This YouTube-exclusive discussion looks at a new longevity study that asks a big question: Does exercise intensity matter more than volume for living longer and reducing cardiovascular risk?
Video Transcript
[00:00:00] Chris Case: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Fast Chats. I’m Chris. This is Trevor. Today we’re going to discuss a really recent and interesting study. Looked at the impact of. Intensity versus volume on longevity. Things like all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and it actually runs somewhat counter to what we commonly believe This study looked at took um, data from the NHANES cohort, which is this big collection of health data fitness data.
Um, from a massive group. They looked at a specific subset, 7,800 participants, I wanna say, in this, in this study. Um, and they had them wear fitness trackers that was giving in understanding of how much activity they did and what type. They did wear it only for seven days. We’re looking at data that encompasses a decade, so there’s a bit of an extrapolation here, but the findings were still very interesting.
There’s a lot to dig into.
[00:01:09] Trevor Connor: Yeah, so the short of it is, well, they certainly showed activity is good. Uh, so the people that got very little to no activity certainly showed the, the highest risk of both cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality. So getting out and getting exercise is good, but what they showed was the benefits of doing intensity.
And they’re not, they weren’t looking at elite athlete populations. They were looking at average populations. So what they’re referring to as intensity is. A brisk walk to a slow jump. Right. Uh, but the benefits of intensity definitely trump the benefits of just getting volume.
[00:01:46] Chris Case: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:46] Trevor Connor: So you’re gonna get some benefits with volume, but you need the intensity to see the true benefits.
And intensity was the only one that seemed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. And this is continuing what we see. We’re seeing. We looked at a study not that long ago that just came out that looked at markers of aging and compared them, endurance athletes to sprint athletes. So. People like us versus somebody who does like a hundred meter sprint.
Mm-hmm. And you saw much better profile in the sprint athletes, which we hated seeing. ’cause we’re endurance
[00:02:16] Chris Case: athletes. I mean, it runs counter to what we want to believe, that’s for sure.
[00:02:20] Trevor Connor: But you’re seeing a continuation here of Yeah. You need that intensity to get the health benefits. Uh, another really important thing that they showed be, and I think this is part of what motivated this study, world Health Organization used to recommend you need.
At least 10 minutes of continuous exercise multiple days a week. They’ve now gotten rid of that recommendation and their new recommendation is every minute counts.
[00:02:45] Chris Case: Mm-hmm.
[00:02:46] Trevor Connor: And not could argue with that activity is good, get activity. It’s better than not getting activity. But what this study also showed was that where they took people that got the same volume of exercise and the same amount of intensity.
But one group got it in a continuous session of five minutes or more. The other group got in small bits through the day, right. The group that had that continuous session had a 72% reduction in their risk. So you need that, that continuous exercise. Yeah.
[00:03:21] Chris Case: And we’re ta Yeah, like if you get it in bouts, five plus minute bouts, that’s better than a 32nd burst right in the morning and a 32nd burst, which.
It would make sense. Right. You know,
[00:03:33] Trevor Connor: but I gotta take it further and say probably getting 15 minutes to an hour is best. Exactly, exactly.
[00:03:40] Chris Case: You have personal experience with this. Some, some relational dynamics. Yeah.
[00:03:45] Trevor Connor: So, you know, my, my girlfriend’s a save age as me and. I try to give her advice because this is what I do for a living.
And of course she listens to absolutely nothing I say and follows influencers.
[00:03:57] Chris Case: Well, we’re not gonna get into why that is, but Yeah,
[00:04:00] Trevor Connor: there you go. Uh, but she has been following this influencer who’s our age, who has been saying All you need is to get walks. You never need to do intensity. Just go and get long walks.
And this influencer just recently went to her doctor and was diagnosed with, uh, osteoporosis and other health conditions. And has come out and, and completely reversed what she said, said, I had it wrong. Just walking is not enough. Which is what I, I’ve been telling my girlfriend, I’ve been saying, you need to get in some running.
You need to get in some intensity. And this study is really the evidence of that. And Chris, there were, there were four graphs that were complex, but really interesting. I,
[00:04:38] Chris Case: I think that those four graphs are, are the, the meat to the heart of this study. And they really represent. The, the shift or the arc that you’re seeing, volume, the, the drop off.
Even if you’re in the 95th percentile of doing volume, meaning you’re doing 10, 12, 14 hours a week, you’re still seeing your risks rise considerably as you age. Whereas in males and females, whereas. With intensity, it’s not exactly a flat line, but the, the arc is far less pronounced. So, um, as you age, the amount of in, uh, intensity that you do seems to be protective in some way.
[00:05:27] Trevor Connor: Right? So, fascinated grass of Chris said, and, and I’ve spent a lot of time diving into them, but in that endurance side, you saw the same thing in men and women, uh, or the, the volume. Um, people that were just getting no exercise were. Even at the age of 20 at high risk. So they color coded it from green to yellow to red.
Green is low risk, then moderate, then red is high risk. And from 20 on, if you are getting no exercise, you’re just high risk. Yes. But those people, as you said in the 95th percentile, who are probably athletes getting a lot of exercise, um, if all they’re doing is volume. And lots and lots of volume. You still see once you get to about 50 a, a pretty rapid decline.
Mm-hmm. And you end up in the moderate to high risk if that’s all you’re doing. So basically saying volume is important, but it’s not enough. As you pointed out on the intensity graph when you had people and, and this was more precipitous in women than in men. Um, if they were getting no intensity. They started at moderate, maybe a little bit green in their twenties, but then it really drops off and goes to very high risk as as you age, where the people in the highest percentile are getting a lot of intensity.
And again, I’m not saying going out and doing sprints, they’re referring to intensity as brisk walk or, or slow jog. Um, as you said, it’s almost a horizontal line where they stay green even into their eighties and nineties, and more importantly, the theoretical risk. Still lower for those people than 20 year olds who are getting no intensity.
[00:07:07] Chris Case: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s really interesting study. Complicated. A lot to discuss and we do in the podcast episode. So if you want to hear more about us, discuss that particular study and others that are related, check us out fast talk.
