♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the Internet ♪
- Hi, folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna talk about
things that happen to your body when you run too much.
Boy, what is this about, Brad?
- Well, Bob, this is something,
we're both runners.
- Right.
- I love running.
I've run one marathon.
I've run a number of half marathons.
I continue to love to run,
but I know two avid marathon runners
and I've known 'em for years.
They both have cardiac problems.
As a matter of fact, one--
- Okay, before we go any further--
- Oh, yeah.
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- There ya go, Bob.
- So we left it off, Brad,
you had two avid marathoners with cardiac symptoms.
- Yeah, people I've known for years.
- And what happened to them?
- Well, the one gentleman,
his goal is to run a marathon in every continent.
He's done many,
actually, his nickname is Boston Bobby.
He's done the Boston many years in a row.
- He's gonna be fine with you saying his name?
- He doesn't see his last name.
(Bob laughing)
Anyways, there could be a lot of those.
Anyways, long story short,
he's 65 now and he can't run anymore.
He run walks.
He's got atrial fib.
And I don't know all the details.
It's a heart problem, though.
- Sure.
- So he's had to change his lifestyle because of it.
But he's okay.
You know, he's adjusted and he's very happy--
- Brad, I think this is a good video
because I think a lot of people think,
this is how I feel a little bit,
gosh, running kinda solves everything.
So like, if I have a heart problem like atrial fibrillation,
if I run, it'll get better.
- Right.
- It's like, that's not necessarily true.
Running might actually exacerbate the heart problem.
- Right, but this is about distance running.
- No, no.
That's what I meant.
I mean, think I have a heart problem,
so the more I run, the better.
You know what I mean?
It's gonna make it better.
And that's not true.
- Not necessarily.
It could.
But you know,
just hold on because a second gentleman.
- Sure.
- All these people are just such fun people to be around.
He is 52 years old.
His and his wife goal was to run a marathon
in every state in United States.
And they did it.
50 states, 50 marathons.
Plus, they ran a bunch of other ones.
But at 52 years old,
this is extremely sad,
he was out for a run and he died.
- Wow.
- Cardiac problems.
But there's little more to it that helps explain that.
So overall, the good news is,
running, long distance running,
not a large percentage of 'em.
It's actually a small percent,
less than 5% do come up with cardiac issues
that can lead to problems and sometimes death.
- 5% is fairly significant, though--
- But it's less than 5%.
I don't have that number memorized.
So it's not very much.
However, if you have a history of cardiac problems,
then you better watch out if you're a distance runner
because that can come back.
And at the Mayo,
I've got some research from Mayo.
There is a ton of research on this specific topic.
- Well I wonder, Brad,
if you don't mind if I interrupt here--
- I do mind, but go ahead.
- I remember years ago,
and I don't remember his name,
but it was kind of one of the men
that founded the running...
You remember this?
- I remember reading about it because his name did come up
when I was doing research on this and I don't remember.
- He started the running craze, kind of.
And he ended up dying of a heart attack.
And everybody said, "See, you shouldn't run that much."
But he had cardiac problems.
- And if you're a marathon runner,
you're gonna just ignore this,
which is fine.
And if you wanna run a marathon and you're healthy,
go for it,
go for it, but--
- You're saying that the typical marathon runner
may ignore this because their personality type?
- Absolutely.
- So you shouldn't ignore this is what you're saying.
- Well, just keep it in mind that this--
- Keep it in mind, yeah.
- Just take this with a grain of salt,
listen to it and see what--
- But cardiac problems don't go away when you run.
- They may not.
They have a chance of making things worse
with distance running.
This is all I did research was distance running.
- Sure.
- So.
Example, Doctor,
if I pronounce this right,
McCullough,
Chief Cardiac Research at Baylor Institute,
avid marathon runner.
He ran 54 marathons.
And then as he's learning more about distance running,
he quit running distance.
And the quote.
He is "convinced of long runs,
"pounding the pavement," he mentioned,
"is not worth the risk to the heart."
- See, and I've read this, too, Brad
that, and for what it's worth,
is that marathons are really hard on your organs overall.
- Yeah.
- It's extreme stress on them.
- Right.
- You don't seem like you believe it.
- Well, no, I do.
But you know,
I woulda kept running more marathons,
but I had a joint problem with my knee
and then I went into other things and it probably was--
- The best thing ever--
- Well, I don't know about that
'cause we're gonna have distance runners saying pooh-pooh.
"These guys are full of crap."
Because that's their attitude.
That's how they live, you know.
And I can completely relate to that.
