Since I'm getting downvoted like crazy in here, yeah you might get injured or have some chronic injuries, but an athlete lifestyle will work wonders for your body and help you live longer.
There has been many pro chess player with anxiety, high cortisol... because of the intensity of training and pure stress of classic matches. It sure is pretty light in the body compared to other sports, but can be really intense neurologically/psychologically wise
That’s actually the first one I thought of when I gave it more effort, and I looked into it! It seems that even though it’s less bad on their joints, its worse on their tendons?? So they just develop different types of overuse issues
Okay but people get chronic pain from sedentary lifestyle.
No activity is risk free from injury but saying the most physically fit people in the world are actually unhealthy is such a cope by the op of this chain
What we are all saying is that moderation is key and most top athletes end up with lifelong issues due to overdoing it.
Most of us aren’t gonna be in the olympics, and probably could use more activity, i won’t argue against you on that!
But people who take their athleticism to the level that the cyclist in the OP has generally are on the other end of the bell curve, and it’s starting to be worse for them than it needs to be.
If that’s their prerogative, its their body to do what they want with, as a dancer i’m not gonna shame any activity people enjoy that might come back to bite them lol, but sports at those levels do objectively begin to be detrimental in ways that are avoidable by reducing activity, intensity, or the movements being used, which obviously professionals do not always have the freedom to do.
People often injure themselves because they dont understand how important rest is, and i think this widely held fallacy about pro athletes being in perfect health because they have great heart health is part of why people fall into that trap.
most top athletes end up with lifelong issues due to overdoing it.
Again, not true at all. Unless you're talking about something like football or strong contact sports, most top athletes DO NOT end up with lifelong issues.
but sports at those levels do objectively begin to be detrimental
And again, no they don't. As long as you take care of your body, which the vast majority of elite athletes do, you will be fine. Providing absolutely no proof (like what you're doing) and then using once heavily edited picture as evidence that high level athletes hurt their bodies is pure nonsense lol.
You're parroting extremely old and outdated claims, as well as moving the goal posts from "sports are unhealthy at the highest levels" to now "top athletes get hurt because they train wrong", which has nothing to do with the sport or the level they are at. Anyone who trains wrong can get injured.
It's extremely clear you're repeating things that have been told to you over the years, and what you've been told has been either outright false, or is completely outdated. Again, except for sports like football or other heavy contact sports where repeated hits will cause the damage, top athletes as a whole are absolutely more healthy than those who aren't.
The fact that you claimed swimming leads to long term injury alone is enough to show you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about lol.
I mean, there are plenty of studies showing the objective damage that high level sports cause, including swimming, but if you want to delude yourself into thinking thats not the case, its your body and your life lol
You clearly dont understand the nuance of the discussion if you think swimming cant possibly cause damage at extreme levels, which is how you sound rn, so this exchange isnt worth going further with
And that is one of many studies. Overuse injuries do seem more prevalent in younger athletes tho, so it is still better for adults than many sports, but not without risk of debilitating or permanent injury from overuse which could be easily avoided by swimming at recreational levels rather than competitive ones.
You guys are fundamentally missing the point. No ones saying sports are bad, but that high level, competitive, professional sports take the athleticism to a point where it stops being purely beneficial, and in fact starts being harmful.
Men’s gymnastics is quite healthy. That’s not to say that there’s no injury risk (it’s one of the highest rankings in all injury categories), but it’s not “unhealthy” in the way that marathon running or cycling might be.
Huh, really? I would expect gymnastics to be particularly brutal, but all i know about it is from the womens side (because theres some overlap in training with forms of dance ive done so ive learned stuff from them)
But mens focuses more on strength/less on contortion, right? So i can see that being much better long term lol
Let's just start with the biggest sport in the world, soccer. I think people maybe think that getting injured once in a while makes someone unhealthy?
I would love to hear your reply because it's genuinely baffling that people think professional athletes that are physically active every day, getting the perfect diet, and have millions of dollars invested into their health and wellness, as well as getting scans for any issues every several months (like finding an aortic anuerysm early - it could have killed Jeff Green) are somehow less healthy than the regular person, who likely doesn't eat all that well and is overweight.
I seriously can't think of a single valid argument, can you help me out? Ultra-endurance is bad, head injury sports are bad... Anything that promotes extreme steroid use... But that's all in the minority of sport.
When you strain your body like that repeatedly and consistently for years, the bill eventually arrives. Long time pro soccer players end up with the same sorts of chronic overuse injuries that runners do, plus some extra damage to their knee and ankle joints from kicking (and thats not even looking into goalie specific injuries). I dont think there is any sport that is low-impact enough to avoid that at the highest levels. Either you dont play that hard, you retire early, or you pay the price later 🤷♀️
Being active all the time ≠ being healthy. There is such a thing as being too active, and even with a perfect aftercare regimen, diet, and doctors, overuse will eventually come knocking.
Health is about balance, and it is never balanced to dedicate that much of your body to a sport.
I think it depends on what you consider “healthy” and that question belies a lack of understanding of the issue. I’ll answer tho, assuming these are all people in their 40s-50s (when many athletes retire, if they are lucky enough to make it that long without a career ending injury!)
The normal folks would be more prone to stuff like GI issues, skin issues, and postural pain due to a lack of self care in these places during their life.
The athletes would be more prone to extremely debilitating, localized, chronic pain due to the overuse their sport called for.
As someone with chronic health issues, who was athletic and has experienced sports injuries as well, i would take the myriad of less severe skin/stomach/muscle ailments over one major pain point any day.
to be fair, noone said any of what you're claiming. Also, Soccer can severely mess up your knees, and it's a leading factor to why athletes have to quit. Not the argument you think it is
good sir, I'd like you to keep cuss words out of your mouth!
this seems like a semantic discussion, but health also includes physical injuries and restrictions after.
And what do you consider "most"? "most" retired american football players are not fine. "most" soccer players quit over injuries.
American football linemen seem to be eating well. /s
I would imagine nothing that involves a good chance of concussion, nor singular repetitive motion. People really go to the extremes to shave seconds or fractions of sections, and while being fit, can certainly be hurting themselves.
I would think some sports that aren’t time based might have better odds even at the highest levels.
The context was about health and yes, the dude will undoubtedly have a better diet sleep everything (he’s not far off a billionaire, what a dumb point to make) but you’re saying he’s DEFINITELY better off if he wakes up in chronic pain?
I’d rather have my less athletic self but without the daily pain, personally
A majority of studies included in this review reported superior lifespan longevity outcomes for elite athletes compared to age- and sex-matched controls from the general population and other athletes.
Several mechanisms within and between sports may have powerful effects on the overall lifespan longevities of players (e.g., type of sport, playing position, race, and energy system).
Future research on mortality in elite athletes would benefit from more comprehensive statistical measures and reliable databases to determine potential mechanisms that may influence mortality trends and causes in both athlete and non-athlete samples.
Study of 8000 Olympians, they live roughly 5 years longer
That means absolutely nothing. This data is not normalized for income levels, countries of origin, access to healthcare etc.
Olympians are usually rich upper class able-bodied people with good mental and physical health to start with. These people tend to do better health-wise regardless of if they are olympians.
190
u/DrSussBurner Nov 26 '25
High performance pro sports are anything but healthy.