You Don’t Need To Run To Be Healthy
Key Takeaways
Your failed attempts to enjoy tolerate running may be a barrier to creating sustainable healthy habits.
Running too far, too fast, or with bad form can result in a vicious cycle of pain and falling short of your goals.
Running is not a necessary component of effective fat loss, muscle gain, disease prevention, or overall health and longevity.
If we want to make physical activity a sustainable part of our lives, we need to make it as enjoyable as possible.
If you can find a way to avoid suffering and still achieve the desired outcome, do it.
Full Story
BREAKING NEWS: You can be the quintessential picture of health - lean, muscular, and energetic - without running another step for the rest of your life.
Just like bell bottoms and Michael Jackson, it all started in the ‘70’s. During the “running boom”, healthy hopefuls would hike up their short shorts, lace up their Nikes, and hit the streets. Ever since, fitness and running have become wrongly intertwined.
“Oh my god! You look sooo healthy. You must run like 10 miles a day, right??”
I’m here to tell you that:
You can be fit and NOT run
You can run and NOT be fit
I know it might come as a shock, but running is only one of thousands of forms of exercise. Odds are, it’s not the best activity for your body or goals. In fact, your failed attempts to enjoy tolerate running may even be a barrier to creating sustainable healthy habits. Let’s pull a Reagan and tear down that wall.
Do You Enjoy Running? Get Out Of Here!
I’ll never understand them, but I know there are millions of people around the world that actually enjoy running. If you like to run, and it doesn’t cause you pain or make you want to lay down and crawl up into a ball every time you do it, then this article isn’t for you.
Sure, I won’t be mad if you runners stick around. However, my message won’t resonate with you - and that’s okay! Running is a perfectly appropriate form of exercise and I wish you faster times and fewer side cramps.
On the flip side, if you:
Have chased that runner’s high, but just stayed low
Dread even the thought of going out for a jaunt around your neighborhood
Would prefer to find out how to be healthy without running
You’re my target audience, and you’re going to want to hear what I have to say.
Seriously, You Don’t Have To Run
Running isn’t that bad. It’s one of the most effective ways to:
Improve cardiovascular endurance
Increase muscular endurance + work capacity
Strengthen bones
Burn calories
Improve mood
Improve brain function
Relieve stress
Reduce risk of disease
Improve confidence
That said, this laundry list of benefits is not unique to running. In fact, you can reap these benefits from nearly any strenuous physical activity, not just running.
Running Can Run You Down
There’s a reason -more than one, actually - that you and I don’t like to run. If you run well, i.e. at the right speed, with good form, and build up intensity slowly, it’s painless. But running well is easier said than done.
When you muster up the willpower to try it, you may run:
Too fast - this makes the entire experience painful from the start
Too far - this leaves you wiped and unable to function for the rest of the day
Too far and too fast - this is miserable and will make you feel like you got hit by a truck for the next 3+ days
With bad form - best case, you’re sore in the wrong places (knees, back, hips). Worst case, you develop overuse (misuse) injuries and need to take a significant chunk of time to heal.
After your soreness subsides, you decide to give it another shot. On and on it goes, in a vicious cycle of pain and falling short of your goals.
Even if you do put in the time and effort to run well, you still may not enjoy it. You might find it:
Boring - step, step, and step…repeat for an hour
Monotonous - is that the same as boring?
High impact - high impact movements are great to increase bone strength and for high intensity movements (1, 2). They are not great if you have joint pain, are significantly overweight, or would like to fully recover in between resistance training workouts.
Tough on the joints - especially if you’re form is off/the intensity is too high
If you don’t enjoy running or find it painful, I have a perfect solution for you - don’t.
Define Your Goal
If you hate running, do me a favor and ask yourself 3 questions:
First, I’d like you to ask “why am I running?”
Unless your answer is “to get better at running” or “because I love it”, you don’t need to run. Move on to question 2.
Then, ask “what is my ultimate goal?”
If it’s to get healthier, lose fat, gain muscle, or achieve any other fitness goal, you don’t need to run.
Unless your answer is “to get better at running”, you don’t need to run. Move on to question 3.
3. Finally, ask “how can I achieve my goal without subjecting myself to the horrors of running?
I assure you, you have plenty of options.
You probably don’t care about your running form or 5k time. If you do, run your heart out!
However, running is not a necessary component of effective fat loss, muscle gain, disease prevention, or overall health and longevity.
Ditch The Running Shoes, Try…
Biking
Jumping rope
Dancing
Swimming
Yoga
Calisthenics
Lifting weights
Larping
Rowing
AirDyne biking
Stair stepper
Walking
Incline treadmill walking
Playing Dance Dance Revolution
Virtual reality sports
Basketball
Football
Rugby
Tennis
Any other sport
Marching in place
....Or anything else you can possibly imagine. The options are endless. If you’d like an expert coach in your corner to help you figure out your best activities and determine the optimal frequency, intensity, and duration for your goals, you’ve come to the right place.
Wrap Up
Please, if you don’t enjoy running and aren’t being chased by a lion, don’t run. There is absolutely no reason, and never will be, that you need to run to improve your health.
Working out is hard. The act of burning excessive amounts of calories for no immediate benefit goes against every deeply ingrained survival instinct that we have. If we want to make physical activity a sustainable part of our lives, we need to make it as enjoyable as possible.
In general, when you’re planning to do something you don’t want to do, ask yourself:
Why am I doing this?
Is there any other way to accomplish the same goal?
It’s simple - suffering is not fun. If you can find a way to avoid it and still achieve the desired outcome, do it.
Sources:
GIF Sources: Michael Leave Taylor Ross
(giphy.com)