A half dozen years back Jaron and I were conversing about good cardio options for long term health, joint longevity, and overall systemsustainability. He listed off a full catalogue of exercises; stationary bike, road cycling, hiking, incline treadmill, swimming, Stair Master, elliptical, rowing machine, speed mall walking... not really the last one, that one is an inside joke. "Wait!" Said I, so smugly the tourist in the land of fitness I was in those days; "What about running?" In his deadpan sense of humor he said, "I only run from bears and cops." Luckily his rough and rowdy past has aged out of the latter's necessity and presently all he must worry about is the former escaping our circus act.
In the two years under his wing Jaron has only assigned a few brief running speed interval sets. I will let the Master of Muscle Mayhem address his logic. (Make sure you read his comment, it'll be worth the price of the ticket!) Running to me is a high that I can live without -- even though I have experienced a runner's high it is an exercise that beats my body to a pulp. The return on running's investment holds as much value in my long view fitness play as a Confederate nickel on Time Square. In no way does that dampen my desire to run a marathon in the next few years, I just know now that I could be repaying that debt until my dirt nap.
Jaron will give you a funny, but coincidentally scary, anecdote on the finite heart beat theory. It'll make you rethink that dream of training for, and conquering the Badwater Ultramarathon.
People we got more stories than the Empire State Building!
Calories in vs. calories out, we all know this, but not all calories are created equal. Running burns a hell of a lot of them, just not usually the good kind. Picture two "runners", a marathon runner, and a track and field sprinter. Both run, very different body types. One employs sustained endurance heart rates near or above their anaerobic threshold, the other employs high intensity interval training (HIIT). Given that every pound of muscle in our bodies burns roughly 50 calories per day, which body type is going to ensure life long weight maintenance? So to be more specific, anaerobic training relies on glycogen stores from our muscles as its main source of calorie consumption. As you lose weight, that weight comes from muscle, diminishing one's metabolism, or daily output of calories, and actually increases body fat percentage. Unless you are geeked about eating rabbit food for the rest of your life you may want to hang up those New Balances. As a trainer, this merely scratches the surface of my disdain for running. Running, like Crissfit, will reduce you to a Quasimodo level cripple in short order. I remember a line from an obscure Baz Luhrman song from the 90's, "be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone". Write that down. The repetitive stress on your knees, arches, lower back, and shins is simple not worth it. People lose focus of their primary goals in pursuit of bucket list items, like the all too common, "run a marathon". Pursuing such endeavors will derail the more important goals of building lean muscle mass, decreasing body fat, and having enough leeway in your diet to have an occasional double double animal style. I always urge a new client to prioritize their goals and gear their program to accomplish those most desired. If there are conflicting goals, as is often the case, setting aside a lesser goal is the regrettable solution.
ReplyDeleteAs for the finite heartbeat theory Ole JT eluded to, I would classify it as an anecdote, and an unsubstantiated one at that. Here's the gist: your heart is a muscle that will eventually wear out, and you only have so many heartbeats in a life time. Why, then, do we advocate elevating your heartbeat for an hour or more a day? Would this not send us to an early grave? Of course not. Maybe the infirmary, if it's running, but the idea is that exercise will result in a lower resting heart rate, which means the hour that you elevate your heart rate daily will decrease your heart rate the other 23 hours of your day. And a muscle exercised regularly, will be stronger, resulting in more potential beats before wearing out.
I am sure we will have our critics on the running topic, but I'll steal a line from Neil deGrasse Tyson, exercise is a science, and "the beauty of science is that it is fact based; you don't have to believe it, for it to be true". So, run from bears and cops if you must, run to the bank, run to the restroom, but mall walk for fitness.