Jogging Tip

Posts Tagged ‘Reasons’

Schwinn jogging strollers are an absolute necessity if you want to take your children with you while going on a jog. This increase in mobility also allows for greater independence as you can also bring your children while doing errands or grocery shopping. The following are just some of the reasons why baby strollers from this company are a must have in your home.

For most parents, getting exercise on a daily is important in order to keep their health in check but may be unable to leave the house with children present. Fortunately, Schwinn jogging strollers solve this problem by allowing you to jog through your neighborhood or down country lanes with your baby. This can prove extremely convenient for when you need a quick break from the house.

Plenty of features are also available which make these strollers even more appealing such as safety harnesses, padded seats and easy access to the handbrake. All these factors ensure that your baby is well protected and comfortable. Additional features also include reclinable seats and a canopy for even more comfort for your baby.

While many associate this brand to being expensive, this is simply not the case and great discounts can be found when you know where to look. Shopping at clearance sales at department stores and comparing prices at online retail sites is sure to save you a bundle of money even on brand new items. There are many more reasons to getting jogging strollers and these are just a few of them.

Keeping in shape is great! There?s no better feeling than knowing that your body is in a perfect condition and ready to face anything the world throws at it. But most people however find too many reasons why they can?t start jogging or do any other sports that would help them get in shape. I find it hard to believe that with even the busiest lifestyle one can have, you can?t find a few hours every week for yourself and for your body.

I?m not a motivational coach and if you?re not interested even the slightest, then I can?t convince you to do it. But if you?re thinking that it may be time to start being more active and all you need is just a little push, then I can quickly find ten reasons that will convince you to get started today.

There are many sports you can engage in, but the easiest is by far jogging. Here?s why it?s good for you:

Jogging will improve your health. No question about it, this is the main reason people get into jogging. Keeping the heart pumping and the blood running will improve the circulation and you?ll also keep your lungs in a great condition. The overall immunity of your body will increase ten fold. Since I started running and being more active in general, I never got so much as a cold or a headache. Running in the morning is a great way to start the day. Much better than a cup a coffee. A couple of miles in the fresh morning air will wake you up and will pump the blood throughout your body and all you?ll need after it will be a nice cool shower that will set you up for the day. You?ll be out in the parks more often. I bet you don?t spend as much time in the parks as you?d like to. Well, this is your chance to do it and discover hidden places in your neighborhood that you never imagined existed before. You?ll be surprised of how many beautiful secluded spots exist right in close proximity to your home. You?ll run into interesting people that enjoy the same passion for running and staying healthy as you do. It is most likely that you?ll make some new acquaintances and expand your social circle fast and, because of your enthusiasm, you?ll probably convince some of your own friends to join you and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Jogging is a great cardio exercise. Most people use the machines in the gym before or after their workout to keep the heart pumping powerfully and burn the fats. That great, but if the weather is great, why not take it outside? Go out and do your cardio in a park close to the gym and you?ll get a much better result because you?ll have fresh air, you?ll catch some sun and you?ll be out in the real world. You?ll stay in shape and loose more than just a few pounds. You can diet all you want and you will get results, but if you don?t change to a more active lifestyle where you do some sports regularly, the loss of weight will only be for a short wile. You?ll get more interested in an overall healthy lifestyle. You?ll find yourself researching ways to improve your diet, you?ll start noticing healthy vs. not-so-healthy activities that you do in a normal day and you?ll look for ways to change them. Jogging regularly, you?ll see how the places change week after week, month after month. You?ll be watching your city transform itself over time and you will feel more involved in the process. You?ll even feel the urge to volunteer for a project to do something to make your neighborhood more beautiful. To improve your performance, you?ll consider quitting smoking. It is proven that smoking does affect your lung capacity and it makes it harder to run for longer distances. I have friends who want to keep up with me when running, but can?t because they can?t get enough oxygen to burn. They?re not quite convinced to stop smoking yet, but they are thinking about it. With all the jogging equipment you can find today, your running experience will be easier than you ever imagined and you?ll be able to track every aspect you want, from the speed and calories consumed to the number of heartbeats and your level of sweating. With the wide range of sneakers designed to meet each requirement that a runner can ask for, you?ll not only run easily, you?ll feel like flying.

And these are just a few quick reasons from the top of my mind I came up with in a short five minutes. If I were to get more in depth about it, I could even come up with scientific and biological reasons for it, but I think I?ve made my point. Jogging is the simplest thing one can do to stay in shape and you should start today and improve your life.

Jogging, or any other from of slow, long distance activity, is not a good method of training. And it may even hurt you. Here is why…

1. It doesn’t help you look good (this is a big one isn’t it?)

Time for more honesty… 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 simply want to look toned. I would guess that an ideal “toned” physique for most people would be something like the bodies of those models on a health magazine like “Men’s Health” or “Shape”.

Now for the reality check… how many people who jog (see the treadmills in gyms, or the jogger on the street) look like those cover models? That’s right, not many (if any at all!). In fact most joggers look tired, bored and unhappy (oops that’s just their faces). Their bodies look soft, jiggly and not particularly impressive.

