Are athletes healthier than the average people?

therealdope said:
it depends on how much you value banging skanks and being a slave to substances. There's a flip side to that coin; some people value: an athletic career (at a younger age), being able to climb mountains, being in good shape later in life and still nailing good looking chicks without being limp dick.
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You assume too much that is false. I knew a lot of people that did a lot of drugs but almost none of them were ever slaves to it. That's mostly a bunch of propaganda unless you are talking skid row level drug addicts. The average person that experiments with drugs never falls within your characterization of a slave to drugs who bangs skanks and has a limp dick.
 
MusterX said:
You assume too much that is false. I knew a lot of people that did a lot of drugs but almost none of them were ever slaves to it. That's mostly a bunch of propaganda unless you are talking skid row level drug addicts. The average person that experiments with drugs never falls within your characterization of a slave to drugs who bangs skanks and has a limp dick.
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Ummm - I don't doubt you know a lot of people who did a lot of drugs. Trust me on that one.
 
I don't even understand how this is even a question.

A person who does lots of physical activity and cardio work of course is healthier than the average Joe who sits in an cubicle all day long
 
MusterX said:
I agree, and I also disagree. There are factors we don't completely understand. You can lead a balanced life and do all the things you listed and still drop dead at age 47 of heart failure. My wife's grandmother was the oldest person I ever personally knew. She was born in 1911 and died in 2012 at age 101. As far as I know she never exercised a day in her life.
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How was her health the last 30 years?

My grandma lived to 94, she was in pretty good health until about 75 then she started having problems with her balance, hearing, eye problems, arthritis, had to take a bunch of pills.

Age number doesn't tell the whole story, I think how healthy and active you are is more important.
 
This has probably been mentioned (I didn't read any posts), but the healthiest people, those who, live to 100, are not athletes and many don't even do any sports. They eat well, they have have an active lifestyle, and their daily activities and sleep is synchronised with their circadian rhythm.
 
not top level athletes, because of the stuff put into bodies to get an edge, people who are athletic and semi-competitive athletes

Definitely not big time weight cutters, the frequency and amount of water they're cutting has long term damage on liver or kidneys
 
I was actually giving this thought recently, think of an athlete has to push their bodies beyond their limits; I remember back in wrestling I would push my body until I had nothing left, then a second wind would come in and I would push again, and then same thing would happen again.

The point is that you are putting a beating on your body, you need to eat, rest, sleep properly and nurture your body the right nutrients so you can do it all over again. Even today when I work on conditioning in my own, I always question, how much pushing the body is healthy and how much is unhealthy. With that being said, I feel fucking great, but I do allow my body the proper rest, sleep and proper nutrients.

But what about athletes not taking care of their body?
 
cmw43 said:
How was her health the last 30 years?

My grandma lived to 94, she was in pretty good health until about 75 then she started having problems with her balance, hearing, eye problems, arthritis, had to take a bunch of pills.

Age number doesn't tell the whole story, I think how healthy and active you are is more important.
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She was incredible. Never seen anything like it. She didn't decline until she was about 96 or 97 years old. She lived on her own until then, took care of herself, washed her clothes, cleaned her house, etc. She was still driving her car deep into her 90's. I knew shit was crazy when my wife and I had our first child in 1998 and when he was around 2 years old she came over to visit one day, she was 89 at the time, and she got down in the floor and played blocks and stuff with our son and then stood up and walked away unassisted like it was nothing.
 
Stress is the biggest killer out there, and being an elite athlete is stressful as hell.
 
I don't a lot of NFL linemen are super healthy. Not to mention some baseball players don't work out much. Some are fat like Bartolo Colon.
 
Afew professional sportsman have died through heart failure. I think its because they had undetected heart valve issues that are rare .
People like Marc vivien Foe and Mikos Feher .
 
Alphaboy said:
I understand through years of studying that maintaining a healthy diet and engaging in routine exercising are the best things one can do for their health. Obviously there is no guarantee for a long life, but if you weren't going to live long doing these you certainly weren't going to live long eating crappy and being sedentary.

