How often and how hard do you run or jog? Perhaps you spend at least a few hours on the road. Feels really good, right? Well, not really. A study says that strenuous exercises such as hard running or jogging can do more harm to your body than good. In fact, it reduces your life span.
In a study conducted by Copenhagen researchers for the past 12 years, it's revealed that extreme joggers almost have the same life span as those who never jogged at all. For the study, they tapped into more than 1,000 healthy joggers and 400 healthy but sedentary people who didn't jog.
The researchers looked into the data of their jogging hours and frequency. They also asked their opinion on their pace perception, or whether they are light or hard joggers.
Perhaps you may think that these are people who are already predisposed to a certain illness that increases their risk of dying even when exposed to vigorous exercise. But those who participated in the study were actually young men and women who had a normal blood pressure and good body mass index. They also were the ones considered to be at lesser risk of developing diabetes, and they didn't smoke. In other words, they were of optimal health.
In the end of 12 years, about 128 people of the sedentary non-joggers died. Interestingly about 28 joggers also passed away.
But that's not the only critical information you can glean from the report. Light joggers have the tendency to outlive hard joggers. These are people who jog around three times a week for an hour to no more than 2.4 hours each time.
Their study is just one of the growing number of researchers that prove too much exercising can take a toll on your body. For running, for instance, the Danish researchers suggest only moderate or slow jogging and limiting it up to 3 times each week.
