared more thoughts to explain the Compound Score. Here's that article, available to all, but initially on Discourse
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