Don’t take your health for granted, talk to your doctor;

Endurance activities like running, cycling and swimming are often cited as beneficial to fitness and health. Exercise is good for the brain, regular exercise improves performance on a variety of physical fitness skills, protects against aging and balance, and has become a general prescription for most of the population. I would not dispute any of the benefits of regular exercise for most people, but for elite and amateur athletes who push the limits of their physiology year after year, we should not take health for granted. When it comes to exercise, is it possible for regular training to become too much of a good thing?

Consider the story of Lennard Zinn, who is a lifelong cyclist, and who experienced atrial fibrillation after years of weekend century rides and training. Atrial fibrillation is a type of irregular heart beat, where the heart muscle which typical beats in the familiar “lub-dub” pattern, begins to quiver and shake instead. That quivering is ineffective at delivering blood to the body, and can result in very serious health problems, heart attacks or strokes. Any problem with the heart is a serious concern, and Zinn’s story is just an anecdote illustrating the complicated relationship between heart health and endurance training. I use the example of the heart simply because I think we all understand the gravity of heart health, however that is by no means the only thing which can derail your endurance

There are too few clear warnings to athletes in all the literature on training which has become available online. On posts moving forward, I will leave a link to this post. Make sure you have a relationship with a physician, and that you’ve talked to them about your health. 99% of the time, exercise is going to be a great thing for you with very little concern. But for that 1% of the time, you owe it to yourself to not take your health for granted. You are more than an athlete, you matter to the people around you. No one at ABC Endurance is a health care professional, and we expect that you will not take your health for granted. Talk to your doctor before you start any serious exercise routine.