10 Reasons not to jog

Jogging – somewhere between walking fast and running slowly. Something you will see tens of thousands of people do, and if you ever ask them why... Well, theyre trying to 'get in shape' of course.

Jogging is, in my opinion, not the best way to spend 40 mins of your life. Yes is better than spending your life glued to your couch inhaling KFC. But in the pursuit of athletic performance or obtaining ideal body composition its about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Here - in no particular order are my top 10 reasons not to jog:

1 - Knee Health

The knee joint is a classic hinge joint protected from hyperextension by two thick crossed (hence 'cruciate') ligaments at the rear, and a cap of bone at the front.

Not a lot that can go wrong there right?

Picture for a moment what is going on inside the knee: the long, strong femur is resting on top of the tibia and fibula, the two long bones of the shin.

The contact area between the two bones is no more than 3cm in diameter.

Now anyone who has had their hardwood floor attacked by a pair of high heels can testify, focussing human bodyweight through a smaller surface area creates high pressure.

Within the knee joint we have a very focussed small surface area bearing the whole body weight. Stand on one leg and you double it.

Hop on one leg and you can add an impact force of 3 x bodyweight.

Jogging can essentially be considered an uninterrupted series of jumps from one leg to the other. Lets assume a 30 min jog, consisting of approx 4,000 heel strikes carried out by a 90 kilo male, we're looking at a cumulative force 540,000 Newtons being forced through each knee joint.

Now the knees of a 'trained' individual don't deal with anywhere near this amount of stress - they are able to use the bigger, stronger hip joints to deal with force absorption - however - for the sake of this article we are talking about the sedentary individual taking up jogging - not the trained athlete.

2 - Body Composition

So you want to 'get in shape' in what shape exactly?

As the highly regarded strength coach, and friend of mine Phil Learney put so perfectly “I challenge anyone to stand at the finish line of the London Marathon, and pick out a body shape they would like to have.”

I can, quite honestly talk all day about why jogging is not the answer for those looking to improve body composition. In summary you are working distinctly sub maximally, using your muscle as a fuel source, and elevating cortisol, joggers tend to make up the classic 'skinny fat' look.

 3 - Sport Specificity

For those of us looking to improve athletic performance, jogging is not the answer.

One of the fundamental principles of training is specificity, i.e, practise how you play. Unless you are competing in the slightly faster than walking pace 30 minute event (there may be one somewhere) there is absolutely no cross over between jogging and sport.

The closest you will get is a competitive distance runner. But even they do not jog – they run – their runs are progressive, varied, challenging, and relevant to their sport.

One of the other chief culprits for pointless road running is the combat athlete. You find me a boxer, judo player or MMA fighter who competes at a sub maximal steady pace for 30 minutes.....

Competitive fights are a series of 10-20 second sprints followed by periods of active recovery.

That is not to say that sub maximal steady state running does not have its place as part of a structured, specific, and progressive training programme. For some athletes it does, but the key point here is it is a prescribed part of the programme, it is not the programme itself.

4 - Get fit to run, don't run to get fit

Who are the most likely people to take up jogging?

Fat people of course.

Who are the worst population group to be subjecting their joints to repetitive impact? Those carrying around excessive weight of course

We considered the problems of repetitive impacts on the knee and the lower back – of a 90 kilo male?  Well now lets add another

10 kilos of non functional mass to him.... get the picture....?

For the significantly overweight and untrained the trick is to start to strengthen, and to modify the diet. Way before looking at adding lumbar disc injuries to the list of problems being endured.

5 - Lower back

Quick crash course on lower back problems. The majority of people complaining of 'bad backs' are experiencing pain around the L4 L5 region. In English they are the 4^th and 5^th lumbar vertebrae.

Why? If a person has poor posture, poor hip mobility, reduced core stability and an underactive posterior chain they will be highly likely to have an anterior pelvic tilt.

If you imagine the pelvis as a breakfast bowl – what this means is that the bowl is tipped slightly down at the front of the body. This is an incredibly common condition and is a result of spending a lifetime in flexion (sitting down) shortening the hip flexors, and under utilising the glutes, erectors and hamstrings.

Why is this all relevant? Because all of these factors lead to a hinging in the lumbar spine. Where will this hinging happen? At the body's centre of mass – which is where? At the L4 L5 junction.

Now lets think through which parts of the population are likely to have factors contributing to an anterior pelvic tilt, and who will be hinging from their lower back instead of their hips....

The sedentary population of course, likely to be overweight, and the most likely to be taking up jogging!

Anterior Pelvic Tilt perfectly demonstrated....  Despite appearences, not a good thing!

Without getting bogged down in the detail of biomechanics, there is a difference in the muscle recruitment patterns in jogging and sprinting. A jog is essentially a series of continual jumps, and is powered by the knee extensor and hip flexor muscle groups, there is of course significant assistance happening elsewhere - but you get the idea.

A sprint is powered by the hip extensors, the sprinter strikes the ground with the ball of the foot and drags himself forwards across it – the power comes from the glutes and hamstrings (show me a sprinter with a small ass!).