In any case, this would lead me to expect athletes to live longer lives than ordinary. Surely being more fit than the rest of the population is an indicator of health, right?

I Googled Peter Norman, the white guy who stood next to the 2 black men doing the black power fist in the 1968 Olympics and found that he died at a relatively young age to a heart attack.

I was a bit surprised because I know first hand that track is sport that really pushes one to get into tip-top shape.

I think of other athletes who died of illnesses here is a list (not counting the ones who died of things like car crashes).

Even Michael Clarke Duncan, he wasn't a pro athlete but obviously spent a lot of time working out, died of a heart attack.

I know this is a poor sample size, but I am shocked to see many athletic people die of natural causes. Except for WWE athletes as those guys are juiced to the gills and are basically ticking time bombs.
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To an extreme extent no. Most of them once done competing, dont know fuk all about fitness and get fat.

Longeavity approach to fitness outbeats competitive athletes in terms of health anyday
 
therealdope said:
it depends on how much you value banging skanks and being a slave to substances. There's a flip side to that coin; some people value: an athletic career (at a younger age), being able to climb mountains, being in good shape later in life and still nailing good looking chicks without being limp dick.

Working out, getting rest, and eating clean is about having a higher quality, not a longer life. A big part of working out hard later in life is having energy to do stuff --- including work. Some people actually like working because they get to do interesting work and work with great people.
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Not too mention that some people actually enjoy doing physically grueling shit. I'll routinely hike stupid distances or go run 10 miles on single track at nearly 40 and most of my peers are like..........but why?

Because I enjoy it that's why.
 
Al Gorithm said:
Not too mention that some people actually enjoy doing physically grueling shit. I'll routinely hike stupid distances or go run 10 miles on single track at nearly 40 and most of my peers are like..........but why?

Because I enjoy it that's why.
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this^^^.
 
therealdope said:
you do know that olympic athletes have on average shorter life spans, than the average person -- right?

For a while there wasn't a former Tour De France champion that lived past 57 (though there may have been other factors :/ ).
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Wtf, really? Why?
 
Michael13 said:
Lemmy drank at least a bottle of Jack Daniels every single day of his adult life, nevermind all the drug use throughout his career.

Lived until 70 and had an AMAZING life.

Sure you can exercise and limit your calories and your alcohol consumption, but your life is going to be boring as shit and you could still die at 35.
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MusterX said:
Yea its a difficult premise for me at least. Maybe for most people its not. Would I rather really experience life and die at 68 or lead a very clean and disciplined life and live to 81? Its a tough trade off because I can guarandamntee you I know a guy who is clean as a whistle, in bed at 9p.m., you dig what I'm saying. He wouldn't understand in the slightest what its like to get smashed in a bar until 2a.m. and then go home with a strange woman. How much are these various life shortening activities worth to a person? What good is living to 89 if you lead a boring ass life?

What I'm talking about is value, where do you place the value? For example, when I was a younger man I did a lot of drugs. Frankly I wouldn't change it. I believe the the experiences I had are worth whatever shortening of my life happened. Other people may regret past drug usage tremendously.
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Al Gorithm said:
Not too mention that some people actually enjoy doing physically grueling shit. I'll routinely hike stupid distances or go run 10 miles on single track at nearly 40 and most of my peers are like..........but why?

Because I enjoy it that's why.
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Why do folks assume that if one isn't doing Scarface amounts of blow and getting wasted every night at some crazy party your life is boring?

People underestimate just how much shit there is to do out there.

In any case, even if you wanna make the argument of quality of life > quantity of life, a life of "fun" still isn't gonna be all that pleasurable if you're sick all the time. Maybe we're young guys here, but you do realize that stuff catches up to you when you're older?

A dude who was disciplined and ate well is gonna feel energetic whereas a dude who did whatever the hell he wanted is gonna feel bad.
 
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