Why Running May NOT Be For You
- 6 Reasons to be wary of running
- Do you fall into these categories?
It’s easy to understand why running is popular amongst people aspiring to change their lives; it’s free, it’s easy, you feel great after and can train alone. However, there are some reasons why you should not do running. Having run three marathons, I can speak from experience and here are my thoughts / 6 reasons to be wary…
1) Posture Issues
Should you be in a position where you are sat down most of the day, long distance cardio will only make this worse.
Hunching forward and repeating the same movement is not good for the body. Particularly if you do not do any form of corrective exercises.
Balance is vital so remember to use stretching and strength training in your routine. Arthritis, osteoporosis and other degenerative conditions are becoming more popular – so the solution is to strengthen the body via resistance training.
2) Weight Loss Goals
If you’re using running alone as your means of weight loss then I urge you to change your routine.
Only doing cardio will not assist your goals. Building lean muscle will ensure that your body is burning fat at a faster rate due to the energy required to maintain muscle.
Cardio will eventually lead the body to shutdown. Controversial but look at the build of marathon runners and their lack of immune wellbeing (I can say that having been a marathon runner). Have room for both in your training regime.
Weights and cardio is the best routine.
3) Injuries
Running is a repetitive based exercise. The same movement performed an infinite amount of times – whilst this is fundamentally good for the “practice equals perfect” mantra, the human body soon succumbs to injuries.
What’s worse is that runners generally continue to train through being impatient and normally having race deadlines to train for. It’s imperative that you include variety like cycling and swimming to develop the body on numerous levels and challenge yourself besides keeping it interesting!
Cycling, swimming and running all involve different muscle groups so it’s good to challenge the body in other ways besides preventing boredom.
4) Strain on muscles / Shin Splints
Running has a particular set of injuries associated with it. These fall mainly into shin splints, muscle tears and lower back injuries (see the points above).
Doing too much too soon will give you shin splints. Overtraining without recovery will lead to muscle tears and failing to correct your technique can lead to postural issues.
I loved alternating between spinning and running when I did my marathon training (and it got me great results with my legs being stronger). Cycling your training (literally) is the best way to train at a high intensity, require less rest and progress faster.
5) Strength / Lean Physique
Running alone will not improve your physique. If you look at the general body type of a marathon runner (even against that of a shorter distance runner) you will see what u mean.
Marathon running eats into the body’s reserves of muscles, fat and everything in between. So to maintain strength, there is a trade off between resistance and cardio – obviously depending on your ultimate goals.
Lifting in the gym is GUARANTEED to boost running performance (if your routine is correct – see the RYPT app for help on that).
6) Calories
When marathon training, I used to justify excessive calories on the fact that I would burn them off on the next run. Yes, this is true but it doesn’t create a healthy attitude towards food.
Normally this would be when I was training after work but wanted to run before a heavy meal. Inevitably I would snack on high fat, calorie dense foods but this wasn’t the best for overall wellbeing.
It is a case of justifying poor eating on a healthy exercise regime and this shouldn’t be the case. Eating well, training well and having a healthy lifestyle is the key to quick weight loss but it needs to be incremental.
Use low Glycemic-Index foods prior to running so that you have energy without sacrificing health. The GI index measures the volume of sugar in foods and scales it according to a healthier release of energy which can be tailored to your training. The higher the number, the quicker a food releases energy (and should be used sparingly in the diet).
Have a think about these and let me know what you think. Drop me an email for more help (ross@rypt.info)
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Ross Yeoman
RYPT Owner
Visit www.RYPT.info
