It was 40 years ago this month
Dr. Cooper told the folks to run.
It's been going in and out of style
Especially if you can't run a mile ...

Dr. Kenneth Cooper's Aerobics, one of the most important books in the history of fitness publishing, came out in March 1968. I have mixed feelings about the anniversary. If you've read The New Rules of Lifting or The New Rules of Lifting for Women, you know I take umbrage with this passage, which appears in the book's first chapter:

A similarly disputable argument appears in the introduction, written by Richard Bohannon, former surgeon general of the U.S. Air Force:

That was probably a good guess for 1968, and elsewhere in the introduction Dr. Bohannon is much more generous and expansive in his consideration that all types of exercise -- including those that maintain or improve joint mobility -- are valuable.

But it's wrong.

This study, published in 2007, suggests that three types of exercise are almost equally important for longevity:

I've cited studies in my books, and probably on MPF as well, showing that strength is correlated with longevity in men and women. The correlation between cardiovascular fitness and longevity is probably stronger, but it's pretty clear that muscular fitness matters for those seeking a longer, healthier life.

That said, this Japanese study suggests that all of us may be looking in the wrong places for correlates to longevity:

How about that? "Stepping rate," the one measure related to cardiovascular fitness, wasn't actually linked to a reduction in cardiovascular disease, although it was associated with a reduction in death from all causes combined. And why was strength linked to fewer deaths from pneumonia, of all things? And why wasn't cardio fitness associated with lower death rates from a disease that attacks the lungs?

(If you want to confuse yourself even more, ponder this: The same research group in Japan found that "chewing ability," of all things, was correlated with muscular fitness and strength in the elderly people they studied.)

The main problem many of us have with aerobics, which jumps out at me when I read the original Aerobics, is the idea that there is only one path to fitness and longevity, one measure that matters, and that's how often and how well you perform endurance exercise. We now know that "fitness" is more than just cardiovascular fitness.

The secondary problem we have is the way endurance exercise has been prescribed as a panacea for weight loss, which it surely isn't (as Alwyn Cosgrove likes to point out).

But aside from those two arguments, let's give Aerobics its due on its 40th birthday: If nothing else, it got people thinking about the importance of exercise.

Tuesday blog meat

• Fear of autism is leading parents to do the most illogical, irrational thing of all: deny vaccinations to their children. This is where junk science creates real harm to real people.
• Nate Green reports on the recent photo shoot for our upcoming book. (For the record, I really did notice the baby before I noticed the babes.)