February 19, 2015 – Jogging or Running?

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:05 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead:  Is it dangerous to run? Elizabeth Tracey reports

People who jog moderately are better off in terms of longevity than those who are sedentary or those who run hard, a recent study concluded, to the surprise of many.  Michael Blaha, a preventive cardiology expert at Johns Hopkins, offers his view of the data.

Blaha: Even though there are some limitations to this research study and clearly, the set the bar for heavy exercisers quite low, there’s an important public health message here.  What is shows it that light joggers reap many of the benefits of exercise, and that we don’t need to be heavy endurance athletes.  What we’ve shown before in other research studies is there’s no upper limit of benefit with improving your physical fitness. And this is probably best achieved with a mixture of activity, not just running but walking, jogging, aerobic activities as well as weight training several days of the week.   :29

Those who were considered to be exercising hard were runners who ran faster than 7 mph for four or more hours per week, which most wouldn’t consider strenuous.  Blaha says this is the first study to make such an assertion, so confirmation is needed.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.