I think this sums up my beliefs on running and the health aspects of the sport of running. My feelings are this – if you enjoy running and want to do it as a part of your physically active lifestyle, that’s fantastic, but be careful calling it exercise and for your health. Much of the discussion that Scotty Butcher brought forward over the weekend at the ICEP __ was related tot eh pros and cons of aerobic and HIIT style training. Many run for health and many run for the sake of believing it is good for their heart, but research shows us the exact opposite.
I understand that most people run for fun and are not competitive or even wish to be competitive with the sport of running, but tell me if this story sounds familiar. A beginner starts running and begins with a walk/run program thats main focus is to continue to increase the length of time that they are actually running. Lets use an example of a trainee running 2 min and then walking for 1 and then continuing to drop the rest periods each week until they can run a full 20 minutes (or any other given time). Then once they finally get to the full 20 minutes they then begin to push the intensity of the run – how much faster can they run for 20 minutes straight. After a while in this phase the logical next step is to continue running for longer distances and at higher intensities thus placing higher and higher load on the heart and circulatory system – I think a lot of people can relate to this example . This is a classic example of a “get healthy” or “learn to run” program promoted by many trainers and organizations across the world, but take a look at this video and then ponder if this approach is the best – maybe there is something better out there, but where?….. I think you know the answer.
