Jogging (any other type of long, slow, long-distance training) is not an optimal training method. It can be downright bad for you. I said it there. Here’s why.
1. It doesn’t help you look good (this one is big, right?)
Time to be more honest… the main reason people want to start an exercise program is to look good. Nothing wrong with that.
Sure most people don’t want to look like a professional bodybuilder and most just want to look toned. I guess an ideal “toned” physique for most people would be something like the bodies of those models in a health magazine like “Men’s Health” or “Shape.”
Now for a reality check… how many people who jog (see the treadmills at the gym or the runner on the street) look like those cover models? That’s right, not many (if any!). In fact, most runners look tired, bored, and unhappy (wow, that’s just their faces). Their bodies look smooth, wavy, and not particularly impressive.
“Oh, but maybe they’re just getting started.” Well look at the people who have a jogging routine. Same people, same distance, same place, same gym, etc. Check them out 3 months or even 12 months later. Yes. Same look or even fatter! I suspect we all want RESULTS for our hard work. That’s fair! But that’s not what jogging offers.
What do most people need to look better than they do now? 2 simple things. More muscle (yes, even women, in all the right places) and less fat. Scientific studies and real-world evidence show us that jogging provides neither. Without getting too scientific-nerd-geeky (which I actually enjoy), here are some results from those studies. These results can be seen empirically by you in your friends who run, as well as by me in my clients who used to run before they knew the truth.
Result A: Running does not help fat loss any more than a good diet. Eating healthy is great for losing fat. Running adds NOTHING to it. Disgusting surprise!! This is also not about 10 minutes a week. It’s 30-50 min 3 times a week! More than most brokers.
Finding B: Jogging does not help you gain muscle. Jogging puts your entire body into “starvation mode.” The body thinks “I’m lost in the jungle that’s why I’m jogging so hard to find the exit”. What is the best way to survive in the jungle? It is using as few calories as possible so that we can live on less food. How do we achieve that? Your body orders its calories to be eliminated. Only muscles use calories! Oops, there goes your fat burning, calorie use, muscles that look good.
So far jogging is zero out of two on the good looks score. And it gets worse! As you jog, you become more and more efficient at jogging. The fuel efficiency of automobiles is good. Efficiency in jogging to look good is bad! It means you use LESS calories as you “get better” at jogging. Oh no! The reality of this is that you need to run longer and longer just to use the same number of calories as you used to. This not only means jogging doesn’t work, it works the other way around!
2. Running does not help you in the “game” of life
Okay, more real life. I just got back from my stint in the Army Reserves. All men in Singapore have to do this service to our nation. I am an army engineer. We build things and we blow things up. In our training we NEVER had to jog to be successful in our missions. All of our critical tasks were force related. At no time would jogging have helped my men or me to accomplish these tasks successfully.
When was the last time you had to get up and run 10 km? Never? Yes me neither. However, just like my army story, real life stuff is related to strength! Carrying a growing child is a tough task. So is changing a car tire, moving furniture, carrying groceries, running after the bus when it’s late, climbing stairs when the elevator is full—this list can be a long one.
Another real-life consideration is posture. Most people have poor posture. We slouch too much because we spend too much time in front of a computer at work and school. This can cause headaches, neck pain, and back pain (as well as not looking as good as we could). Unfortunately, this head-forward posture is efficient for taking in oxygen while jogging, and many runners do this. So jogging makes a bad situation worse!
The next point is sobering. I spent time helping out at a place where older people gather for social support and play simple games. It was very clear that happy and healthy elderly people were those who were strong, mobile and able to take care of themselves without help. I could tell from their handshakes who was still in good shape and who had health issues. I want to be strong until my last breath and I assume you do too.
The game of life is long. And many elderly are left bedridden or immobile due to crippling health conditions. Guess what, aerobic capacity isn’t a huge determinant of our quality of life as we age. Two main determinants of an older person’s quality of life are leg power and grip strength. These are indicators of lower and upper body strength and power (strength and especially power are rapidly lost if we don’t specifically train for them as we age). These are maintained with resistance training, not slower jogging. Many seniors become immobile due to falls and accidents that are due to a lack of strength, not because they ran out of breath climbing a flight of stairs.
3. Running is not so good for your health
There is a saying that I like “you don’t run to get fit, you get fit to run”. It’s true, more than half of all people who start a jogging program are injured within 6 weeks. That’s higher than most high-risk or contact sports like rugby, American football, or car racing!
First, there is the issue of foot strength. Most people wear shoes all day and therefore have weak feet. Injuries to the ankles, heels, and soles of the feet, such as plantar faciatis, are common because most people’s feet aren’t built to take a beating.
Let’s move up to our knees. Each step has an impact of 3 to 6 times the body weight. This all depends on the running mechanics, the shoe and the running surface. 3 times is a low estimate. Many times we have poor mechanics, poorly chosen shoes and surfaces that are too hard. Combine this with poor technique and muscle activation (again caused by poor posture and an inactive lifestyle) and your knees take more than their fair share of impact. For women, their naturally wider hips and less than ideal biomechanics mean that knee problems are even more prevalent among women who jog.
Poor pelvic alignment means that even the lower back takes a lot of the impact with the ground. With the right training, rehab, and changes to their exercise routine, not only do these problems go away, but they get great results (ie, they look great and feel no pain).
So what can we do? Well, I always suggest sprints (fast or faster strides) for my more experienced clients. Or races on a stationary bike for the ladies and less experienced customers. These are done in the form of intervals, eg 30 second run/sprint. 90 sec walk These save our joints (running fast is hard on our muscles, not our joints, and there is a lower total number of impacts) and give great results (here we go, results again! They are important!).
Running is certainly better than watching TV or surfing the Internet all day. But it is really a fairly low profit activity compared to the potential risks. There are much better alternatives like sprint cycling, sprint running (if you’re a well-prepared athlete), and total body resistance training with short rest intervals. All of these alternatives provide much greater benefits than jogging, take less time (VERY important for long-term success), and are more fun (also important for long-term success).
Conclusion:
I hope runners won’t take this article as a personal attack. I certainly don’t mean it that way. It’s just that in a fast-paced culture (with so little time to exercise) and with today’s levels of inactivity, obesity, and other lifestyle-related health conditions, we can’t afford to do anything less than optimal training. . Even if we are blessed with lots of time, why would we do anything less than is ideal? Get off the treadmill and get into a well-designed interval and resistance training program.