A while ago I wrote in one of my Puzzles & Paradoxes questioning the popular
interpretation of the renowned longshoreman study by Dr Ralph Paffenbarger. He
studied a large group of over 6300 longshoremen and produced data which seemed
to indicate that their vigorous work protected them from cardiac disease. 

THE AEROBIC RELIGION

I pointed out that the work of longshoremen (dockworkers) involves heavy
lifting, carrying, hauling, pushing and pulling, but virtually no
'cardiovascular' exercise -yet these often hard-drinking, sometimes smoking,
tough guys seem to be insured against heart disease!  (Ref: Siff M C  'Facts
and Fallacies of Fitness').  

Most cardiovascular populists use the Paffenbarger study to reinforce their
beliefs that cardio exercise is the finest form of exercise for increasing
quality of life in general, for cardiac care and for arresting ageing
processes etc, yet they never seem to realise that the subjects of this study
perform work which sounds a lot more like weight lifting and resistance
training than aerobics.

This should have sounded alarm bells everywhere, but it didn't!

The renowned Dr Kenneth Cooper just went on to found his Aerobics Institute in
Dallas on the basis of this misleading premise and set into motion the entire
'aerobics' craze which almost everyone in fitness and medicine has fallen for.
Unfortunately, the public view of bodybuilding as narcissistic drug-taking
muscleboundness and Olympic lifting as the outlandish world of genetically
superhuman freaks has ensured that the aerobic view of health and happiness
still reigns untouched.

COMMENT BY A READER

<<... Cardiovascular bias is also reflected in the curriculums at
Universities.
For example, in the undergraduate exercise science program here at
my university, there is only one strength training class,
and all other classes focus on endurance-related stuff. In my fitness
class that I recently completed, the book and the teacher claimed that
the most important component of a fitness program was cardiorespiratory
endurance. I was in definite disagreement. A great VO2 max doesn't help
you get out of your chair when you're 70 years old.

SIFF

Thank you very much for your feedback, James.  The more letters I receive
back, the more I realise that this Cardiovascular Doctrine is more like a
national disease in itself, an epidemic against which few people wish to take
a stand. This is possibly because the evangelists of the Cardiovascular
Doctrine have impressive credentials, sit on all the committees of who-
controls-what in fitness and health, capture much of the media attention and
so on. 

I wonder how much of a shift in power would take place if huge sponsorships
were to be made available to strength and anaerobic research? Regrettably, the
belief of objectivity and unemotionalism in sports science research often
tends to be a myth firmly entrenched in the scientific/medical psyche by
mathematically and statistically spectacular research publications which one
questions at his/her peril.

FITNESS REFORMATION OVERDUE

It happened in politics.  It happened in industry.  It happened in religion.
We had the birth of democracy, communism, socialism etc. We had the Industrial
Revolution. We had the Protestant ('Protesting'!) Reformation. 

It is high time that we initiated the Fitness Reformation or Fitness
Revolution.  We have to overthrow the stranglehold held by the
cardiovascular/endurance priesthood over the entire fitness and health
industry!  Let's share ideas on how this should best be achieved so that
everyone can benefit.  

This is not to state that strength training is superior to cardio training -
on the contrary, this revolution just wants a fair and democratic place to be
granted alongside cardio doctrine in making the lives and performance of our
fellow humans even greater.   

We want cardio priests to acknowledge that any form of regular exercise,
aerobic, anaerobic or mixed, of sufficient intensity and complexity is equally
beneficial in enhancing one's quality of life and health.  We also want them
to realise that an overemphasis on the role of endurance training can inhibit
performance in many sports.  In addition, we want them not to exaggerate the
alleged dangers of strength and power training.  We also want medical and
physical therapeutic professionals to realise more widely that strength
training can play a major role in enhancing rehabilitation in many cases of
injury and illness.

Over to the rest of you!   Free the Sports Scientific World!

Sincerely

Dr Mel C Siff
Littleton, Colorado, USA
[log in to unmask]



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%