People Are Running!

Statistics show that jogging is part of the daily routine of one third of the people in the Soviet Union. Twenty-five million in the United States, a recent estimate claims, are running. The running fever first struck in the 1960’s. What are the benefits? And the hazards?

“PHYSICALLY active rats live 25 percent longer than sedentary ones.” Experiments have already proved that, we are told. This has not yet been established in the case of humans, but the indications are that longevity is favorably affected by exercise.

One pathologist said that, on the basis of autopsies he has performed, two out of three deaths are premature and are related to loafer’s heart, smoker’s lung and drinker’s liver. The U.S. Administration on Aging said: “Disuse is the mortal enemy of the human body. We know today that how a person lives, not how long he lives, is responsible for many of the physical problems normally associated with advanced age.” Similarly one doctor observed: “Most of us don’t wear out. We rust out.”

Everyone believes in some kind of exercise, but many do not believe in sweating. Easy solutions, neatly packaged, 30 minutes of sweatless exercise a week, and a drinking man’s diet​—that is today’s something-for-nothing syndrome. The American Medical Association’s Committee on Exercise and Physical Fitness condemned effortless exercisers: “They do not provide any hidden benefits or values. Their most serious shortcoming is that most of them do little to improve the fitness of the heart and lungs, which are most in need of exercise today.” Strenuous, prolonged exercise is the need, the committee said.

Running makes you lose weight​—a plus for your heart. Not only does it burn up fats, it also curbs hunger. Low blood sugar is a stimulus to hunger, but exercise releases fats into the bloodstream for energy, so the blood-sugar level does not drop appreciably. Interestingly, a study with pigs confirmed this. Forty-five jogged on treadmills, another group loafed. Food was kept before both groups. The sedentary pigs ate more than the joggers, and at the end of the test the runners weighed 20 poundsa less than those that loafed.

It is a common belief that those who do heavy exercise, or work, need meat. It is energy that is needed for strenuous exercise, and it does not come from the consumption of meats. Mexico’s renowned Tarahumara Indians run 150-mileb races for fun, in mountainous terrain, and do it on practically no meat, milk or eggs. Their food is primarily beans, squash and corn. Not only do they have such amazing endurance, they also live, on the average, extremely longer lives. A well-planned vegetarian diet supplies the body’s needs.

Interestingly, a university professor found that over a four-year period medical claims for sedentary men averaged $400 (U.S.), but only $200 for regular exercisers. One life-insurance firm reduced premiums as much as 20 percent for those who did 20 minutes of exercise, three times weekly, that made their heart and lungs work hard.

Extravagant Claims

Dr. T. J. Bassler, a marathoning pathologist, contends: “It is biologically impossible for atherosclerosis to progress in anyone capable of even walking the 42-kilometer distance [the distance of the marathon].” He further said: “Until there is autopsy evidence of fatal atherosclerosis among marathon runners, it seems prudent to advise this lifestyle for the prevention of this disease.”

The New England Journal of Medicine did come back with autopsy evidence of the disease causing death to one runner, and other cases where autopsies showed advanced atherosclerosis. Several cases are also known where long-distance runners, including marathoners, have died of heart attacks. There is no dissent from the fact that exercise is valuable, but exercise programs must be tailored to the individual.

Dr. Chris Barnard, the heart-transplant surgeon, does some jogging. He is not enthused, however, about the craze it has become. Especially is he concerned about where so much of the running is done​—in cities. “A study presented in Cape Town some years ago,” he said, “found that city pigeons had seven times the amount of lead in their bones than that in their country cousins.” He added: “Every main road is a sewer of noxious gases from car exhausts.”

Marathoners by the Thousands!

Millions of runners are doing a few miles two or three times a week, but many thousands go beyond this and enter marathons​—a distance of 26 miles and 385 yards. This year, for example, 14,012 entered the New York marathon. Not all were able to finish, but 12,622 did. It was the first New York marathon for 4,000. Included in the total were hundreds of foreigners from 44 countries. About two million spectators lined the streets to cheer them on.

Alberto Salazar won, in 2 hours 9 minutes 41 seconds. The 74th finisher was Grete Waitz, the first woman finisher, who broke the world’s record for women​—the new record, 2 hours 25 minutes 41 seconds. The oldest finisher was 77 years old, the youngest 10. Runners from five years old to 84 have participated in marathons. Also, some in wheelchairs, some who are blind, and some with artificial legs.

