Endurance training: is it bad for you?

Abstract

Educational aimsTo illustrate the characteristics of endurance exercise training and its positive effects on health.To provide an overview on the effects of endurance training on airway cells and bronchial reactivity.To summarise the current knowledge on respiratory health problems in elite athletes.Endurance exercise training exerts many positive effects on health, including improved metabol­ism, reduction of cardiovascular risk, and reduced all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Intense endurance exercise causes mild epithelial injury and inflammation in the airways, but does not appear to exert detrimental effects on respiratory health or bronchial reactivity in recreational/non-elite athletes. Conversely, elite athletes of both summer and winter sports show increased susceptibility to development of asthma, possibly related to environmental exposures to allergens or poor conditioning of inspired air, so that a distinct phenotype of “sports asthma” has been proposed to characterise such athletes, who more often practise aquatic and winter sports. Overall, endurance training is good for health but may become deleterious when performed at high intensity or volume.

Development of Novel Continuous and Interval Exercise Programs by Applying the FITT-VP Principle in Dogs

“…e FITT-VP principle is most commonly applied to continuous exercise and interval exercise programs [12], but the advantages and efficiency of these two exercise programs are controversial [13,14]. Traditionally, continuous exercise, characterized by repeated isotonic contraction of the large skeletal muscle groups, is the most common type of exercise known to improve body composition, physical capacity, and overall health [12,15]. On the other hand, interval exercise involves varying exercise intensities within a single exercise session.…”

“…erefore, we hypothesized that dogspecific exercise programs applying the human FITT-VP principle would overcome these limitations. To establish the dog-specific exercise programs, we created and evaluated the two most representative exercise programs used in humans: continuous exercise and interval exercise [12].…”

Individualization of Exertion While Monitoring Functional State During Exercising

“…If the person was physically active in the past, intensity can be increased to approximately 70-85% HR Reserve. If the HR is too high, the intensity of the exercise should be reduced for the reason that the endurance training is the most efficient in this target zone (Morici et al, 2016;Sebastian, Reeder, & Williams, 2015). Monitoring of heart rate (HR) during exercise is a valuable method for the feedback formation (Kiss et al, 2016;Mann, Lamberts, & Lambert, 2013) and many pulse monitors or feedback providing devices can be beneficial in this area (Argha, Su, Nguyen, & Celler, 2015).…”

Fighting Inactivity to Improve Health: A Short Commentary

“…For non-healthy people it may therefore be appropriate to consult a physician before starting heavy conditioning programs. It should be noted that extreme exercise programs may be associated with some negative health effects, such as increased risk of developing upper tract infections and asthma [25,26].…”