Pushing Your Body Aerobically Has Health Benefits, Finds Study

People who push themselves to do more and more aerobic exercises live longer, a new study has found. According to Science Alert, the research is based on the analysis of the data of professional athletes who follow a brutal routine - like running 10 hours a week for more than 120 kilometres. A team of researchers from Canada and Australia took public data of 200 people who used to run a mile under four minutes in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.  They found that these professional runners lived five years longer than the general population.

The findings are making news because they contradict the long-held belief that too much exercise has negative health effects in the long run. The new study claims that pushing the human body to max could actually be beneficial, at least for some people.

If people with sedentary lifestyle suddenly start strenuous exercises, such as participating in marathons, endurance cycling or triathlons, they are at a higher risk of health issues. But results are different in case of seasoned athletes, according to this new study.

The research has been published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

"Breaking the 4-minute mile was an extraordinary achievement 70 years ago and revealed just what the human body can achieve. It set off a wave of runners following in Sir Roger's mighty footsteps," Professor Mark Haykowsky, Research Chair in Aging and Quality of Life in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta in Canada, said about the research.

"Remarkably, we found that like Sir Roger, who lived to the ripe old age of 88, most of the first runners also lived well into their 70s, 80s, and a majority are alive and healthy today," he added while talking about Roger Bannister, a neurologist and middle-distance athlete.

Sir Roger's time of 3:59.40 only lasted for 46 days and was eclipsed by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj's unbroken 3:43.13 record, set in 1999 in Rome.