Ralph Paffenbarger’s slight frame and silver-gray hair get lost in a sea of dark suits in the hotel lobby. But when he comes closer, the trademarks of the father of the fitness movement–the running shoes, the belt buckle the size of Texas–give him away.
They’re badges. He earned the buckle by finishing the Western States National Endurance Run, a nightmare 100-mile race across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, under the 24-hour deadline. He has five more stashed away in his home safe in Berkeley, Calif.
The epidemiologist was in Chicago recently to attend a reunion at Northwestern University Medical School. Despite a nonstop agenda, he will finally take a long-awaited architectural tour of the Loop. When he was in medical school several decades ago, he was too busy delivering babies at Evanston Hospital.
He’s an icon among epidemiologists and exercise professionals for his Herculean research, started in 1960, called the College Alumni Health Study (also called College Study). It explores the relationship between physical activity and risk of death and longevity and gave birth to fitness guidelines and prescriptions. Today, at 78, Paffenbarger gives hope to couch potatoes and those who fear growing old.
Colleagues use words like tenacious to describe his pursuit of work and exercise. In his heyday, the self-described “hambone runner” chalked up more than 150 marathons and ultra-marathons. He trained in his World War II combat boots and ran his first Boston Marathon in new white deck shoes. By the 26th mile, he was minus nine toenails and his shoes were stained red with his blood. He still has the shoes.
Not bad for a guy who started jogging at 45.
There’s less speed in his step and he blames aging for his shrinking frame. He used to be a couple of pounds lighter than 150 and stood an inch taller than 5 foot 6.
He carries a briefcase to interviews just in case he needs to fact-check. When attempts to pronounce his last name stumble, he waves it off with “that’s good enough. Everyone calls me Paff.” Associates and friends talk more easily about the man and his achievements than he does.
Many of his research papers were co-authored with Steven Blair. “It’s silly, at 61 years old, to say you have a mentor,” explains Blair, director of research, Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research, Dallas. “But it’s true. Paff’s vision and dedication as a scientist have influenced me.”
The College Study tracked exercise habits of more than 27,000 University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University alumni with periodic questionnaires as they moved from youth through middle age and into old age. The results show that people who are more physically active live longer and have a lower risk of death from heart disease and other causes. The study found that by expending 1,500 to 2,000 calories per week in vigorous movement, people can live better and longer and prevent or reduce illnesses associated with lifestyle and aging.
The study continues today. Most of the participants are between the ages of 60 and 100. It is conducted by a staff of five at Harvard University and two at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“All policies and guidelines on fitness, exercise and disease prevention by groups such as the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine are molded by Ralph’s work,” says Terence Kavanagh, a friend and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at University of Toronto. Paffenbarger’s recent coronary disease problems, including a bypass, forced him to give up running in 1993. Kavanagh and Blair had shared many miles with him. “He’s a much better runner than me, but he always seemed happy to plod along at my pace,” says Blair.
Cardiologist Noel Nequin uses Paffenbarger’s data in his practice as director of cardiac rehabilitation at Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago.
“Back in the ’60s, Ralph documented what doctors tell patients today about exercise and fitness,” says Nequin. “His work will be etched in stone.”
Paffenbarger’s wife, JoAnn, is a clinical nurse and ultra-marathoner; his first wife, the mother of the couple’s six children, died following a long illness. Subsequently, two sons died in separate accidents. His daughter and three sons live in California, Oregon and Michigan. He commutes daily to Stanford University Medical School, where he’s professor of epidemiology, emeritus. He travels frequently to Harvard University, where he’s an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health. A staff there directs the College Study, headed by I-Min Lee, a Malaysian-born physician and researcher.
“I didn’t know enough about him or his work to be awestruck when I met him,” recalls Lee, of their meeting in the late ’80s. “He was just this really nice guy. In the world of research, which can be competitive and backstabbing, he destroys the stereotypes.”
His lifestyle rubbed off on her. She changed her sedentary ways. “When people heard I was working on the College Study, I was too embarrassed not to exercise.” Now, the two hike and indulge in sundaes or chocolate when Paffenbarger’s wife isn’t looking.
“Paff has this habit of picking things up during a hike and saving it,” Lee says. “Pennies, papers, anything. Once, he picked up a GI Joe toy. Every kid we’d pass, he’d stop and ask if they dropped something.”
Ronald Lawrence describes him as “childlike” and “guileless.”
“His work is classic,” says the Los Angeles-based physician, now retired, and founder of the American Medical Athletic Association. “He brings a sense of equanimity and tranquility to everything and everyone.”
