As I turn left onto Kainalu Dr in my hometown Kailua, I’m amazed at how many people are running. Kailua has become this fitness/health town where all the ‘cool’ people do yoga, run, and go to Whole Foods (or what my mom calls it, Whole Paycheck Store).
But on any given day, people are running.
On a particular day as I was driving, I saw a man running, more like jogging very slowly, and I almost stopped to tell him to go home or at least walk. His face was bright red, his gait was more like a scoot, and his feet splayed. This is a common theme I see of people running on my daily drives. It’s the same thing I see when I go to the gym of people slaving away on the treadmills for their 30 minutes.
Many of these people I see are overweight.
Not to past any judgements because I don’t know the individuals. I don’t know why or when they gained weight. There may be some personal reason. But there they are running, and it’s my assumption they are running to lose weight or to become more active.
Now I have a problem with this. Why?
Because when many people make the decision of wanting to lose weight and get back into working out, their first plan of action is to start running. They lace up their shoes and pound away at the pavement. It doesn’t help with the fitness industry talking about how running is the easiest way to burn fat and have fun! They don’t share with your the cost/benefit of it all, especially if you are overweight or new to running.
I want to challenge you to re-think this thought process. I have nothing against running, it’s a great thing to do – if you know how. But the majority of the population doesn’t know how to run correctly, I’m still learning, and are doing more harm than good to their bodies.
Do you know anyone who started to run only to start complaining about aches and pains; ankles, knees, shins, lower back? Maybe you have done this before.
Yes, running does burn calories and will help you lose weight but I’m coming from a safety and efficiency angle. To me, the calories burned during running does not outweigh the damage you are doing to your joints. One of the most common reasons for people to lose hope when embarking on a weight loss journey is injury.
There are more effective ways to burn fat that are less damaging on the joints. So just lacing up your shoes and starting to go on daily runs may not be the smartest method. Running to lose weight is not worth the damage it puts on your body.
What sort of experience do you have with running? What other methods do you think are more effective?