Endurance Training Damages Health

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Extreme endurance training is bad for your health. Heart muscle scarring.

Weakened hearts. Calcified arteries and acute muscle loss.

These are just some of the outcomes of an emerging body of research according to a new report in Fox News. 

Evidence has mounted over the last few years that extreme endurance training, like Marathons and triathlons, actually damages your health. 

In a study by the American College of Cardiology, marathon runners were shown to have more calcified plaque in the arteries when compared to other forms of exercise.  The study concluded that damaged heart muscle from this kind of training tends to inflame the arteries and promote plaque. 

Another recent study in 2010 from the European Heart Journal demonstrated that endurance athletes tend to have diminished heart function and increased blood markers for heart injury. 

A 2011 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed significant muscle scarring in extreme endurance athletes.

Rule of thumb: Dial back the miles. The extra volume of training does more harm than good long term.