Is running running your training?
Running is a very popular form of exercise and a lot of people utilise it to drop body fat. It is great for burning calories, strengthening your heart, challenging the muscles of your lower body and can awesome for clearing your mind and switching off. However, we all know running can lead to injury, research shows that 40-50% of runners experience an injury on an annual basis. Common complaints are shin splints, patella tendonitis, achilies tendonitis, plantar facitis and iliotibial band syndrome.
So as much as I feel running is a great form of exercise and one I enjoy myself, do I recommend it to my clients for fat loss. No I do not…
One big factor is when people come in to Body Clinic looking to drop body fat they are usually a little heavier than they would like to be and often have low muscle mass. So this results in a high amount of load going through every joint for each stride taken. All of which increases the risk of injury.
Some people ask if they should be using interval sprints to make some fast progress, again I would still not recommend this. Interval training is great and certainly has its place for fat loss however interval training is fast hard pace, you need to using all the energy you have. High impact exercise is just going to result in an injury.
So if you are looking to lose some body fat by all means increase your daily activity and add exercise. However, make sure your cardio is effective and less likely to result in injury. Use low impact exercise such as the bike, cross trainer or rower. Or to make some serious progress include strength training to your routine.
If you would like any more information on this topic please feel free to email me with any questions you might have.
Have a good week.
James