“Oh but maybe they are just starting out”. Well look at the people who have a jogging routine. Same people, same distance, same place, same gym etc. Take a look at them 12 weeks or even 1 year later. Yup. Same look or even fatter! I would suspect that all of us want RESULTS for our hard work. That’s fair! That is not what you can get from jogging.

What is it that most people need to do to improve their appearance from the way they look now? 2 simple things. More muscles (yes even women – in the right places), and less fat. Scientific studies, and real world evidence shows us that jogging provides neither. Without getting too science-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 jog, as well as by me in my clients who used to jog before they found out the truth.

Result A: Jogging does nothing more for fat loss than a good diet. Eating healthy is great for fat loss. Jogging adds NOTHING to it. Shocker!! This isn’t some 10 min a week either. Its 30-50 min 3 times a week! More than most joggers do.

Result B: Jogging does nothing for muscle gain. Jogging puts your entire body into “starvation mode”. The body thinks “I’m lost in the jungle that’s why I’m jogging so much to find my way out”. Whats the best way to survive in the jungle? It is to keep calorie usage as low as possible so that we can use less food and still survive. How do we achieve that? You body commands it’s calorie using parts to be jettisoned. Only muscles use calories! Oops there go your fat burning, calorie using, nice looking muscles.

As the score stands, jogging is none for two in the looking good department. And it gets worse! As you jog, you get more and more efficient at jogging. Efficiency in car petrol consumption is good. Efficiency in jogging to look good is bad! It means that you use LESS calories as you get “better” at jogging. Oh no! The reality of this is that you need to run further and longer just to use the same amount of calories as you used to. This doesn’t just mean that jogging doesn’t work, it works in reverse!

2. Jogging doesn’t help you in the “game” of life

OK more real life. I just got back from my stint in the army reserve. All the males in Singapore have to do this service to our nation. I am an army engineer. We build stuff and we blow up stuff. In our training we NEVER had to jog to succeed in our missions. All our critical tasks were strength related. At no time would jogging have helped my men or I perform those tasks successfully.

When was the last time you had to wake up and run 10km. Never? Yup, me neither. However just like my army story, real life stuff is strength related! Carrying a growing child is a strength task. So is changing a car tire, shifting furniture, carrying groceries, sprinting after the bus when you are late, climbing stairs when the elevator is crowded this list can get very long.

Another real life consideration is posture. Most people have poor posture. We slouch way too much due to alot of time spent at a computer at work and school. This can cause head-aches, neck-aches, and back-aches (in addition to not looking as good as we could). Unfortunately, this head forward posture is efficient for taking in oxygen while jogging and many joggers do this. So jogging makes a bad situation worse!

This next point is a sobering one. I spent some time helping out at a place where elderly 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 take care of themselves without assistance. I could tell by their handshakes who were still in good shape and who were having poor health. I want to be strong till my last breath and I assume that you do as well.

The game of life is a long one. And many elderly are left bed ridden or immobile due to crippling health conditions. Guess what, aerobic capacity is not a big determinant in our quality of life as we age. 2 major determinants of quality of life for an elderly person are leg power and grip strength. These are indicators of lower and upper body strength and power (strength and especially power are lost rapidly if we do not training specifically for them as we age). These are maintained by resistance training, not more slow jogging. Many elderly are made immobile because of falls and accidents that are due to a lack of strength, not because they ran out of breath as they climbed a flight of stairs.

3. Jogging isn’t that great for your health

There is a saying that I like “you don’t run to get fit, you get fit to run”. Its true, more than half of all people who start a jogging program get an injury within 6 weeks. That’s higher than most contact or high risk sports like rugby, American football, or car racing!

Firstly there is the issue of foot strength. Most people wear shoes all day and thus have weak feet. Ankle, heel, and sole injuries like plantar faciatis are common because most people’s feet are not ready to take the pounding.

Lets move up to the knees. Each foot strike has a impact 3-6 times body weight. All this 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 overly hard surfaces. Combine this with poor technique and muscle firing (again caused by poor posture and an inactive lifestyle) and the knees take more than their fair share of impact. For ladies, their naturally wider hips and less ideal bio-mechanics mean knee issues are even more prevalent among lady joggers.

Poor pelvic alignment means even the lower back is taking to much of the ground impact. With correct training, rehab and changes in their exercise routine, not only do these issues go away, but they get great results (i.e. they look great and are pain free).

So what can we do? Well i always suggest sprints (fast striding or faster) for my more experienced clients. Or sprints on a stationary bike for the ladies and less experienced clients. These are done in interval fashion e.g. 30 sec run/sprint. 90 sec walk. These save our joints (running fast is tough on our muscles not our joints, and there is total less number of impacts) and give great results (there we go, results again! they are important!).

Jogging is certainly better than watching TV or surfing the Internet all day. But the benefits are really quite low compared to the risks. There are far better alternatives like sprint cycling, fast running (if you are a well conditioned athlete), and total body resistance training with low rest intervals. All these alternatives give far 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).

Conclusion:

I hope joggers don’t take this article an 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 the current levels of inactivity, obesity, and other lifestyle related health conditions, we cannot afford to do anything less than optimal training. Even if we are blessed with loads of time, why would we do anything less than what is ideal! Get off that treadmill and into a well designed resistance and interval training program!