Long Slow Distance Running Is the Old Person’s Way to Fitness

The reason adults run in the name of fitness is because of what they hear as they get older. I look at children; if you told a child to go run do you think they would jog or sprint? Well, having four kids my kids never jogged anywhere. When I was young we ran hard than walked to get where we had to go. Jogging is the old person way to fitness.

The reason we slow down as we age is because we train to become slow. We lose fast twitch muscle fibers by training slowly for years that is the reason when you reach your forties, fifties and beyond you worry about injury and you tend to move slower.

So what do you expect to happen over years of slow training? Your body will adapt to slow training. There is no law that says you have to train slowly when you get to a certain age. Just because you see someone jogging down the road doesn’t mean everyone needs to do it.

If you spotted someone on the side of the road doing pushups you would think the person was insane. Just because society say’s one think doesn’t make it right.

If you don’t know by now looking at society and haven’t realized how people will just follow the masses and these people never seem to stand out they are just like everyone else.

If you are one of the many who follow the masses and want to be mediocre than that is okay, but being mediocre sucks!

You will hear many arguments about whether or not running is the key to ultimate physical fitness. Most people have no idea what real physical fitness is.

As a matter of fact most runners are rail thin and look like a number two pencil in running clothing a stick figure running in the name of fitness. Many people will tell you to do what works for you, well if being thin and bony is your thing keep on doing it. Look at marathon runners or tri-athletes they are all thin.

More and more studies are being done and the research is stating that this type of training is reversing the health and fitness benefits of running long distance.

Sprinters are muscular, strong and explosive and look younger while distance runners seem to look more aged.

Distance running is an easier type of training; it is much easier than explosive training, which is why it is the exercise of choice. Bottom line is if you train slow like an old person, you will get exactly that a slow and weak body.

Try it for yourself. Go for a two to three mile run one day. Then a couple of day’s later try some sprints. Sprint one minute walk 30 seconds repeat this for 10 minutes. It should be no problem for a distance runner to do 10 one minute sprints. But you will find out different.