Stupid Theories And Observations

Excuse me while I get on my soap box again.  I don't know about you, but I can only handle so much second hand "knowledge", wives tales, misinformation and outright fabrication.  Here are just a few that have got me going over the last couple of months.

"You're too thin," or, "My, but you've lost an awful lot of weight."

I've heard this one a few times in September from people that I hadn't seen in over a year.  It bothered me for a while, maybe I was "too thin".  I had lost a few pounds because of the long runs in my marathon preparation schedule, but I didn't feel thin at all. In fact I felt healthy and strong.

While attending a Beer Run, as the food and drink was rapidly disappearing it was said to me "Where else will you see so many thin people eating like this?"  And you know, they were right.

Just take a look around you.  In spite of what the media would have you believe with their anorexic child models, your average North American is overweight.

So the question still is, why would my "thinness" be a concern to them.

I have come to believe that our society is not used to seeing fit, healthy people in the flesh. Even as the media tries to drive us  toward an unattainable goal of unnatural thinness, the consumer society drives us to consume. "Normal" body shapes and sizes are not as common as TV and print would have us believe.

"Running will kill ya.  Look at that Jim Fixx, he died while running."

People use Jim Fixx as an example of someone dying while running. On July 21, 1984, in Greensboro, Vermont, he had a heart attack while jogging. He'd only gone a short distance from his motel when he had a massive coronary. His autopsy revealed that one of his coronary arteries was 99% clogged, another was 80% obstructed and a third was 70% blocked.

What most people either don't know or conveniently forget is that Fixx had had three other attacks in the weeks prior to his death and refused to see a doctor about the pains in his chest.

What the fools also don't say is that is that while Jim Fixx died at the premature age of 52 of a massive heart attack, his father passed away at the age of 43. In fact his whole family had a history of extreme premature deaths due to heart problems.

The very fact that Jim Fixx ran probably helped extended his life for those extra nine years.

But then most of the doomsayers don't think that this information is important, only that Mr. Fixx died at a relatively young age while running. They know that this example is proof positive that exercise is bad for you

"My grandpa didn't exercise, drank like a fish and was a three pack-a-day cigarette smoker and he lived until he was 93."

Those that don't want to acknowledge that they are living an unhealthy life style and or don't want to change always use this example.  It might be a valid example of genetics winning out over environmental factors, but like Jim Fixx, this is the exception to the rule. That's because both examples are on the far sides of the bell curve.

There will always be exceptions to the averages.  It's part of the fascination of statistics. There will always be examples of abnormal behavior. The abnormal helps define the normal, that's the way statistics work.  The normal examples are firmly in the middle of the curve.

Then why don't we hear about Joe Average that smoked, drank and didn't exercise that kicks off at the age of 55?  Because, it's not news, it's not different, it's not the exception.  It's the same reason that Jim Fixx is used an example, it's an entertaining, ironic exception rather than the rule.

However, I can just about guarantee that the athlete that drops dead in a race has had an over all better quality of life and that they probably would have died sooner if they lived a "normal" sedentary life style.

How do you measure the benefit of being active, healthy and vital, verses being sedentary, ill and lethargic. Just think of the amounts of drugs being used to keep our elderly "healthy" that could be eliminated if only they had lived a more healthy and active life. Not to mention the people that survive a stroke, heart attack or serious accident because of his or her fitness level.  Those people are merely exceptions on that bell curve of normality.

"I believe you only have so many heartbeats in a life time and I'm not going to waste any of them jogging."

That famous quote was made by Astronaut Neil Armstrong.  It's probably one of the stupidest phrases that you'll ever hear as justification for not exercising.

Let's test this statement and use some basic math to see if it makes any sense. I'll use the following assumptions:

  • The non-runner's heart rate averaged over 24 is about 80 bpm*. That is a total of 115,200 heartbeats a day.
  • The runner's heart rate averaged over 24 hours is approximately 60 bpm*.  That totals 86,400 heartbeats per day.
  • If you run for an average of forty minutes per day, raising your heart rate by 100 bpm, you will use an aerage of an extra 4,000 beats in each training session bringing your daily total to 90,400 beats.
  • That's 24,800 beats less per day that an average runner's heart uses.

So, by running, you are saving an average of 24,800 heartbeats per day by being more fit.

If the limited number of heartbeats statement is true then, there are some interesting extrapolations that can be made.  Let's take this theory one step further:

  • Let's assume that life span of the average male is about 70 years.
  • Also that the running lifestyle provides benefits from the age of 30 years.

So, given these parameters:

  • The number of heartbeats for an average male for 40 years is 1,681,920,000 total heartbeats.
  • The total for the runners heartbeats is 1,319,840,000 over 40 years.
  • That is a difference of 362,080,000 heartbeats for the runner over 40 years.

That works out to a possible life span increase of 4,005 days or about eleven years. WOW!

So much for that stupid theory.

By Mark G. Collis

* Note: For sake of arguement and to simplify the calculations, the average non-runner heart rate for 24 hours was placed 10 bpm higher than the average resting heart rate. According to Wikipedia, the average resting adult male heart rate is 70 bpm, so I think that I'm in the ball park on this one. It's probably higher, but this isn't a scientific study, just a thought experiment.

I'm also under estimating the seasoned athletes rest heart rate by only using 50 bpm. Quite a few runners and seasoned atheletes will be in the mid to low 40's, mine is about 42 bpm. If you take that into account, the difference is probably even larger.

Revised: February 4, 2008