doofus93 Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 Just a fellow gymnastics enthusiast here in this forum I would like to ask about the relationship between running and cortisol. From the topics i've read here i remember reading one which said that running is not beneficial due to the cortisol increase. I'm not a big fan of running, loathe it actually, but haha i just wanna know. Also, do you think jumping rope is beneficial to gymnastic training? Or does it also do the same in terms of cortisol? Sorry for asking too much! Much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Schmitter Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 Short answer from my perspective: cardio (running, biking, rowing, etc.) is not only healthy but necessary for optimal health. Overdoing it is where the problems come in. You need both LSD(long slow distance) and sprinting as they do different things. In simplistic terms the former enables the heart chambers to hold more blood, the later makes your heart strong enough to pump that extra blood. Slizzardman (Joshua Naterman) sums it up nicely as per usual: High intensity work makes the heart beat significantly harder and acts like strength training for the heart. The strokes get more powerful and somewhat deeper. Low intensity has a different effect, the heart chambers themselves actually enlarge, allowing them to hold more blood. In turn, each stroke moves more blood. You don't need to work very hard to make this happen, and the threshold is in the active recovery heart rate range. So, proper use of active recovery is actually helping to enhance cardiac function quite specifically.The two training effects work in synergy. Here's some reading if ya wanna get more serious. The last 2 are old but full of good stuff.https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/15310-heart-damage-from-cardio-endurance/https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/3196-cardio-and-gymnastics/https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/5063-cardio/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Pelton-Stroud Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 I don't have a reference, but I do remember reading about a correlation between long distance running and cortisol production. I think the same applies to lengthy cardiovascular exercise.This is a point that some proponents of metcon and HIIT use to argue that cardio is inherently bad for you. History and experience, however, suggest that that is not true. I think TANSTAAFL's post does a good job of summing up the physiological importance of training aerobic fitness alongside strength/anaerobic fitness.Edit: come to think of it, one of my good friends (chemistry major in college) read research finding that high-intensity training also causes the body to produce a toxin that is harmful to your health over time. I feel like you can find a study that suggests that any type of physical activity is bad for you... Leaving me rather skeptical of many "findings". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Shulman Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 Cortisol is not inherently unhealthy. It is an important hormone underlying a lot of your body's functioning. It is key to your metabolism—it makes glucose available in the blood stream. It's far too simple to think that "high" cortisol is unhealthy. In healthy people, cortisol spikes every morning about 20 minutes after waking, and then declines through the day, spiking again after meals. Cortisol is in your blood to make sure you have enough glucose through your day. Exercise is taxing; it takes energy. Cortisol is there to provide that energy. This is how a healthy body works. People refer to cortisol as a "stress hormone" because in the past couple of decades there has been a lot of research showing that certain accute psychological stressors (those which are socially evaluative and uncontrolable), as well as chronic stress can disregulate cortisol function. What does a disregulated, "unhealthy" cortisol profile look like? There is good evidence that people under chronic stress show flattened cortisol slopes—less decline through the day. They start high in the morning and stay high through the day. Thus compared to healthy people, these people will have more cortisol output in a day, and so total daily output of cortisol is sometimes looked at as an indication of physiological disregulation, but more important seems to be the rate of decline through the day. The take away: cortisol plays a complex and important role in your body. It is not unhealthy, but its function can be disregulated as a result of psychological stress. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damon Amato Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/women-running-into-trouble/ /thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Long Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 This interests me because I know a girl with hypothyroidism and she is freaking out about weight gain when she is older. She does climbing2-3 times a week and rpm 2-3 times a week and walks 30 minutes to work every day. Anyone know more about hypothyroidism and it's affects on weight gain/loss ? Sorry if I hijacked the thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damon Amato Posted December 26, 2014 Share Posted December 26, 2014 I'd be careful getting information like this over the internet. Coach Sommer mentioned to me that this whole nutrition section was the wild west so I suggested trying to keep some order but I kind of doubt it'll work without better moderation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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