Fitness and Exercise

I'd like to offer a different point of view regarding the importance of fitness and exercise.
As I discussed in an earlier post, good Health embodies aspects of physical, mental and social well-being.
Undoubtedly, it is very important to put in the right kind of fuel in the 'machine', however it is equally as important to take the 'machine' for a good spin every day to keep the motor in good shape [by the way I semi-apologize for the car-type references, I know a lot about them and I can relate to a lot of body processes as a result].
Of all the muscles in our body, there is one that really, really is important.  The motor.  You know which one I speak of:

Yes the heart. It is a lot of things, but first and foremost it is a muscle.  The cool part, I think, is that not only does it pump blood to the entire body, but it also pumps blood to itself.  Anyway as a muscle, it needs to be exercised and kept in tip-top shape.  Eat well, great.  Do what you like, awesome.  Reduce your stress, go for it.  Be a good, well-liked person, super.  All those are great, but your heart needs one more component to be happy, and that is exercise.  So let's talk about exercise, shall we?
Before I get into more specific details, I would like to back track a bit and put this line of thoughts into context.  As I started to make changes, I knew that exercising was going to have to play a big role, so I read up on it.  I really wasn't sure what I would like to do, so I started by swimming.  I was heavy, just quit smoking so I figured it was probably the best way to get moving without stressing my body or doing too much.  Right around the same time, I knew a couple of coworkers that ran marathons so it got me thinking about doing more than just swimming.  I wasn't a runner, as I was made to do it as a kid [thank you French education system], but I thought maybe when I got a little bit smaller I could give it a try.  Of course, if I was going to do that I might as well get on the bike too.  And so the challenge started to take shape: why not do all 3? And so I decided to read a little bit about triathlons, what the deal is, how to train, what to expect, those sorts of things.  I found one author particularly interesting, Brendan Brazier, a world-class Canadian triathlete and ultra marathoner [not to be confused with Brendan Fraser, also Canadian but not involved in endurance sports, that I know of anyway :)], who since his competitive days has [among other things] advocated for better health through better nutrition, particularly by ways of a vegan diet.  He also has a little something to say about training for endurance sports, specifically about the heart.  His point of view, albeit simplified a bit, is what I would like to share.
It really struck a chord in me and it goes something like this: Training too hard will degrade your performance.  Furthermore, the additional energy required to complete a task, when done improperly or too much, is very costly as it could be used on the back side to do it longer.
It is nothing more than a statement of the law of diminishing returns, that is at some point, whatever effort going into a task will no longer provide any benefit or even make it worse.  Mr. Brazier talks in length about the topic in his book and how he tailored his training to focus on quality and not quantity.  It is especially important for endurance sports, where energy management is paramount.  Here is how this thinking applies to the heart.
The average resting hear rate is about 72 bpm [beats per minute].  Below is a chart showing the spread based on age and fitness level [for men. women's looks just the same, just a few beats difference]:

Let's take 2 people in the 36-45 age group, one in the below average category with a resting rate of 78 and one in the excellent category with a resting rate of 60.  Here are my assumptions:                                          

- 8 hr sleep at resting rate
- 60 bpm individual exercises for 1 hr around 145 bpm average, rest of the time [15 hrs] spent at around mid to high 70s on average
- 78 bpm individual does not exercise, rest of time [16 hrs] spent at around mid to high 90s on average
- The difference between the 2 'rest of the time' rates is explained like this: the healthy heart will not beat as fast during the regular daily events compared to the less healthy heart. It may have a spike here and there, but it will recover faster and stay lower throughout the day.
Graphically, it looks something like this:

With a little arithmetic, it looks like this:
- 60 bpm individual: [60*60*8]+[145*60]+[78*60*15]= 107700 Beats per 24 Hrs
- 78 bpm individual: [78*60*8]+[98*60*16]= 131520 Beats per 24 Hrs
Let's think about this for a moment.
That's about 22% more heart beats for the below average individual.  For that 'cost', he has nothing to show for, day in and day out his health and fitness level will not change.  Not only that, but in 5 days his heart will have beaten twice the number of beats compared to the other individual. Twice.  5 days.
The other individual has worked out pretty hard each of those 5 days, he has something to show for: each day his health and fitness levels improve.  During the hour of hard work, he will gradually cover more ground, or go faster.  I'm not going to qualify those numbers any more.  For me, twice the beats in 5 days is enough to get my ass moving.  It may not be medically proven but in terms of energy used to do the same task [living our lives for 5 days], I'll take half the heart beats. There has to be a tally somewhere, and it seems to me it's one to keep low.
Now I realize that it isn't always feasible to workout 1 Hour each day.  That said, I bet 30 minutes can be done easily, and the result will be the same: a great improvement in heart and overall health.  And that's the point, a small payment for a large return.
Don't just take my word for it, check out the links, read up on the stuff.
Until next time,

Oliver P.