So – if we take our jogger – already likely to have all the predisposing factors for a lower back hinge – and send him out to do repetitive low intensity hip flexion what will happen?

Well, the hip flexors will become even more over active, the glutes relax to compensate, and we accentuate the pelvic tilt. Throw on top of that the fact that this hinge is being subjected to abnormal loading and we have ourselves a problem.

6 – Catabolism

Jogging will burn calories. OK – we all know that. Must be a good thing right? Not always....

A more appropriate way to describe it would be that jogging requires fuel. The myth that gets bandied around is if you dont eat, and go for a jog – then your body will start to use stored fat to fuel the run...  sounds simple enough? Well if only it were true.

The human body will take the path of least resistance on almost every occasion – it needs glucose for energy, yes it has the ability to convert both proteins and fats to glucose, but if there is glucose already there then why bother?

(side note – now you know why the person you see on the cross trainer for hours sipping on a Gatorade looks exactly the same as he did a year ago – direct source of glucose fuelling the work)

OK so we don't eat and go for a jog – surely that does it?

No. Fat is the most slowly digested of all macro nutrients – and the fat stored subcutaneously is a stubborn son of a b*tch.

If there is no glucose available in its simplified form, or that can be metabolised from carbohydrates, the next fuel source the body will turn to is protein. Yes that's right you will start to digest your own skeletal muscle tissue!

The order in which you will do this is least used will go first – so if your only activity is your repetitive quad dominant jog then the over active and hypertonic hip flexors and quads are reasonably safe – but say goodbye to any unused upper body muscle bulk. And that underactive posterior chain....? Yes you guessed it – its powering your jog, but not in the way you want it to!

7 - Lack of Adaptation

There is a very distinct difference between training and exercising. Training has a specific purpose, exercising is essentially moving from A to B.

The human body is the most complex thing in existence. It is pretty clever, and it doesnt like change. It will do everything it can (which is a lot) to maintain status quo – that doesnt mean subsidising some middle aged rockers – it means it likes things to be just as they are. It will adapt and whatever situation it is in will soon become normal. You know how when you walk in somewhere that really stinks – yet after a few minutes you don't notice it anymore...?

This is this phenomenon in practise – your brain has recognised the situation, adapted, and desensitised you to it – thus it has become 'normal '.

I'm over simplifying here – but the same thing is happening on a bigger scale with any stress or stimulus you subject the human body to, it will eventually adapt and it becomes the norm. The correct term is homeostasis or 'static man'.

This, folks, is a point I can not make strongly enough. Eventually you will adapt to whatever changes you have made.

Once you have adapted, the best you can hope for is standing still. You want to improve again you need to change again.

Don't get me wrong, if the first change was getting up and jogging for 20 mins 3 times per week you will see some sort of improvement on when you spent that 20 mins sat watching re runs of Friends.

However, I say it again, once you have become slightly more efficient at transporting oxygen around your body and some basic metabolic changes have taken place - your 3 x 20 min jogs will very quickly become normal, and you will achieve homeostasis at this level of activity.

My biggest issue with the jogging 'keep fitters' is the concept of doing the human equivalent of carbon offsetting. Do a few minutes of light activity per week and you can justify 8 pints and a Dominoes on a Friday night. Sorry folks, the brutal truth is it does not work like that. You have adapted to your activity level, you are now standing still, you throw a whole load of crap down your neck and you will be going backwards. Have a few weeks of going backwards, reach the decision that all this exercise stuff is pointless so you give up the whole jamboree.

You want to make changes to your athletic ability or to your body composition – then make changes to what you do. If you dont – then dont.

As Albert Einstein once said – repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.

8 – You want to be better, or a Beta?

OK lets get down to brass tacks here, but the gazelle - for all of his elegance, grace and endurance – is not t the top of the food chain.

Throughout the natural world, the king of the jungle is the one that has adapted for speed and power.

The silverback is the boss because get too close to him and he will remove your limbs. Not because he has a decent 5k time.

This may sound basic – but it is imprinted in our genetic code.

We look at sport, the heavyweight boxers have throughout history always been the big draw. The most watched event at the Olympics? The 100m mens final.

 Look at military officers, is it a co incidence that across the world, every culture has independently decided that a symbol of power is placing more and more decoration (or padding) on the shoulders?

We have evolved to look up to and respect those who were bigger, stronger, faster. This is something innately primal in all of us.

Instead of being afraid of it, or embarrassed by it – accept and embrace it.

 9 – Joggers Nipple

Pretty simple. You wants your nips to bleed? Then rub them up and down with a damp sticky shirt for an hour a day.

Feeding Dracula babies?

 And yes – this guy really has bled through his T Shirt, and his wind jacket

10 – Weather

For number 10 – you may think I'm clutching at straws here – but this is London. It is almost July. Take a look out of the window folks

To quote the sign outside Angel Undergound station:

“In the bible it rained for 40 days they called it a disataster. In London we call it summer”