Ancient Distance Runners

Twenty-five hundred years ago, we are told, the Greek courier Pheidippides ran 22 miles from the battle of Marathon to Athens to bring the news of a Greek victory over the Persians. Tradition says he gasped out the good news and dropped dead. It is his run that is now commemorated in the marathon race.

But Pheidippides was not the first to run such a distance. The prophet Elijah came closer to the marathon distance 400 years before the Greek courier. From Mt. Carmel, near the Mediterranean Sea, to Jezreel is about 25 miles, or 40 kilometers. Elijah did that run in the power of Jehovah: “And the very hand of Jehovah proved to be upon Elijah, so that he girded up his hips and went running ahead of Ahab [riding in a chariot] all the way to Jezreel.”​—1 Ki. 18:46.

Running is good. It has many benefits. There are also hazards. It is wisdom to exercise caution and practice moderation. And don’t make it a religion, as some have. The three articles that follow explain more fully.

[Footnotes]

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BEGINNING A RUNNING PROGRAM

If you are over 30, check with your doctor; if over 40, a treadmill test is advisable.

Start slowly, increase gradually, don’t strain. Don’t stubbornly hold to a schedule that is too hard. Modify it.

Don’t save money on shoes. Get good shoes that give enough toe room, have padded soles, and where the heel of the foot is held firmly.

Keep your toenails clipped. Toes push toward the front of the shoe, and nails that press on the end turn black and sore.

Do stretching exercises before and after running, not calisthenics.

Run in an easy and relaxed style, comfortable for you. Don’t land on the balls of your feet, but more flat-footed and roll forward.

Your pace should not leave you breathless, but able to talk as you jog. At first you may need to alternate walking with jogging.

Drink fluids before running, and during if distance is long. Dehydration is dangerous. If sweating is excessive, additional salt may be needed.

In the beginning some jog every day. Three days a week is preferred by many joggers for their regular training. Sufficient rest is essential.

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RUNNING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

Muscle soreness, muscle cramps, a pain in the side while running. To be expected by beginners. Uncomfortable, but temporary in nature.

Blisters are usually a temporary problem, but should be cared for.

Bone bruises​—inflammation of the heel from repeated pounding.

Inflammation of ligaments in the feet. Usually the symptom is a painful heel, and can lead to heel spurs​—a bony growth on the heel bone.

Achilles’ tendinitis, an inflammation of the sheath within which slides the big tendon that connects heel and calf muscle.

Shin splints, painful inflammation of shin muscles and tendons.

Small stress fractures in bones of feet and lower legs.

Excessive wear between kneecap and end of upper leg bone, the femur. Kneecap’s cartilage becomes worn, pain and swelling result.

Warning signs of exercising beyond your limits: chest pains during exercise, heart palpitations when you are idle, and unexplained dizziness. Stop exercising and see your doctor.

You Do Not Choose to Run?

Too strenuous? Too boring? No fun? Too time-consuming? No place to jog? Then choose some other aerobics

AEROBICS? None of the dedicated runners would have to ask what these are, but some others might. The Encyclopædia Britannica tells us:

“AEROBICS, system of physical conditioning developed to increase the efficiency of the body’s intake of oxygen. Typical aerobic exercises (e.g., walking, running, swimming, and cycling) stimulate heart and lung activity for a time period long enough to produce beneficial changes in the body (training effect). A point-system chart is used to demonstrate the amount of energy expended on an exercise.”​—1976 edition, volume 1, page 113 of the Micropædia.

Aerobic charts gauge an individual’s improvement, and they have been developed for different age groups and for various kinds of exercise. In the above definition the key phrase that makes exercise aerobic is “a time period long enough to produce beneficial changes in the body.” The heart must be made to beat fast enough, without letup, over a minimum period of time depending on age, or the beneficial changes will not occur. What these changes are is explained in the two-page article following this one.

How fast must the heart beat to make exercise qualify as aerobic? One suggested formula: Write down 220. Subtract your age. This number represents your estimated maximum heart rate per minute. Multiply this number by .7 and you will have the rate per minute your heart should beat for aerobic training.

Now about your objections to running. Too strenuous? Try WALKING. It may be the least strenuous and safest aerobic exercise for the greater number of people. It can be safely followed all the years of your life, into old age. Even those contemplating running may be wise to start with walking, then combining walking and running, and finally running. Remember, however, for the walking to be aerobic it must be brisk. A leisurely stroll, even normal walking speed, does not raise the heartbeat enough. In one test, men 40 to 57 years old walked at a fast pace for 40 minutes, four days a week, and showed improvement equal to that of men of the same age who jogged for 30 minutes three days a week. Walking takes more time, but it gets the same results and is safer for many people.

