
Can Extreme Exercise Hurt Your Heart? Swimming the Pacific to Find Out - juanplusjuan
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/01/464457884/can-extreme-exercise-hurt-your-heart-swim-the-pacific-to-find-out?sc=17&f=3
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xiaoma
I applaud both the athlete and the research so please forgive this ignorant
question. Even if he can handle the waves, isn't he at a huge risk of being
eaten by a shark or other predator as he does a 6 month swim across the
Pacific?

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lentil_soup
According to Wikipedia, during his Atlantic crossing "he was accompanied by a
40 ft. sailboat that had an electromagnetic field for 25 feet to ward off
sharks. He was followed by a great white shark for 5 days."

Any idea how that works?

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4714
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_shark_repellent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_shark_repellent)

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VeejayRampay
At the risk of sounding naive, isn't "dangerous for your health" implied by
"extreme"? The human body seems to be evolutionary geared towards moderate
intensity with regular frequency more than anything else.

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cityzen
That is exactly what they're trying to find out. From the article:

"My question has always been, how much exercise do you need to do to injure
the heart?" Levine says. "Since Ben was planning to swim across the Pacific
Ocean, we thought, hey, this might be a good opportunity."

It could go on to show that extreme (exercising at low intensity for 8 hours a
day for 5-6 months) isn't "dangerous for your health".

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rsync
"It could go on to show that extreme (exercising at low intensity for 8 hours
a day for 5-6 months)"

That doesn't sound extreme by any definition. It sounds really hard and is a
lot of output over time, but it is not at all what I would characterize as
"extreme".

If I were trying to discover what "extreme" exercise did to ones heart (or
body, whatever) I would simulate a life or death scare that would enlist
adrenaline and then present an insurmountable obstacle (basically a steep
hill, or staircase that doesn't end) and have them run to muscle failure.

 _That_ sounds like extreme physical output and that would be an interesting
scenario to test heart health in.d

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Jtsummers
8 hours of exercise each day is _an_ extreme. A sudden start (like you
describe) is also _an_ extreme. The latter is easy to measure and test in a
lab (sort of), the former isn't really. It'd be hard to find the funding to
pay people to perform that level of physical activity day after day (constant
motion, not the start on stop of most pro athlete training schedules), for
months at a time.

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PhilWright
Surely you can easily find people in poor agricultural countries that do
manual labour in fields for many hours everyday. How about women in paddy
fields, bent over tending the rice plants for several hours each day?

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lifeisstillgood
Does it count if he is using a snorkel? I know that's like the world's dumbest
question, but I am really tempted to use a snorkel at my local swimming pool
to help get exercise and avoid the whole not breathing for half the time
issue.

If he can, so can I :-)

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eric_h
You're doing it wrong if you're not breathing half the time. You just inhale
sharply and exhale slowly for a few strokes; it should be almost meditative.

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peteretep

        > how his heart holds up for eight hours of freestyle
        > every single day
    

I expect NPR to not confuse freestyle and front crawl :-/

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fearandclothing
Generally, at least in competitive swimming, "freestyle" is synonymous with
"front crawl." Technically, you can swim using any stroke you want during a
freestyle event, but hardly anybody does since the front crawl is both the
fastest and most efficient.

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claystu
I would go even further to say that after years of competitive swimming, I
literally never heard it called "front crawl" by anyone. Every coach, swimmer,
heat sheet, swimming record, etc...says freestyle.

NPR calling freestyle "front crawl" would be like referring to Tuberculosis
research as "the consumption."

