Regular exercise improves overall health and greatly reduces the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease. However, as recently pointed out by the American Heart Association, more exercise is not always better. Indeed, there is growing evidence that long-term, sustained, high-volume exercise may increase risk for negative cardiovascular side effects. Thus, as participation in ultramarathon grows, there is a
critical need for an improved understanding of the acute and chronic cardiovascular implications of this lifestyle.
The purpose of our study is to examine the acute cardiovascular implications of ultramarathon participation. We will use novel, rapid, and non-invasive techniques to collect a host of cardiovascular measures before and after the race. Our primary measures of interest will be aortic arterial stiffness and central blood pressure. With your help, our findings will help to better inform athletes and clinicians of the health consequences of extreme endurance exercise, and may aid in the identification of certain intrinsic (e.g., sex, race) and/or lifestyle (e.g., training volume, sleep habits) characteristics that predispose an athlete to undesirable cardiovascular health changes.
***All participants will receive an immediate report of their aortic arterial stiffness and central blood pressure measures with normative values.***
For more detail about the study, please see the following link:
If you are interested in participating, please complete the questions below and a member of the research team will be in-touch shortly. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Grosicki via email at
ggrosicki@georgiasouthern.edu