You have no place to jog, and it’s too time-consuming? Try ROPE-SKIPPING. It can be done indoors or out. Weather is no factor. It takes less time and gives comparable results. “For producing the greatest fitness in the least amount of time,” says Dr. Kaare Rodahl of the Institute of Work Physiology in Oslo, Norway, “nothing surpasses the simple jump rope.” At Arizona State University half of 92 unfit students were put on a 30-minutes-a-day jogging program, the other half were on a 10-minutes-a-day rope-skipping program. Later tests showed both groups almost identical in cardiovascular efficiency.

Running is too boring? Try BICYCLING. But exercise caution that cars don’t hit you, and that you don’t hit pedestrians. Pick out back roads if they are available, but don’t stop along the way to smell the roses. Keep a steady pace that will make your heart work at the necessary rate to make your training aerobic.

No fun? Try SWIMMING. You keep cool. The water is exhilarating. A rhythm is established as you plow through the water with steady, powerful strokes. It is an enjoyable exercise that works every muscle in the body, and if it is continuous throughout the training period the heart and the lungs are worked sufficiently to produce the benefits.

There are still other possibilities. Tennis is popular now. Fast singles are good​—playing doubles can give players too much rest. Basketball can be aerobic, if action is not interrupted by too many foul shots. Whatever form of exercise you choose, if it is to give the benefits of aerobics it must keep you moving, keep you huffing and puffing. Its demand on the heart and lungs must be heavy, sustained and over a minimum period of time.

And, of course, always within the safe limits of your own body’s capacities, as determined by a doctor’s examination. Now, please turn the page to see the benefits of aerobic exercise.

Is Running Your Heart’s Desire?

It seems so, for the heart thrives on it. Running is also desirable for other parts of your body

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR HEART

Makes it work less while doing more. With exercise the heart muscle’s fibers lengthen and strengthen, its chambers enlarge and as a result can pump more blood with each contraction. Before training, one stroke of the heart may pump less than half a cup; but after training, each beat may pump almost a whole cup. Because it pumps more with each beat, it beats slower and has more rest between contractions. From this training, over a period of time the heartbeats measured when you are at rest can show a decrease from 10 to 20 beats per minute. The small arteries that carry blood to the heart enlarge with training and are able to supply more oxygen-rich blood for the heart. Training also results in a gradual lowering of blood pressure.

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR LUNGS

Strenuous exercise causes the muscle fibers to demand lots of oxygen. They get it from the blood, which picks it up from the lungs. The lungs, with their hundreds of millions of moist, foamlike bubbles of tissue known as alveoli, are efficient suppliers of oxygen to the blood that streams by them. They are very adaptable, changing quickly in response to exercise. The lungs’ blood vessels dilate, increasing the area where oxygen passes into the bloodstream. The breathing muscles of the abdomen, diaphragm and thorax become stronger and more efficient. The amount of air the lungs of a trained runner can take in increases greatly​—the volume per minute perhaps tripling.

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR BLOOD

Aerobic exercise produces in greater quantities the enzyme fibrinolysin. It dissolves blood clots, and it is theorized that it may also dissolve long-standing clots in the coronary arteries that could cause heart attacks. In one test the clot-dissolving ability of blood nearly quadrupled in some persons engaged in a 10-week exercising program. Trained runners have higher levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) in their blood. HDL transports excess cholesterol from artery walls, reducing buildups of fats that might clog vessels and trigger heart attacks. In trained muscles adjacent arteries sprout new branches and capillaries become more dense, making more oxygen available to muscle fibers. Exercise also increases the number of red blood cells, the oxygen carriers.

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR NERVES

Nerves, even the tiny hairlike tendrils, become more efficient at transmitting electrochemical impulses, and thereby more effectively activate muscle fibers to increase endurance and ultimately strength. With training and use, reflexes replace voluntary actions and movement becomes more efficient. Unneeded muscles relax more and energy is conserved. Dr. Lucien Brouha, authority on the physiology of athletics, states: “The final result is that for a given performance a decrease in energy expenditure occurs which can reach one-quarter of the total energy needed before training.” Men are not mice, yet it is noteworthy that young mice that exercised developed larger motor neurons, a type of nerve cells, than those that didn’t.

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR MIND

Runners speak of the joys of running and “natural highs.” More specifically, a psychiatric hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, found that running made patients less anxious. Dr. Alan Clark of St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Atlanta, Georgia, says: “It is well known that exercise is the best tranquilizer. I refuse to medicate patients with simple neurotic anxiety until they give aerobic exercises an adequate trial.” An article in Medical World News was headlined: “Jogging May Keep Depressives Off Therapist’s Couch.” It reported two studies, from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Virginia, that confirmed this view. One study has shown that exercise stimulates production in the brain of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which relieves depression.

