Don’t overdo the jogging

At last! As we sit here in our cosy rooms thinking that despite the freezing weather we really do need to get outside and do some exercise, there is some good news!

Too much jogging may be bad for us.

A recent study by researchers at the Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen has come up with the conclusion that too much jogging is as bad as not doing any running at all.

It seems that people who jog at a steady pace for less than two and a half hours a week are less likely to die that those who either run more than four hours a week or do no exercise at all.

The results were taken from more than 1,000 healthy joggers and non-joggers over a 12 year period, and from all the statistics the scientists worked out that people who jogged often, especially those who jogged more than three times a week and at a pace of 7mph or more, were as likely to die as those who did no exercise.

Full details of the research have been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which reports that the Danish team found that the ideal pace to jog was around 5mpg (8km/h) and it was best to jog for no more than three times a week for around just under an hour each time, or a total of 2.5 hours each week.

Interestingly one of the lead researchers at the hospital, Jacob Louis Marott, said that you don’t really have to do that much exercise to have a good impact on your health.

“No exercise recommendations across the globe mention an upper limit for safe exercise, but perhaps there is one,” he said.

A fellow researcher at the Frederiksberg Hospital, Peter Schnohr, MD, DMSc, agreed there may be an upper limit for exercising that is optimal for health benefits.

“If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy, jogging a few times a week at a moderate pace is a good strategy. Anything more in not just unnecessary, but it may be harmful,” he said.

But it is important not to forget that while long term strenuous endurance exercise may not be totally beneficial, certainly regular exercise is absolutely essential to ensure a healthy lifestyle.