I am also 53 and just the opposite. I don't enjoy lifting and would rather do the stuff the other forum talks about. I do lift in order to keep things in place but other than that, I have no desire to go into a gym and lift weights.

And as with you, no science involved at all.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

I'm waiting for the results of Trump's physical today before deciding if exercise and a "healthy" diet are good or bad. It's hard to predict.

Great summary!

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

do you have a permanent tan? If the answer is no, you are a loser in the super gene lottery. Nothing in the physical will apply to you.

Good points.

Another element they didn't control for is personality type. I speculate that many of the high volume, high intensity types are Type A. So, if there is an association between cardiac damage and high training volume, it could be due to self-selection.

Yes, that was my thought as well. It's not the strenuous exercise per se but the type of people who do strenuous exercise. That being said, there does seem to be a good bit of evidence to at least suspect that you can overdo it terms of aerobic exercise and CVD.

When i was a personal trainer I used to joke with my clients that everything I say now somebody will prove or "prove' me totally wrong few years down the road. Just do what feels right for you. Feel like running half an hour? just do it (Nike :-) ). Feel like riding your bike for 30, 40 km? If it feels good and you enjoy it, go ahead. Go as hard as you feel like and enjoy going. There is no such thing as "too much according to X" as we are all different. Bad for old people? What is old, according to whom? My dad is 88 and he walks up hill, chops wood and drags it down the hill. Many much younger people would die doing that, but then again, depends how fit they are. Dad gets some exercise, he enjoys the fresh air but I would definitely not recommend to him to swim as an exercise, even as he was an Olympic level swimmer in the '60s. But some 80 yrs old people do swim. Just do what feels good, push as hard as you enjoy and rest as much as you feel like.

I think if someone is doing cardio only for health reasons, it is the wrong reason.

I ride my bike because I love it. The health benefits are a positive side effect.

I also like to drink liquor, eat a Doritos with melted cheddar cheese, eat ice cream. Love my steaks and all vegetarians will tell me to stay way from the red meat.

I dunno- I’m just living life.

So this is a great question and there is a great book called the haywire heart written by an EP (heart doctor specializing in rhythms) and cyclist...he covers all the different things endurance training does and spends A LOT of time discussing aging and how to balance it all... I highly recommend it...a lot of cardios don't know what to look for in an endurance athlete...so bottom line is it depends...if you were a 8 times a year ironman redlining for 12 hours each time and all the training that comes with that you need more testing to make sure you dont have scarring and arrhythmia's...if you are like me and raced fairly competitively younger (20s) at halfs and then took a break and then came back to the sport doing sprints at 45 because you have two kids, work etc and no time to do more then you are very likely healthy and fine...in full disclosure the book scared me so I went and got worked up which is great because it turns out I have early plaques due to genetics (would be much worse without the exercise) and was put on a statin to control it...my numbers were not alarming and only the testing showed it...so read the book and go get tested...but in summation the human heart is an amazing thing. Amazing...

I'm 62 and have trained for 1 or more IM triathlons a year for the last 20 years. I had cancer and can say without a doubt if I hadn't been in IM shape I would not have survived the treatment. I am back to training 7 days a week, a lot of 2 a days. Swim, bike run. I think its like anything else in life. There are things you can do to minimize your chances of dying but it's pretty much a crap shoot.

 
Attached :

1) a very interesting swedish study : age-based mental disabilities hit sooner and 10x times more peoples with low cardio capacity than peoples caring about their cardio
2) extract from a study related to VO2 and aging : too big, I just uploaded one chart (VO2 curve for male). Similar curve for females, and coherent with above study : dementia hit also around dependance line. The fitter you are, the later you hit it.

In short :
VO2 lower with age (at same "relative activity level")
When it goes as low as 15 or 20 ml/mn/kg, it is difficult to move, and your brain does not get enough oxygen to keep alive you little grey cells

Cardio training, whatever it is, will help keep you VO2 higher, avoiding the danger zone.

I see that every day, 70 years old peoples not doing sport, and barely capable of walking and thinking, and some others doing sport with full physical and mental capabilities.

Better do jogging or biking or walking than sudoku or TV. Even if you do not like it at first (not the case on ST i guess :-) it will come.

In France, many MDs are also understanding that this cardio issues begin now more and more with kids not doing enough exercise at 15 years old (too much video games, Netflix, ...). Their VO2 is dangerously low compared to 10 or 20 years ago averages. France is/was at the low low end from 2015 and more recent OCDE studies for kid physical activities.