Sean C. Fortune

What happens when the rules you’ve lived by your whole athletic life quietly change? I wrote an essay about masters running, aging, and why this phase can be about craft — not decline. The Tragedy, Folly, & Renewal of Masters Running open.substack.com/pub/scfortune/…

An intense two-year exercise regimen, consisting of 5-6 hours per week, reversed up to 20 years of age-related structural changes and stiffness in the hearts of sedentary 50-year-olds. The heart gets stiffer and shrinks, starting around age 50 to 65. Once you reach age 70, it is very challenging to change the heart’s structure (although there are other benefits to exercise). Here’s the 2-year protocol, totaling 5-6 hours per week that Dr. Levine and colleagues used: • Norwegian 4x4 Interval Training: Weekly sessions began with four minutes of high-intensity activity at 95% peak heart rate, followed by three minutes at 60%-75% peak heart rate, repeated four times. • Recovery Day Aerobics: Light 20-30 minute aerobic exercise. • Endurance Building: An hour (or more) per week of endurance exercises and a separate 30-minute base pace session. • Strength Training: Twice weekly. This episode is a must-watch. It reveals surprising and lesser-known facts about the heart and explores how different exercises uniquely affect cardiac health. Available wherever you consume podcasts. Full episode: youtu.be/qMs145DJyb0?si…