3 reasons why running doesn’t work

Jogging (any other type of long, slow distance training) is not an optimal training method. It can be downright bad for you. There I said it. Here’s why.

1. It doesn’t help you look good (this is a big problem, 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, to reality check … how many people who jog (see the treadmills in gyms or the runner on the street) look like those cover models? That’s right, not many (if there are any!). In fact, most runners look tired, bored, and unhappy (oops, it’s just their faces). Their bodies look soft, shaky, 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 provides.

What do most people need to look better than they do now? 2 simple things. More muscle (yes, even women, in the right places) and less fat. Scientific studies and real-world evidence show us that jogging provides neither. Without getting too scientific-nerdy-geeky (which I really enjoy), here are some results from those studies. You can see these results empirically in your jogging friends, as well as I in my clients who used to jog before discovering the truth.

Result A: Running doesn’t do more to lose fat than a good diet. Eating healthy is great for losing fat. Jogging adds NOTHING to it. Surprise !! This is also not 10 minutes a week. It’s 30-50 min 3 times a week! More than most brokers.

Result B: Jogging does nothing to 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 my way out.” What is the best way to survive in the jungle? It is using the least amount of calories possible so that we can live off less food. How do we do it? Your body orders its calories using parts to be disposed of. Only muscles use calories! Wow, there go your fat burning muscles, calorie burn and nice muscles.

So far, jogging is zero out of two on the look good score. And it gets worse! As you jog, you become more and more efficient at jogging. The gasoline efficiency of cars is good. Jogging efficiency 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 up the same amount of calories that you used to. This doesn’t just mean that jogging doesn’t work, it works the other way around!

2. Running does not help you in the “game” of life

OK, more real life. I just got back from my stint in the army reserve. All the men of Singapore must render this service to our nation. I am a military engineer. We build things and we explode things. In our training we NEVER had to jog to be successful in our missions. All of our critical tasks were related to the force. At no point would jogging have helped my men or did I perform those 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 things are related to the force! Carrying a growing child is a chore. So is changing a car tire, moving furniture, carrying supplies, running after the bus when it’s late, climbing stairs when the elevator is full – this list can be very long.

Another real life consideration is posture. Most people have bad posture. We hunch too much due to the large amount of time we spend in front of a computer at work and at school. This can cause headaches, neck and back pain (in addition to not looking as good as we could). Unfortunately, this head-forward pose is efficient for taking in oxygen while running and many runners do. So jogging makes a bad situation worse!

The next point is sobering. I spent time helping out in a place where older people gather for social support and to play simple games. It was very clear that the happy and healthy elderly were those who were strong, mobile and able to care for themselves without help. I could tell from their handshakes who were still in good shape and who were in poor health. I want to be strong until my last breath and I guess you do too.

The game of life is long. And many elderly people are left bedridden or immobile due to crippling health conditions. Guess what, aerobic capacity isn’t a huge determinant in our quality of life as we age. The two main determinants of an older person’s quality of life are leg strength and grip strength. These are indicators of lower and upper body strength and power (strength and especially power are quickly lost if we don’t train specifically for them as we age). These are maintained through resistance training, no more slow jogging. Many elderly people are left immobile due to falls and accidents that are due to lack of strength, not because they gasped while 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 in shape, you get in shape 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, football, or auto racing!

First, there is the question of the strength of the foot. Most people wear shoes all day and therefore have weak feet. Injuries to the ankle, heel, and sole of the foot, such as plantar facial injuries, are common because most people’s feet are not ready to take the blows.

Let’s go up to the 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 of the hit. For women, their naturally wider hips and less ideal biomechanics mean that knee problems are even more prevalent among women who jog.

Poor pelvic alignment means that even the lower back is taking much of the impact from the floor. With proper training, rehabilitation, and changes to your exercise routine, these problems not only go away, they get great results (meaning they look great and are painless).

So what can we do? Well, I always suggest sprints (quicker steps or faster) for my more experienced clients. Or ride an exercise bike for women and less experienced customers. These are done in the form of intervals, eg 30 second run / sprint. 90 second walk. These save our joints (running fast is hard on our muscles, not our joints, and there are fewer impacts in total) and give excellent results (here we go, results again! They are important!).

Running is definitely better than watching TV or surfing the Internet all day. But in reality it is a fairly low profit activity compared to the potential risks. There are much better alternatives, such as sprinting, sprinting (if you are a fit athlete), and total body resistance training with low 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 to do (also important for long-term success).

Conclution:

I hope runners don’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 current 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 a lot of time, why would we do anything less than ideal? Get off the treadmill and enter a well-designed resistance and interval training program.