The ideal amount of running for someone who wants to live a long and healthy life is less than most of us might expect, according to a new study, which also suggests that people can overdo strenuous exercise and potentially shorten their lives.
There is increasing consensus among physicians and exercise scientists that people should exercise intensely at least sometimes. Past studies have found, for instance, that walkers who move at a brisk pace tend to live longer than those who stroll, even if they cover about the same distance.
Similarly, a 2012 study of cyclists in Denmark concluded that those who regularly rode hard tended to live longer than those who rode gently, even if these easy riders put in more hours on the road each week.
But that result, while intriguing, felt unsatisfyingly vague to the Danish researchers. It did not delineate just how much intense exercise might be most protective against premature death. It also didn’t address whether there could be a ceiling to the benefits from vigorous exercise and, in terms of lifespan, whether someone might work out too much.
So for the new study, which was published this month in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers, most of them affiliated with the University of Copenhagen, turned to the enormous database about health habits among Danes known as the Copenhagen City Heart Study.
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