A recent study has shown that while jogging at a steady pace has proven to be a healthy way to do cardio, running for long distances may not be as helpful as people think.
Researchers concluded that people who ran faster than 11 kilometres per hour for more than four hours a week had no difference in their mortality rates than sedentary people.
A team from Denmark followed over 5000 people taking part in a Copenhagen City Heart Study, and tracked whether they were non-joggers, or joggers who kept a slow, moderate, or strenuous pace. At the end of the 12-year study, 28 out of 1098 of the joggers and 128 out 3950 of the non-joggers died.
Researchers also found that jogging at a slower pace and less time a week would vastly decrease a person’s mortality rate.
The optimal amount of exercise was 1 to 1.4 hours per week at about 8 kilometres per hour.
However, a further study found problems with the numbers in this theory.
Critics of the study point out:
- the study only looked at white people between the ages of 20 and 93
- it did not take into account other forms of exercise
- it also relied on participants to self-report
- only 127 strenuous joggers in the study may not have provided a large enough sample size to accurately determine mortality risk.
What research does agree upon is that even small amounts of exercise can have health benefits.
Here are some opinions from Sheridan students.
Looking at Twitter feeds as well to get the inside scoop on the general public’s opinion of the study.
