Fit Vs Healthy

kettlebell

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I saw on another thread the mention of Paul Jaminet and his heart rate of 50 and thought it worthy of discussion.

I know a lot of people who play sports, are in "Good shape" and have resting heart rates in the mid to low 40's (Two of them are gymnasts).

Those guys consider themselves fit and healthy. One of the reasons they consider themselves healthy is due to the low heart rate. This low heart rate is thanks to a stronger heart enabling more blood to be circulated per heart beat therefore fewer heart beats per minute (Or that's what I learned in biology at school).

This is where I struggle slightly.

What would happen if someone like that tried to achieve a heart rate of 75-80 while rested? Their heart would be circulating a lot more blood per minute than that of a life long sedentary person. Would that have any detrimental effect (Light headedness etc)

Many of the people with heart rates that low are likely hypothyroid BUT many of them may not be?

How do you measure fitness versus health? Especially in the context of the heart rate where cardiovascular fitness is measured by heart rate among other things
 

cliff

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Stroke volume only goes up 2x. If your HR goes down 2x(80->40) then you have effectively lost all benefits of stroke volume and you get just as much oxygen to your muscles as sedentary people. Because of EPOC(oxygen debt) more oxygen is needed for athletes even at rest.

In this study the older people had lower VO2 max because their max HR was lower than the younger people.(http://jap.physiology.org/content/51/3/634.short)
 
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kettlebell

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Thanks Cliff.

Interesting, and rings a bell.

So getting a stronger heart through exercise at some point as the heart rate goes down has diminishing returns.
 

nwo2012

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kettlebell said:
Thanks Cliff.

Interesting, and rings a bell.

So getting a stronger heart through exercise at some point as the heart rate goes down has diminishing returns.

I think also the stressful exercise affects their thyroid negatively and this also lowers the heart rate further. Also many, such as Ray Peat, do not believe it a health benefit to get extra oxygen.

RP
I’m not sure who introduced the term “aerobic” to describe the state of anaerobic metabolism that develops during stressful exercise, but it has had many harmful repercussions. In experiments, T3 production is stopped very quickly by even “sub-aerobic” exercise, probably becaue of the combination of a decrease of blood glucose and an increase in free fatty acids. In a healthy person, rest will tend to restore the normal level of T3, but there is evidence that even very good athletes remain in a hypothyroid state even at rest. A chronic increase of lactic acid and cortisol indicates that something is wrong. The “slender muscles” of endurance runners are signs of a catabolic state, that has been demonstrated even in the heart muscle. A slow heart beat very strongly suggests hypothyroidism. Hypothyroid people, who are likely to produce lactic acid even at rest, are especially susceptible to the harmful effects of “aerobic” exercise. The good effect some people feel from exercise is probably the result of raising the body temperature; a warm bath will do the same for people with low body temperature.
 
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kettlebell

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Thanks for the RP quote! Very interesting.

It has taken me a while to recondition myself in regards to this.

Healthy and fit are far from each other on a spectrum, that much is very clear and almost all athletes train a specific attribute at the expense of health although they mistakenly think the go hand in hand.

Expanding on this a little - What do you guys do, if anything at all to maintain an ability to run, sprint without getting out of breath too quickly? What exercise would you consider increases your ability to run, sprint for extended periods when necessary without being detrimental to your health?


I think this is important because thanks to either a meteor strike or the medical industry releasing a deadly genetically modified bug, a zombie apocalypse is probably just around the corner. Therefore I want to maintain my ability to be able to run away when they attack.

I was the worst kind of athlete in regards to damaging health - 400m runner. Plenty of extended 40-60 minute runs on some days and sprint training from anything between 200-500m on other days. Every session would end in an overload of lactic acid, nausea and in almost all cases I would throw up between sprint reps. I did that every week for years. And to top it off, that whole time I never ate much and when I did it was PUFA rich.

I could run fast and run a long way. I was very fit, not at all healthy.
 
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