'Running can be started at any age'

Nagpur, June 3

While interacting with more than 100 participants in the third webinar organised by Nagpur Runnners and Riders and Adventures and You, cardiologists Dr Shantanu Sengupta and Dr Anil Jawahirani, both ace marathoners, spoke on the important topic of Running and Care of the Heart.

Answering to a volley of questions from the participants from different walks of life and lifestyles, the doctors said it is important that every individual spends around 30-45 min doing some form of exercise like walking, cycling, running, swimming or cross-fit exercises daily. Elaborating further they said that minimum of 30mins brisk walking 5 days a week has shown to have cardiovascular benefits.

Answering to a question as to when can one start running, the doctors said running can be started at any age. But every individual who goes for running should know their body and its capacity. Whenever someone is planning to start running, he/she should have a thorough evaluation of his/hers blood parameters and few more tests and consult a qualified sports’ doctor.

What is a comfortable heart rate while running? To this question the doctors said according to a person’s age, maximum heart rate has been scientifically quantified and should not exceed the maximum limit while running. To calculate ones comfortable heart rate to run also called as the Aerobic Zone, just deduct your age from 180. Thats the perfect heart rate within which one can run without extra stress or damaging ones heart.

To a question as to how much should one run in a week the doctors said that the best thing is to run 3-4 times in a week in person’s aerobic zone. This should be added with 2 days of strength training and few sprints. Also cross training by some other form of exercise like cycling and swimming also helps. The key is that while doing exercise, the person should not have chest pain, breathing problem or dizziness. If this is present, they should stop the run and immediately consult a qualified doctor.

Further the doctors advised runners who are above the age of 40 years to have regular annual blood test and consultation with a sports’ doctor.

Answering to a question about how many marathons should one run in a year, he doctors said the runners should avoid doing more than 2 full marathons in an year.

Regular running and fitness regime should be supplemented with nutritious healthy food and a good nights sleep.

The webinar was attended by more than 100 participants from across the country and lasted for more than two hours. The participants were very happy with the same and all their doubts with regards to the health of the heart and how to keep it young for long were answered and many doubts and misconceptions were cleared.

Mitesh Rambhia and Ashish Agrawal were the co-ordinators of the webinar. The fourth webinar in the series will be held on June 6 at 5 p.m. The topic of the webinar is ' Ultra Running; and the guest speaker is Satish Gujaran, one of India’s Ace Ultra Runners.