TO JOG OR NOT TO JOG

Okay, so I can predict by now that gym members and health fanatics that want to improve their body composition will always turn to some form of cardiovascular work.  They believe that as a result of running mile-after-mile they will burn lots of calories and therefore burn fat and improve health.  PFT believe in terms of losing body-fat this is the slowest way possible for anyone to gain in lean muscle tissue and reduce body-fat.

First of all you need to distinguish who told you this, was it someone on TV?  People who manufacture the equipment? A doctor or GP, most of which, by the way, have no idea on optimising human performance and health? A so-called diet guru who wrote a book? Or even possibly a friend who looks like they know what they’re doing? Or how about this one, fellow personal trainers: they will tell you that training in you 60% max heart rate you will stay aerobic and therefore burn glucose, fat and oxygen with a by-product of carbon dioxide and water. PFT knows this because this is what we were taught when we did our initial courses.  Let me ask you this, then, how many joggers do you actually know? We personally know lots and how many of them are fat?  Marathon runners we know, when calculating their body-fat are still overweight.  How many runners who had reduced their bodyweight through aerobic exercise significantly at the initial training phase are not really budging weight anymore and still look the same?  PFT can guarantee every jogger who runs by you in the street or runs on a treadmill is fat except for the 1% who know why they’re doing it.  How can everyone assume that they can only reduce weight if they run?  If the weight is not reducing then they’ll go that extra mile or an extra training session and yet nothing happens.  Are people that dumb?  Can they not see it isn’t working, do they not realise that they are just banging their head off a wall?  When you actually take a step back and look at what you are doing it doesn’t make sense does it?

Right, so, PFT thinks we’ve pushed some buttons now, so everyone who reads this is going to sit up and listen.  Who has less body fat?
A sprinter or a marathon runner?
Answer: a sprinter
A bodybuilder or a marathon runner?
Answer: a bodybuilder
So does this answer some questions?  If not, PFT will hit you with some more facts. The whole CV doctrine research is actually done by many CV equipment-manufacturing companies and that is why this information is sometimes questionable.  Many sport scientists have concluded that after the initial response of the body to stress its adaptation ability to long distance work will deteriorate, just like walking: after a day of walking you will be used to it.  Marathon runners have a higher chance to develop Alzheimer’s than boxers (Poliquin 2007).  Long distance work does not promote high, if any increase in lean muscle tissue or hyperplasia and if you don’t have enough glucose in the body then guess what? You’ll disintegrate!  That is why all marathon runners look screwed! Long distance work does not work the type 2a and type 2b fibres enough.  Jogging uses a lot of elastic energy stored in the SEC (series elastic components) and gathered kinetic energy and doesn’t use many muscle contractions to move the limbs because your body will always find the most energy-efficient way of moving, so in actual fact you don’t work that hard! (Imagine sprinting a marathon it’s just not possible!) The cyclic nature of jogging causes too much receptiveness and you are more susceptible to injuries and if you have a gait problem then you’re screwed! (Olympic lifters have less chance of getting injured than a runner yet those bad boys have 200 kg plus over their skull, have a think about that.)

So what is the answer?  Any form of high intensity or high volume training with or without resistance will significantly produce better results than any LSD (Long Slow Distance) work.  Example: doing 1/3 or 1/2 speed intervals at 1min with 30 secs rest in between each rep for 30 mins or even a high volume resistance program for example doing a split and doing between 20 – 30 sets per training session. This will depend on your recovery and how you periodise your program but these forms of training would quite frankly blow any results of long distance work out of the water. With this type of training, after topping the body back up with energy post exercise the body’s metabolism will not return to its normal rate for up to 20 hours as opposed to CV (cardiovascular) work due to the demand the body needs to recover.

These are just some of the facts and suggestions that relate to CV work.  Hopefully this will cause you to sit up and take notice and research into aerobic work and bodyfat loss.  Unless it’s for cardiac problems, health or a sport purpose then I can honestly say it’s a waste of your time and it’s boring as hell!  Doing high intensity or high volume work promotes more growth hormone and burns more calories, disrupts homeostasis for a longer period of time, has to generate more force from working muscles making them work harder and high intensity work increases lung capacity much better. PFT would much rather get a client doing high intensity training or high volume training instead if the purpose was to reduce body composition. You will achieve better results and faster and reduce the chance of getting any structural imbalance problems.

So to keep things short, guys, hopefully this will get you to sit up and realise that there are more appropriate ways of reducing bodyfat and if you have a personal trainer who tells you otherwise then send him to PFT and ask for your money back! We challenge any other personal trainer to tell us otherwise!