Despite his wife’s urging to slow down, Paffenbarger continues to work out of love. He partners on research. Currently, it’s breast and ovarian cancer.
He intends to study the connection between health and wellness to human relationships. On the agenda is updating “LifeFit” ($16.95, Human Kinetics), a reader-friendly book he co-authored on exercise and fitness in 1996.
Walking has replaced running, which he sorely misses.
“It gave me a social life, a reason to travel. I scheduled races around medical conferences and met wonderful people. My wife thought I was silly. Many people thought I was a little nuts,” Paffenbarger says.
A Web site created by friends as a tribute chronicles his accomplishments, his fastest and slowest times and most ludicrous races. Photos show a skinny runner with sturdy legs, an academician against a tree in Harvard Square, looking Ivy League in khakis and blazer. Running shoes continue to be a wardrobe staple. He buys one pair, annually, on sale. For dinner-jacket affairs or when he goes to Europe to receive honors, he wears the black ones.
The man who rouses couch potatoes to move, sweat and raise that heart beat admits those extreme distances may have gone beyond the basic requirements he writes about. But he defends his fun by saying that everyone has a little competitive side. When asked what’s the difference in mindset between a marathoner and an ultra-marathoner, he says that it’s just about keeping your head down and going a bit further.
Back in the late ’70s, Eric Olsen pestered his neighbor for months to do an interview about the Western States race. But the doctor had no time.
Eventually, Paff made some. The two became friends and Olsen co-authored “LifeFit.” It took four years of Saturday breakfasts at Paffenbarger’s.
“He did the thinking, I did the writing. JoAnn cooked low-fat stuff for him, and added scones for me,” recalls Olsen. The association paid off. Olsen eventually dropped 50 pounds from his 6-foot-4-inch frame through exercise and diet.
The longevity of his own life surprises Paffenbarger. He has outlived all males in the family, which hails from Columbus, Ohio. Most died in their 50s from heart disease. Paffenbarger’s will to live got him through several heart attacks and surgeries, including his bypass. He has a pacemaker. The silver bracelet, a medical alert device worn by heart patients, “lets me know when I misbehave.”
The man who took up jogging at mid-life “because that’s what the subjects in my study did, and it convinced me,” never stops moving. When asked about his daily walking regime, he pauses and glances toward the belt buckle to consult a pedometer.
“Nearly three miles, so far.”
PAFFENBARGER’S PRESCRIPTION IS TO GET MOVING
Don’t sit. Stand, move and sweat. Push the heart rate. Do something.
Any movement is better than nothing in order to attain and maintain fitness and enhance the quality of living and aging.
That, in a nutshell, is the fitness prescription and philosophy of “LifeFit,” an exercise program by Ralph Paffenbarger based on research, started in the ’60s, by the epidemiologist. Medical professionals regard the work as the foundation of the fitness movement.
The 78-year-old researcher offers no miracles, only 40 years worth of data from his College Alumni Heath Study. In 1960, he began to track the exercise and lifestyle habits of 50,000 college students–sedentary, active and athletic–from campus years through middle age into old age. Today, questionnaires go to 27,000 participants whose ages range from 60 to 100.
The book includes case studies of individuals of all ages who walk Paffenbarger’s talk.
Highlights include the following tips and advice:
– Make time for fitness. Treat the body right: Quit smoking, eat moderately, reduce stress and savor indulgences. The benefits of exercise include preventing or minimizing disease, enhancing the quality of living, giving more independence during the aging process, raising moods and increasing energy and vigor.
– Heed the command “take it easy” as a warning. Today’s lifestyle and conveniences encourage a sedentary lifestyle.
– Start slowly, especially if you are sedentary. Aim to stay on the feet instead of lounging. Putter around. Standing strengthens muscles and carrying your own weight burns calories.
– Sweat. Gradually add more activity, such as gardening, walking, dancing. Aim to add activities that burn more calories per hour. Aim to burn 1,500 to 2,000 calories more per week in vigorous movement (walking, cycling, swimming, jogging). The activities should involve large muscle groups. Any conversation exchanged during these activities should be halting.
– Invest in exercise to enhance life with better moods, more energy and a more positive outlook to face and handle life’s challenges. The benefits of exercise are to forestall, prevent or minimize disease, and enable people to grow older as productive, independent and able to perform simple tasks without assistance.
– Gradually increase the intensity and duration of exercise to lose fat and build muscle. The activity needs to be done three to five times a week at an intensity that raises the heart rate to between 60 to 90 percent of its maximum and keep it there for 15 to 20 minutes.
— Margaret Sheridan
