Women should not run

I have a friend that does Bella Nutra and their coaches tell them that endurance training causes hypothyroidism and they are discouraged from running or training for endurance sports.  I really have no other info to add.  Just that this isn't the 1st time I've heard that.  I don't believe it.

jami

hmmmm. I am borderline hypothyroid, and I have never really been a 'cardio' person in the past and I have gained some weight training (since the beginning of this year) but I am thinking it has to be because I am taking in too many calories- I would find it hard to believe my training is mysteriously packing the pounds....

Listening to a Paleo podcast by Sarah Fragoso & Jason Seib- they seem to be completely against running or endurance sports. I really wanted to like them but after they said something along the likes of you really don't have to eat fruit and veggies just eat meat I stopped listening. Not sure if this is 'All things Paleo's' outlook or not.

I have a rebellious streak and am busting my tail to prove them wrong!!

That being said - I have lost weight & inches in the past way easier lifting weights doing only short (20 minutes a day or less) interval work for cardio.

Oh well, I am not just doing this to loose weight- I want to be fit and keep my heart healthy and I am really enjoying the training :-) Plus- I want to be a triathlete!!

Most mornings when I'm at the gym at 5am and running on a treadmill, there's an ad that pops up on the TV a few times that says something to the effect of: "are you overweight?  Well it's not your fault.  Take this pill and you'll lose the weight".  I can't help but think, "are you overweight?  Then get your butt out of bed and get on the treadmill next to me.  And, by the way, eat less".

Sorry - I know there are people out there with real medical issues and it truly isn't their fault they've gained weight and I apologize if I've offended anyone here.  But those commercials really annoy me.  Seems symbolic of our culture as a whole - take the easy way out and don't take personal responsibility.

Off my soapbox now

The link reminds me of a paper I wrote in grade 3.  It was supposed to be a research paper on butterflies, but I wrote about how beautiful they were.    

I had to look.  I couldn't help myself.

First of all, even though the author stresses multiple times that men are "guilty" of too much cardio too, the main issue I have with this article is that it is criticizing cardio for not being a good "fat losing" choice and not getting women beach-body ready.

I know that is a main motivator for some women but not all, and the repeated assumption (often by men) that women workout to achieve a certain aesthetic is sexism at some of its finest. 

From the article:

They’re the women who run for an hour or more every day on the treadmill, setting new distance and/or time goals every week and month. Maybe they’re just interested in their treadmill workouts, maybe they’re training for their fifth fund-raising marathon, or maybe they’re even competing against runners in Finland via some Nike device...She’s still fat. Actually, she’s gotten fatter.

And

This “cardio craze” is a form of insanity, and it’s on my hit list. I’m determined to kill it. There are better ways to lose fat, and there are better ways to look good. Your bikini body is not at the end of a marathon, and you won’t find it on a treadmill. In fact, it’s quite the opposite if you’re using steady-state cardio to get there. The show may be over, and the finish line crossed, but the damage to your metabolism has just begun.

Don’t want to stop running? Fine. Then stop complaining about how the fat won’t come off your hips, thighs, and . You’re keeping it there.

OK, so I disagree with the author's focus on "bikini body" goals for women.  There are plenty of women logging mile on that treadmill because they're running races, doing tris, and cross-training for other sports.  They're body composition might be just fine for their sport--yeah, that other reason women train, for PERFORMANCE! Not all women can achieve or want to achieve BF in the teens.

He's also setting up a false dichotomy.  Just because you do long cardio sessions, doesn't mean you don't do other things too.

That being said, there is some truth to the author's fat-loss, muscle-loss and metabolism claims.  If you want to lose fat, and have a fast metabolism, maintaining lean mass should be a priority.

Body composition, and ideal body composition for various sports is an interesting topic.  But, to the OP, there are always going to be excuses to not run--for all body types.  I might even argue that for people with lots to lose, high impact cardio like running, may not be the best choice, even though it has a very efficient caloric burn/minute.

I'd never argue that. If someone is hugely overweight I'd never suggest running but would recommend cycling instead. Swimming is excellent too, but it's incredibly easy to not actually do anything to raise your heart rate while swimming but still 'swim' and move forward.

+1 on the swimming.  It takes quite a bit for swimming to be exercise.

For clinically and morbidly obese patients, I think walking and diet restriction is the way to go.  Weight bearing and weight transference exercise does quite a bit for this group, and it's simple--no equipment, no memberships = fewer excuses.

