Intense exercise may increase calcification

Physiology
1

A new, counterintuitive research came out pointing toward high intensity exercise creating more calcification than lower intensity in males 45 +. Lower intensity exercise with increased volume did not have this effect.

“Exercise intensity, but not volume, was correlated with the progression of coronary atherosclerosis. The impact of vigorous exercise was found to be less effective in CAC progression; however, very vigorous exercise was associated with a more significant progression of CAC and plaque (calcified). This finding is in line with cross-sectional MARC-1 observation that revealed specific exercise intensities rapidly enhance the development of calcified plaque.”

You can read an article on it at: Intense exercise encourages coronary artery calcification

2

They say vigorous exercise which does not mean high intensity by our commonly understood definitions. Vigorous being anything over 6 METs.

I’d also be wary of questionnaires in this age of wearables and long histories of data from GPS etc.

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3

You’re right, vigorous is really not that hard. In this study, they separated the vigorous from the very vigorous. It was the very vigorous, not the vigorous, that had the greatest change (bold is mine):

“The impact of vigorous exercise was found to be less effective in CAC progression; however, very vigorous exercise was associated with a more significant progression of CAC and plaque (calcified)”

The more intense the exercise, within the very vigorous level, the higher the rate of plaque progression:

Very vigorous exercise was also associated with increased odds of dichotomized plaque progression (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.09 [1.01 to 1.18] per 10% vs 2.04 [0.93 to 4.15] for highest vs lowest very vigorous intensity tertiles, respectively), and specifically with increased calcified plaques (aOR, 1.07 [1.00 to 1.15] per 10% vs 2.09 [1.09 to 4.00] for highest vs lowest tertile, respectively).

The study’s conclusion:
Exercise intensity but not volume was associated with progression of coronary atherosclerosis during 6-year follow-up. It is intriguing that very vigorous intensity exercise was associated with greater CAC and calcified plaque progression, whereas vigorous intensity exercise was associated with less CAC progression.