10/12/2013
For all you cardio kings and queens out there - this is a short MUST read. My clients would often say Craig why are you against me jogging? My response would be its a pretty ineffective use of time when compared to other exercise modalities and can be dangerous to joints resulting in people not doing anything at all. But here is one of the best reasons to think twice about regular jogging especially to lose weight.
Jogging: Confusing Correlation With Causation
by Charles Staley
Let's say you're watching a professional basketball game, and you can't help but notice that pretty much every player on the court is exceptionally tall. You then conclude that the activity of playing basketball (which we'll call "A") causes tallness (which we'll call "B").
Obviously, basketball doesn't cause tallness, but rather, is associated with it. Since tall people tend to be more successful at playing hoops, it's common to see tall people and basketball happening in the same place at the same time, and you therefore mistakenly believe that A causes B.
In the mostly non-rational world of fitness, many, many poor exercise decisions are based on this error. Case in point: Jogging.
Jogging deserves special attention due to its very poor benefit-to-drawback ratio for most people, and because it's a great way to illustrate my point about causation versus correlation.
The evidence against jogging is so abundant it needn't be regurgitated here, but suffice it to say that jogging is probably the most effective form of non-surgical gender-reassignment available to men. Jogging reduces strength, power, and muscle mass. It increases catabolic hormone output, punishes joints, and, in summary, basically reduces every commonly accepted marker of masculinity.
Apart from the undeniable pain factor, most people jog because many of the joggers they see are thin, and therefore believe that jogging causes thinness. Of course, the reality is that only thin people actually enjoy jogging.