People with lots of weight to lose should focus on diet.   The exercise part of it has other benefits, but diet will be where the most "gains" will be.  And I caveat this with the assumption that there are no serious health issues. 

On a somewhat related note, endurance sports also drive testosterone down in men, but strangely does not reduce the sex drive.  I have no reason to say this other than its funny.

Having a baby can also trigger hypothyroidism. Should women stop having babies? I don't thinks so.

^^Agreed.

He is speaking from a bikini or figure competition standpoint and he is right. My wife is a bikini competitor and she is strictly forbidden from running. Makes the butt sag, burns the muscle she works so hard to get and doesn't do as much for fat loss. 

Sorry to say it but take a look around at your fellow spandex clad triathletes at your next race, triathlon does not make a body look good. Triathlon is not the way to a "hard beach body". It may be the way to a fit cardiovascular system but it does not create hard bodies. 

I personally know a woman who has completed 3 IM's and to be honest she really didn't look that good. She ate well and trained hard and finished her IM's well but she didn't have a great body and had more body fat that you would think she would after training for IM. She switched sports for a season and decided to train for a bikini competition, she cut out all the running, biking and swimming and switched to walking, slow stair climbing and lifting and she lost all her unwanted body fat and toned up big time in less than 6 months. 

Now obviously triathletes don't train to look good, they train to be faster and to go longer. But if you want to "look good" or have a nice swimsuit body, triathlon is not the best approach. So in his article the woman was running to lose weight and look good, the running was not the best way to get what she wanted.

hard to run in the kitchen isnt it?

/ i keeeeed

Tri body and "beach body" (aka, low fat + muscle) are not necessarily mutually exclusive

(all photos are of Corinne Abraham):

I don't know what IM's you have been going to but I see some pretty rock solid bodies there

Not to get away from the discussion, but don't confuse hyper (what you said) and hypo (what the article mentioned).  They mean the opposite.

No one notices this? The article (and I am not saying the premise is in any way accurate), is that HYPOthyroidism results in slowing of metabolism - which it does. The OP is confusing this immediately with HYPERthyroidism, which is, in fact the opposite thing. HYPO means underactive, HYPER means overactive.

And just to help make things confusing, the best screening test for over or underactive thryoid is TSH - thyroid stimulating hormone. Too high of a TSH means your thryoid is UNDERACTIVE, and too low means you likely have hyperthroidism. It has to do with the feedback loops between your thyoid (which produces a couple types of thyroid hormone) and the pituitary (which regulates how much TSH it makes based on levels of the thyroid hormones it detects - assuming there is no abnormality of the pitutiary itself).

ETA - spudone must have been posting while I was composing. So, yeah - what he said.

My office software is blocking the article but as a former figure competitor and current runner, I wanted to chime in on this.

When I did figure competing, like Mehaner, I was swayed away from running or any intense cardio to avoid loss of muscle.  The main training tool I implemented to prep for these shows was a very strict diet.  I weight trained more often but not necessarily with heavier load or more intensity.  My cardio was down to a dull roar.  I dropped to about 10% body fat.  Beach body?  I think most people outside of the bodybuilding world, people that knew me or didn't know me and just decided to comment anyway thought I looked like a "ripped twig".  Those who were honest admitted it wasn't a great look.  I'm lanky to begin with and being 10% bf for me equals no butt, no chest, looking like a need to eat a pizza or two.

I got away from that lifestyle and went back to about 18-20% body fat which was normal for me at the time but I yearned to find that balance between 10% and 20%.  I eventually stumbled onto running.  Eating a much more moderate, clean but not "bodybuilder" diet, plus keeping some of the weights, plus running as my main source of cardio equaled me looking the best I ever had.  I hit and stuck with 15-16% body fat which left me really lean, yet not looking twiggy and got my butt looking the best it ever had.  Comments from friends and family were that it was the best my physique had ever looked.

When I look around at triathlons, I see a variety of physiques from beach-y to average to overweight; but I see about the same ratio when I'm teaching group fitness class, or watching cross-fit, or checking out the people in the free weights.  I think that depends on so MANY more variables than just whether or not running is part of the woman's routine.

Different things work for different people when it comes to sculpting the body, lifting the butt, shaping the legs and arms, etc.  To say that running will  push all or even most women further away from having a magazine cover body is complete poo.