Oh dear... the weakathon is coming up...
Ugh the army half marathon is coming up and alot of people are asking me how to train for it. While I'm a nice guy... I say... don't go. No disrespect to long distnace runners. Its tough BUT is it best?
Reasons people join these long distance events...
1. Force themselves to train
2. Look Good
3. Some kind of "lifetime goal" thing that they can tell their children about
What they end up with...
1. Painful knees
2. smaller, weaker muscles
3. no visible changes in appearance
4. minimal impact on late life health problems
Why?
1. Jogging pounds knees, 6xbodyweight each step
2. Long distance events put the body into "I'm lost in the jungle" survival mode so the body destroys muscles and stores fat to survive.
3. Smaller muscles, more fat... appearance starts to go byeeeebyeee
4. Most age related health issues are strength related. How many elderly climb stairs and then collapse becuase of lack of oxygen? almost NONE. But many get into terrible injury and inactivity due to lack fo strength. e.g. fall and break hip (strength and balance problem) or have stiff spines (strength and flexibiltiy problem) leading to back problems.
So how?
Great physical health is important (if you have ever checked out how much medical bills are... you will see why... and also uh... it sucks to be sick) do the correct type of training.
Anything inbetween makes you weak and spoils your body. So get out there and blaze away at 80% or more of your top speed where the pounding is on your muscles not your joints (get ready to burn huge amounts of fat and be really good at sports fitness).
Or go for a nice brisk walk with your wife/husband/girl/boy friend/family/and (im not an animal lover.. ugh hairs all over my house? no thanks!)pet if you really have to. Walks are great. They don't spoil joints, they feel good, swing your arms and they are good for your back. They keep fat in check and they don't tax your recovery abiltiy so you can still be fresh for hard exercise of other kinds.
Hey you want to tell your kids about stuff you can do? Ladies I challenge you to do 1 chinup. you will have to be lean, you will have to be trim and you will have to eat right ot do it! Its harder than running 20km. If any lady is serious about this video/take pics of your progress and I'll help you alogn the way and write about you in this blog when you reach your goal.
Men I beleive that squatting 2x your bodyweight is a more worthwhile goal than running slow long distances. Your powerful (nice looking) fast twitch muscles are wasting away into whimpy soft slow ones with every passing mile.
World class marathoner? (slow sport athlete)
posted by Coach Jonathan Wong @ 8/13/2006 08:29:00 PM
Comments: 2
