This is a follow up to my previous post titled “ Cardio Conumdrum: Why what you think about cardio might be wrong.” If you haven’t read it I highly suggest you do.

*Before we start, a quick congrats to my buddy Chad Landers on Karen’s awesome Oscar victory today. Awesome stuff as always

In one of the paragraphs I wrote that I dislike jogging. Ok I do not just dislike, but I think that jogging SUCKS! As I write this my hater alarm is already tingling and I believe it will not stop any time soon.

Before you hate on me and crucify me for heresy, read this post get a rough idea on why I think jogging sucks. After reading it and you still find me heretical then crucify me.

For the most part, I see people associating jogging with a workout. After their 45 minute jog, they walk into the house panting with a bright light shining from behind as they majestically tell everyone they just had a good workout.

To me, jogging is never considered a workout (except if jogging is part of your marathon/sport training), especially if you are just doing some recreational jogs and never force yourself to do something tougher.

I also feel that jogging is unnecessary for the general population who just wants to look kick ass when their clothes are off. It’s a sad fact that some personal prescribe a 45 minute jog as the only way to look awesome naked.

If this is your personal trainer, run far far away. Don’t even return to the gym you train at any more  You might as well watch the entire Twilight series 5 times in a row. It’s that bad.

Jogging is pretty darn boring

Think of cardio as your best friend. You are probably going to meet him/her for the rest of your life. The reason why jogging can never my best friend is because I find jogging BORING. Jogging on the treadmill? DOUBLE BORING!

Some might say low intensity steady state exercise(LISS) can be as boring.

However when I do fasted walks ,I focus on everything else besides the walk. I am usually listening to an audio book and actually concentrating on the information I’m listening to. If I’m not, I’ll just take some time and walk, reflect and think while focusing on nature. It’s pretty therapeutic I tell you.

When it comes to jogging, I find it hard to actually concentrate on any information from the audio book. Moreover how can you focus on nature and engage in some therapeutic vibe when you are panting while looking at your watch waiting for the 45 minutes to be up?

Bottom line: Jogging can’t be my best friend because it’s boring, non therapeutic and not audio-book friendly.

Jogging might not support my muscle building goals.

Another reason why jogging can never be my best friend is because it goes against my muscle building goals of looking jacked.

To a certain extend jogging  does goes against your muscle building goals. Studies have shown that people performing traditional jogging for long periods at 60% of your heart rate resulted in around 30% decrease in muscle protein synthesis.

That might sound like confusing science to you. To simply explain, in order to build muscle we want to maximize our muscle protein synthesis. Given the right training stimulus and muscle protein synthesis will allow us to grow muscle and look kick ass. So if jogging is the friend that hates on your muscle why would you do it anyway?

Some physique competitors who are preparing for a show normally consume less calories than usual. To further enhance fat loss, jogging is added to burn more calories

With the extremely low calorie consumption and their jogs one would think they would end up extremely ripped. However it is surprising that fat loss seem to halt.

This is due to metabolic damage. Metabolic damage is when your metabolism goes down the drain and burning fat seems harder than persuading Terry Crews to stop bouncing his Pecs.

Bottom line: Best friends don’t let best friends lose muscle. I’m sorry jogging; looks I’m crossing you off the list.

Jogging might cause me to get hurt.

Lastly, this is by no means backed by scientific research. It’s just something I had in my mind which I feel should be shared with all my readers.

This theory is based on the law of repetitive motion. This law(not the theory) is something popularized by Jedi Master Eric Cressey in his Building An Efficient athlete DVD.

Eric is somebody I have learned a ton from and someone that influences the way I train myself and others.

The law of repetitive motion can be shown through the equation I=NF/AR. The meaning of the equation is:

(I)njury equals the (N)umber of repetitions multiplied by the (F)orce of those repetitions, divided by the (A)mplitude of each repetition times the (R)est interval.

So lets put the 3 “cardio” methods into this theory I have. All the numbers used are just examples an its purpose is just to illustrate a point.

1.LISS.

Time performed: 45 minutes.

Steps taken: 1000 steps.

Force Exerted: 20N(20% out off 100)

Rest period: 0

Put it into an equation: (N)1000x(F) 20N= 20,000(I)

2.Medium Intensity steady state (Jogging)

Time performed: 45 minutes

Steps Taken: 1500

Force Exerted : 60N

Rest Period: 0

Put it into an equation: (N) 1500 X (F) 60N =90,000 (I)

3.HIIT(Hill Sprints)

Time performed 20 second on, 10 seconds rest for 10 rounds resulting in 3.34 minutes of work.

