This article puts profound impact into the message that what you do after you are done playing will dictate if you live or die. It sounds like common sense but as the article states: “My doctor asked me, ‘How many 320-pound men who are 80 years old do you see walking around?’ That’s when the lightbulb came on over my head,” Mandarich said.
Lots of these guys are massive, mostly due to huge amounts of steroids, but also massive amounts of hard work in the gym. But I would say that the article applies not only to NFL players, but anyone who tips the scale at over 275lbs while playing in their chosen sport. It doesn’t matter who you are, Tony Mandarich weighed in at 325+ lbs, The Fridge was up to 370lbs but they are no different than the kid in college who is put in at nose tackle, or prop, or any position of brute power in order to take advantage of their bulk. I am sensitive to this because when I played rugby I was up around the 220lb mark. Once I left my rugby career behind I gained more weight in the gym, eventually rubbing up against 300lbs because I couldn’t drop “the armour” that men carry with themselves while they play sports. I still to this day consider my strength as my armour, something which I need to change if I intend to live a long and healthy life. There needs to be an understanding that strength, not weight, is a true measure of armour and that in order to be strong, you have to be at a weight that your skeleton, heart, lungs and organs can support comfortably.
In the next few years, we will say goodbye to a great many good men who will die before age 50 because they couldn’t face life outside their chosen sport and as a way of maintaining their persona, they maintained their weight. It’s very sad, but it’s one hell of a wake up call if you are over 40 and over 275lbs because for you, death is right around the next bend.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2313476
It’s not only American news outlets who are in the spotlight. Today the Star in Toronto let everyone down with a study of mice, extrapolating that the treadmill is the fountain of youth… *sigh* Don’t they know cardio on a treadmill is no use?