Is running bad for you and why did it become a sign of fitness in our culture?

Ok it's the new year and I need to lose weight.... I think I'm gonna go get that gym membership finally. Yeah I have that nagging back pain but I won't let it get in the way of training and I will just work it away...I think once I lose the weight my back wont have to support so much and I will feel better. I'm gonna go get that membership and start a running regimen and use a couple machines....

Unfortunately I think this is the thought process of the average gym goer who wants to lose weight. I can already hear it: is Matt going to tell me I shouldn't even run anymore? Is he going to start a new cult? What a weirdo.

On the contrary I would love for everybody to be able to have a nice healthy run. Humans were born to move. Running (or jogging) makes us feel good. When I say running in this post, it can mean any steady, and long distance cardio. It is not an accident that we feel great after a workout. We pushed our bodies to new limits, burned some calories, and decreased our resting heart rate all at the same time. These are good things.

In his book Supertraining, Dr. Mel Siff explains the "divergence of training philosophies". He states that, "the development of different scientific and educational cultures in the West and the East had a profound impact on the growth of the different aspects of strength and general fitness training." Yes that Rocky IV montage of Ivan Drago getting injected and having his neck being twisted in that cool machine while running laps in a dimly lit gym are true. Just kidding... kinda.

The Cold War

Siff goes on to explain that, "the increasing idealogical isolation of nations and well-protected prestige of sporting success meant that research in all fields, including sport, took different directions." He then explains that the "West" veered sharply towards the direction of cardiovascular fitness, and "assuming great impetus with the running for health and 'aerobics' crazes, associated closely with Swedish endurance exercise and popular fitness books such as Kenneth Cooper's Aerobics."


Cooper's book came out in 1968 and in 1969 Jacki Sorensen came out with her Aerobics dance class aimed at Air Force wives who were stationed in Puerto Rico (that information doesn't need a reference because it is not important). I had to take an aerobics class for my major last semester (yeah we are that far behind) and it was brutal and pointless. Unfortunately women cling to the idea that aerobics is the greatest thing ever. Trust me, it is not. They should be correlating athletics into what they want their body to look like. Athletes are generally skinny and look "in shape". Do they do aerobic dance moves all day? HELL NO. They train with high intensity sprint and agility drills. They train with progressively heavier weights. Having said that, I am definitely not advocating going out to the local football field, setting up some cones, and running suicides. You might not be ready for that.

Running seems like it would be a holistic exercise. It is just a series of single-leg bounds over and over and over. Running is not only determined by your cardiovascular level (heart strength, HR, VO2max etc...) but your movement. Ah yes, Matt's favorite buzzword, movement. Running is just like lifting weights in that it is a stress to one's body. Lets take a common movement dysfunction: knee valgus.

Girl landing from a jump off a box. Hurts just looking at it.

Her problem is pretty common, especially in female teenage athletes. It is NOT that her jumping mechanics are jacked up. She might be able to fix that just by a coach's verbal cue. Her femur is rotated inward from her hip. Her glute muscles have not been used in 15 years. Her low back probably arches in. Next time her coach tells her to go run, she will always default to that movement, especially after fatigue sets in. Looks like she needs some strength training. Oh wait, she has to be game ready so she needs to run more to build up her heart. Dumb.

After screening so many of the general public, I have yet to find one with great movement. The average person has some sort of dysfunction. Just telling clients what they should do and look like while they move is not enough. They must feel it. They must change the quality of the tissue. They must gain mobility in their joints and use that new found mobility. They must reinforce that new mobility with stability. We don't just stretch anymore, we also mobilize. Sometimes people need to see a therapist to release tissues surrounding common "locked" areas such as the hamstring, back, or neck.Simply cueing good running stance does not work. Our body needs to be reset and feel what is correct.

I am not here to talk trash about running. Like I said before, it has many positives. The problems come when people do not supplement their running habit or sport with strength training, stretching, and some tissue work. Running does NOTHING to reinforce good movement. Strength training certainly does and my clients have felt it. It is a common misconception that weights will add bulk to the body and make you slower. That is just not true. Another common misconception is that weight training is hard on the joints. Wait a minute, that is actually true! That sounds like a stress to the body! What ever would your body do to accommodate strength training..... lets see....Oh yeah it reinforces joints and tissues to make them stronger! Do you think that only muscles grow bigger and stronger? Many things in the body do. We adapt, and it is pretty damn cool.

Running is inherently different than strength training because we have many different types of muscle fibers. Some respond to endurance (slow twitch type I), and some respond to increased resistance (fast twitch type II).

I applaud all of those who are interested in either losing weight or running for leisure and sport. Those are not bad things, but there are safer and better ways to lose weight than just long, steady, slow distance running. But how come all my friends finished the marathon and 5ks and they are OK? I don't know, maybe they train with Matt, maybe they are in denial of their joint pain, maybe they have never sat at a desk for 8 hours, or maybe they were just born to run (I hate Bruce Springsteen). So before you head to the gym and step on the treadmill, put a towel over the digital number of calories and time, strap on your iPod, and start running, always ask yourself: Do I deal with pain, and is running worth feeling that pain? Does running make the pain worse? Would I be better off learning how to squat with one leg for my own health and aesthetic goals?

Next time.... Alternatives to running: the science of fat loss and high intensity interval training!