Steps Taken: 25 steps per 20 seconds. Total 250 steps

Force Exerted: 100N

Rest period: 100 second(irrelevant because using steps to measure)

Put it into an equation: (N) 250 X (F) 100N= 25,000 (I)

So from the simple illustration above we can see that jogging might result in the highest chances of injury. Not to mention the fact some people think they need to jog everyday.

To make matters worst, most sedentary people have insufficient strength and poor mechanics like sucky hip and ankle mobility. This can result in greater chances of injury.

That is probably why some people who constantly jogs often complain about knee pain.

Once again to prevent myself from being butchered by the FBI (Fitness bad-ass on the Internet) I must say that the numbers above are in NO way accurate and backed up by science. I just used these example to provoke some thoughts, just like how mine was provoked.

If anybody finds a study refuting my theory please let me know. As I have said, this is just a thought I had.

Bottom Line(maybe): Jogging will never be my best friend because its might be a sure way to getting hurt.

It’s a wrap

So the 3 reason why I think jogging sucks are listed above. However the only reason you should do some jogging is if you compete in some sort of sport that requires a lot of jogging(tough mudders, ultra-marathon etc.).

Oh and of course do it only if you enjoy it.

If you don’t enjoy jogging don’t do it. It will definitely suck. If  do you then go do what makes you happy <—– Click to Tweet!

When it comes to looking awesome the things you need to get right with are(in particular order):

1.Nutrition 2.Resistance Training 3.Consider some form of cardio.

If you do not have a solid base of nutrition, nothing else can help you look kick ass. Not even Tracy Anderson.

I might have ruffled some feathers, but do tell me do you or don’t you jog.  If so why? Do you agree with my points above? Leave your comments below. Share the love, if you disagree with me share it to show everyone what a big douche I am.

• Comments
  9 Comments
• Categories
  Uncategorized
• Author
  kedric

• 
  http://www.facebook.com/y.wing93 Yew Wing
  

  I agree that jogging is to a certain extend boring. How i unboring-fy it is by including sprints to really push yourself to the limit before I finish the lap or during the lap when the track i use has a straight road and everytime i get there i run for my life. Also jogging up hills makes it much tougher, more productive and challenging. Its more of the sense of accomplishment after a solid 30 minute jog in the outdoors with the hills and the sprints, pushing myself to the limit that i get everytime i jog and accomplish the goal that i have set . Trying to achieve it and also raising the bar for myself to make it more challenging and maintaining it is also another issue. I think its how people see it and whether the result you want is achievable by doing it or not as well. It does work for me and sometime after a long day, you just want to put on your shoes and run. If someone were to just jog at the same pace, at the same place everyday . That would be boring to death thats why it can be boring. By changing different routes it would make a hugeee difference. I for one am a person who likes to run/jog outdoors but if you put me on a treadmill, i’d die of boredom.

• 
  Turbs
  

  I disagree kwandisimo. Jogging is a routine thing which i totally agree can be boring but with different locations and different routes accompanied by good music it can be fun. Mind you, if you do it for leisure it’s most certainly that it’s the only form of exercise you do so it doesn’t imply to body builders. Plus gymming and bulking up is good but sometimes some people want to lose the fats first while working out so it becomes bulking and cutting of muscle and fat which practically equals to some form of toning to get a lean body. Which is what I think and what i’ve heared from some fitness people

• 
  kedric93
  

  It’s great that you enjoy it, but to me I just find it suckishly boring. And if jogging is the only form of exercise someone can do, by all means go ahead. Some exercise is better than no exercise at all. People can lose weight just be lifting weights and nutritional changes,jogging is not required at all.

• 
  http://www.facebook.com/yongleng Yong Leng Ng
  

  I hate jogging.. It’s so damn boring. I would rather play a game of futsal/ football that requires loads of slow jogs and sprinting then just jogging on its own. Jogging is hell for me!

• 
  kedric93
  

  I agree with you! Sports trumps jogging any day

• 
  ljaymee
  

  Haha, then i’m one of the weird ones who actually enjoy jogging coz i find it to be the best way to de-stress

• 
  kedric93
  

  Well if you like it then do it and it’snot weird at all. Met some people who feel the same way

• 
  zanne
  

  Jogging is so boring. There are so many different types of cardio available. So up for rowing, skipping, swimming… this post really says everything.

• 
  kedric93
  

  I’m glad you like it

5106 tweets