Does becoming more fit make you healthier? Up to a certain point it does. Going from not exercising at all to become more active will improve your health. At what point does exercise make you less healthy? Once you cross the line where your body no longer can recover from your workouts is a great starting point. It doesn’t matter how hard you can push yourself it you don’t feel better after the fact.
Endurance Athletes:
Athletes can pay the cost of being fit with their health. There have been many world class athletes that have become so fit that it has cost them their health. Take Boston Marathon winner runner Alberto Salazar or Ironman World Champion Triathlete Greg Welch for examples. The average person would look at them and think they were the pictures of health. Both of them were world class endurance athletes that pushed themselves so hard so often that they developed heart problems. In 2007 Salazar had a heart attack. Welch who was called the world’s fittest athlete has had at least nine heart surgeries since 1999. There are many more examples of endurance athletes that have developed medical conditions in spite of their amazing conditioning. I used to want to be like them.
I have an addiction to long bike rides. In my earlier years I could push myself and recover quickly. Now that I am approaching fifty years of age, that is no longer the case. I know of many bicyclists that will continue to train through injuries hoping that the pain will go away. They won’t consider stopping their exercise program until they are forced to because of the injury. I know of many runners that feel the same way. They talk about running marathons with stress fractures. How can that be healthy?
On Sunday, November 13th my wife and I met a couple of friends for lunch at the St. Boniface Italian Fest. Every year there is a group of cyclist that ride over from St. Louis to eat there. As we were walking in I happened to see some of them walking back to their bikes. You could see the toll that all the cycling they have done has taken on their postures. Most of the older cyclists walk with rounded shoulders and lower backs. Their bodies have spent so much time adapting to the riding position that their road bikes require that it has effected how they move off their bikes. I spent a lot of time on exercises to counter what all my riding could do to my posture. Most cyclists will not. They will pay the cost of all that time spent on the bike.
Group Exercise Classes:
My biggest problem with group exercise classes is that the instructors don’t have the time to make sure that proper form is being used by the people in the classes. I still remember a woman that attended a noon class I use to teach while working at Wetterau Incorporated Employee Fitness Center. There would be from ten the fifteen members in the class. While performing leg lifts she would throw her leg in the air. I wanted to stop the class at teach her how to properly perform the exercise but couldn’t without disrupting the class.
Boot Camps:
Last March I attended a seminar about Baby Boomer fitness. One of the two hour sessions was on boot camps for Baby Boomers. IMO not enough time was spent on using proper techniques. Most of the trainers in attendance didn’t know how to perform a squat correctly. The person teaching the session didn’t try to correct the trainer’s techniques. I made sure the trainers near me learned how to improve how they squat. He didn’t like my comments, but IMO it is more important that people learn how to move correctly than the instructor be happy. He teaches many boot camps, and I can only imagine that he has the same approach at his facility.
This morning I found a new boot camp in my area. Their website has a video of the participants outside having a great time. They are performing some great exercises. They will get in great shape, but at what cost? While rowing their shoulders move forward at the end range of motion. This means that their shoulder blades don’t retract enough as their elbows are moving backwards. This can lead to shoulder impingement. While squatting they begin the movements with their knees. This can lead to patella problems. Squats should be more of hip dominant movement instead of a knee dominate movement. Performing movements incorrectly can cost you the health of your joints. Some of the postures used in the video can lead to back injuries.
I guarantee these boot camp instructors don’t have the time to teach proper techniques to the campers. They can’t stop the class so that poor techniques can be corrected. I hope they cover some basic techniques before the classes start. That doesn’t mean the participants will understand how to perform an exercise. No class will ever beat one-on-one instruction.
Do Boot Camp participants get in shape? You bet they do. That is one of the main reasons why these classes are so popular.
Some people will get away with using poor techniques in these boot camps, some will not. To paraphrase my mentor Vern Gambetta; do you get in shape because of what you do, or in spite of it?
Power Lifting:
Many power lifters are incredibly strong. In order to be great at power lifting you have to be able to keep certain joints stable under extreme loads. While this is great during a lift, it can cause problems when not lifting. They are willing to pay the price of losing some joint mobility in order to become a more successful power lifter. One example is from a teacher at my daughter’s school. Before I have ever talked to him I could tell he use to be a power lifter. When I introduced myself to him at a football game this fall, I asked him if he was a power lifter. How did I know? By the way he moved. He has very stiff hips and knees.
The moral of this story: Moderation and Balance are important to remain healthy.: Becoming fit can lead to health problems.
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1. What you do is not as important as how you do it.
2. Pay attention to how your body adapts to the demands that you put on it.
3. Don’t become fit at the expense of your health.
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