You know, if you know someone,
like, again,
just remember these are facts.
- Do you wanna tell some of the Mayo issues
that they came up with?
- Oh, right, yeah.
Before I was interrupted. (laughs)
Anyways, the actual problems that they found,
we got four of them here.
There was a couple more.
Patchy myocardial fibrosis.
I'm not sure what that is. - I'm not familiar with that.
I've never seen that.
- It's not good.
Coronary artery calcification.
- Sure.
- Which kinda surprised me.
Diastolic dysfunction and atrial fib.
- Right.
- These are the things that they watch
and they found that distance running
contributes to making these possibly worse.
- Now, atrial fibrillation is very common, Brad.
Very common,
so I think,
you know, if you're a long distance runner,
you've gotta make sure your heart is sound.
- Sure.
- And that you are--
- If you're having symptoms, you know,
get in and get it checked out.
The good news is,
like I said,
it's a small percentage...
- And it's much worse.
Mind if I jump in?
To be a couch potato.
- Right, exactly.
- I just still remember this,
but I think I told you about this before.
I saw a cartoon one time.
And there's two big, stout,
overweight guys and they were watching runners go by.
And the one says to the other,
"Those guys are gonna get heart attacks."
(both laughing)
I mean, it's much better to
- Run.
- Run, exercise, than to be--
- So as we continue our babbling on,
they're wondering what is a good guideline?
So there's actually some guidelines on distance running.
And I think as you age,
this is probably more important.
- Sure.
- I'm not sure about that.
That's my personal guess.
But according to the federal guidelines,
moderate running,
so not running real hard,
for 150 minutes per week is recommended.
So that's five days a week for 30 minutes a day,
which if you're a marathon runner,
you're not gonna be able to do it.
You definitely gotta run more than that.
Or if you have vigorous exercise,
recommend 75 minutes per week.
So maybe that gives you some guidelines.
And obviously that's gonna flex depending on your--
- You know, to be honest,
as you grow older in life,
you find out that moderation is everything.
You know, it's interesting.
I knew a really good runner, Brad.
I saw him,
this is a couple years back.
He's 63 years old at the time.
Always, I mean, he was a top-notch runner.
He was a college runner,
the whole bit.
And I could see he has some valgus.
So he's bow-legged.
- Bow-legged, yes.
- And he's like,
"You know,
"I know I'm gonna have to give up running at some point.
"I'm fine with it."
Because he bikes, too.
- Sure.
- "But I don't want to right now."
And I said, "Well, how much are you running a day?"
"Well, it's when I run,
"I can run like four or five miles fine,
"but when I run a hard seven miles,
"then I start to feel my knee."
And I go, "Stop doing seven miles hard."
I mean, you know,
- Listen to your body.
- Yeah, listen to your body.
I mean, you could probably run for maybe 10 more years
if you don't run seven miles hard,
just run, you know--
- But Bob, this is about heart.
- I know, but it still,
it fits the same thing.
It's going,
you know, going too far.
- Yeah.
- I mean, when you don't have to.
- Right.
So as far as the heart goes,
you know, listen to your heart.
If you got chest pains when you're running,
you've gotta get to the hospital.
You gotta get that checked out,
you know, right way.
But you know,
so.
- I'll tell another story, Brad.
This one fits, this one fits.
- Okay.
- I promise.
- You can tune out,
but this might be entertaining.
- I just turned 60 years old.
I have a neighbor who just happens to be,
like, within days of me.
He turned 60.
And I hadn't seen him running for quite a while.
And all of a sudden I saw him,
this was like last year,
I saw him and he's walking.
I'm going, "What's going on?"
And he goes, "I got a real kick in the teeth."
(Brad laughing)
He started having heart issues.
And he went in and he had to have a stent.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah, and he was like,
"Running was getting harder and harder."
- Oh, yeah.
- "I was breathing really hard."
And thin guy, looks healthy.
You know, the whole bit,
so it can happen,
you know, especially if you have the history of it.
- Right.
- You know, it's hard to beat genetics.
So.
- So, again,
stay active. - You didn't like my story?
- Stay active, but--
- I thought that was a good story.
- It was a good story, Bob.
But I feel like,
you know, we're promoting exercise
and we've got a video on (laughs) not to run.
- No, I think you gotta be,
you gotta always listen to your body.
- Be smart, yeah.
Train properly, train smart.
- So having said that,
do we dare say this?
We can fix just about anything
- Except for
- A broken heart.
But we're working on it.
We'll work on our stories, too.
(Brad laughing)
(upbeat music)