Physical activity is good for you. Just ask any doctor, who'll tell you that moderate intensity exercise – 30 minutes a day, several times a week – is like money in the bank, reducing the chance of health bankruptcy later in life.

And while getting the heart rate elevated may stave off cardiovascular disease or diabetes, experts still can’t agree on whether too much exercise, especially the chest-thumping, vigorous sort, is counterproductive to a long, healthy life.

But a new study published last month in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, says that people’s fears about heavy exercise being dangerous may be misguided. In fact, the findings support the idea that over-the-top physical activity may even contribute to people living longer than normal.

Unlike other reports that estimated the positive effects of endurance training by surveying the lifespans of ex-college athletes or weekend warriors, this research team looked at some of the most intense, highly-skilled athletes around: Tour de France riders.

From July 2 to 24, the world’s top cyclists will compete in the 98th running of the Tour, and the physical demands of the race will be as brutal as ever. For three weeks, riders will cover more than 2,000 miles and climb up nine different mountain stages – all with only two days of rest spread throughout.

To understand what effect such a demanding sport had on longevity, the research team identified 834 Tour competitors from three countries (France, Belgium and Italy) who were born between 1892 and 1942 and rode somewhere between 1930 and 1964.

By comparing the lifespans of these elite competitors to those of a separate population of non-athletes born during the same years in the same countries, the researchers found no evidence that highly competitive endurance activity heightened the risk of early death. In fact, the Tour de France athletes seemed to live, on average, 17 percent longer than their inactive compatriots.

Though the results suggest that endurance activity is linked to an increased lifespan, the data doesn’t reveal why. A longer lifespan might be due to extreme training itself, or it might be due to something else. For example, the same collection of genes that helps the cyclists scale the mountains of France with relative ease may also make them less likely to develop certain diseases. Perhaps some other healthy lifestyle choices common among athletes caused the Tour de France competitors to live longer. So while even if we don’t know what’s causing this association, we know it’s there.

Each July, as millions of spectators and fans tune in to watch the Tour, either in person or on Versus, the effortless athleticism and unflappable determination of the peloton highlight one of the greatest marvels of the sporting world.

Now, science is drawing attention to yet another.

Photo: Flickr/f4bzef4b, CC

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