OF all the studies into the benefits of intense training, it is all too often those highlighting the ill effects that make the most headlines. This week, widespread publicity was devoted to one such a study in the journal Aging that showed medal-winning Olympians died some 4.5 years earlier than their less successful counterparts. However, less prominence was given to the fact that the findings were based on analysis of athletes competing in the 1896 and 1936 Olympics.
Advances in sports science have, in fact, resulted in today’s athletes living longer than sedentary counterparts. A report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found those who trained six times a week cut their risk of cardiovascular-related death in half. In the training versus sofa debate, there is only one winner.