WHAT RUNNING DOES FOR YOUR MUSCLES

That muscles desire exercise should be apparent to everyone. Without it they waste away. The specifics of their functioning, however, are so amazing that they will be discussed in the following article.

Some muscles have a much finer control over tension than others. The fingers, for example, can close with an iron grip, or delicately handle thin-shelled eggs. Such muscles contain many fiber bundles, but each bundle with only a few fibers​—some no more than 10. Other large muscles, as some in the legs, are incapable of such finely graded movements. They have fewer fiber bundles, but many more fibers in each​—often more than 100.

Skeletal muscles have basically two kinds of fibers: dark ones for slower, steady use; white ones for quick bursts of action. (Called slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers.) Some muscles are almost entirely made up of slow fibers, but others have slow and fast intermingled. Persons who are unusually quick in their movements have more white or fast fibers than those persons whose movements are slower. Agile gymnasts, for example, need fast fibers for the dazzling and explosive gyrations with which they amaze us. Also, outstanding sprinters have more of these fast fibers than do the long-distance runners. Training makes a difference, but it cannot change the proportion of fast and slow fibers​—that’s hereditary, a gift.

Where the Energy Comes From

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the energy-rich source for muscle action. It is produced in the muscle fibers by small bodies called mitochondria and is formed in several ways. Fats in muscle tissue (adipose tissue) are broken down to become free fatty acids in the muscle and also in the blood. Eventually, in the muscle fibers they are oxidized to release energy to make ATP. Glucose from the blood is also oxidized in the muscle fibers to form ATP. Some glucose from the blood is stored in the muscles as carbohydrates, called glycogen. Then, as ATP is needed, this glycogen is broken down into glucose, which, without the use of oxygen, produces ATP.

These methods for making ATP are used simultaneously, but in varying degrees, according to the circumstances. The kind of exercise, its intensity, its duration, the physical fitness of the individual​—all are factors governing how much ATP each method will supply at given times. Relative to distance running, however, when the exercise has been intense for a long time, the mainstay for ATP production is glycogen.

Marathoners often do what is called carbohydrate-loading. A few days before a race they gorge on carbohydrates, and in so doing they can increase the amount of glycogen stored in their muscles by as much as 300 percent. A by-product of this use of glycogen, however, is lactic acid, and it is its accumulation in the muscles that causes fatigue, and eventually muscle soreness.

Worship Muscles, or Their Maker?

Muscles can do many things: Throw a ball and make it curve and drop and slide. Balance the body upright on one hand. Send the body gracefully flying, flipping, spinning through the air. Muscles of one arm can hoist weights of hundreds of pounds overhead. Muscles in legs can propel the body over a bar seven feet high, or over the ground nearly 30 feet, or race 100 yards in nearly nine seconds, or a mile in less than four minutes, or 26 miles in a little over two hours. Or they can keep running for 50 miles, or 100. Tarahumara Indians in Mexico run 200 miles. The dubious claim is made that the Mahetangs, Tibetan monks especially trained for “swiftness of foot,” run 300 miles in 30 hours while repeating their sacred mantras in time to their strides and breathing.

Muscles are awesome. But muscles are not gods. Some runners seem to think so​—a minority, doubtless. One likens running to the search for the Holy Grail. Another runner claims that “the quest of spirit through the body has just begun.” Dr. George Sheehan, called by many the high priest of running, said: “My danger is that I will fail to reach my limits and find God. But here my running helps.” A woman jogger likened her running experience to a conversion. The wife of a runner said: “Tom used to be a Methodist. Now he’s a runner.” In his book on running, Joel Henning said: “It is indeed a form of worship, an attempt to find God.” Bob Anderson, editor of On the Run, declared: “Someone once said, ‘For humanity to survive, it will have to invent a new religion.’ The religion has been invented. It is the religion of the runner.”

But wait a minute! Muscles can’t save. Only their Maker can. Muscles reflect Jehovah’s creative wisdom. See his genius in their agility, speed, strength, endurance. See it in the electrochemical complexities, millions of reactions in millions of fibers, every second of the day, monitored and synchronized without thought from us. Without thought from us as they go about their business of keeping us alive: lungs breathing, heart beating, blood circulating, organs digesting, glands secreting, electrical circuits racing​—and much, much more we’re never aware of.