Slow Joggers

With spring in the air, I have seen a number of joggers hitting the streets in Vegas.  Unfortunately, I think the probability of these individuals getting in shape this way is very low.

Don't get me wrong, I've run lots of races and even a marathon.  But jogging, especially slow jogging, is not an easy way to get in shape.  There are a number of reasons why.  First, most people do not have good running form, which increases the likelihood of injury and therefore decreases the likelihood of any fitness progress.  Running is one of the few sports where people think no skill is necessary, that you just "lace up and run".  In a perfect world, this would be true.  Certainly, our Stone Age ancestors didn't take running classes.  But they had two significant advantages in developing running form: 1) they ran their whole lives, and 2) they ran barefoot.

The extent that running shoes destroy proper running form cannot be overstated.  In a previous post, I discussed wearing flat shoes for running, such as my personal favorite the Puma H Street.  These other ridiculous running shoes with massive heels make it almost impossible to run correctly.

Slow jogging also misses out on pushing the body into the high-intensity zone.  For example, studies have show that just adding sprints to a program of jogging rapidly increases fitness.  Slow jogging is a strange animal, because it is neither walking nor running.  Far better in my opinion is to have a "barbell aerobics strategy", as fitness author Clarence Bass calls it.  This means to doing lots of low-intensity work (walking), and a bit of high-intensity work (sprinting). 

Slow jogging doesn't yield many benefits and can often lead to injury.  There are better and easier ways to get in shape than "pounding the pavement."