Stop Running away from weight loss/top 3 things i learned form running rewired

Running Away From Weight Loss... Please Stop

You heard me, I’m probably more likely to tell my clients to do the Tour de France or swim the English channe before I tell them to go run a mile as a way to efficiently lose weight.

I hate running. I mean I hate it so much I completely skipped that portion while training for my first triathlon with the exception of 2 practice runs right before the event just to put all 3 disciplines together before the big day.

Even more so I hate running for overweight clients. See if you stand up on both legs at rest that’s 50% of your body weight on either leg. Now stand on one leg and what do you get, 100% of your body weight on one leg...that’s a lot of stress on a knee that is most likely very unstable due to sedentary muscles surrounding the area right? Well, know lets explain how much stress is on that same unstable knee during a single running stride.

Running experts show that to illustrate the stress on the body during running you would want to add a barbell on your shoulders equivalent to 150% of your body weight and then stand on one leg...if you weight 150lbs go ahead and add 225lbs of weight and you get 375lbs of stress on your bones, tendons, muscles, cartilage, and ligaments with every stride you take (this example is taken directly from Running Rewired by Jay Dicharry).

So when we used to think endurance training is a little bit of stress over a long period of time now we understand that it’s A LOT of stress over a LONG period of time, now do you really think that’s the best way to lose weight in an easy, enjoyable, and injury free way? 🤨🧐🤔

My 3 Biggest Takeaways from Running Rewired by Jay Dicharry

1. To illustrate the stress on your lower body each time your foot impacts the ground at the end of your stride, envision a barbell on your back with 150% of your body weight loaded on it. That is the amount of stress your joints are subject to for most likely hundred of thousands of strides if you are an habitual runner.

2. The Quads have a greater amount of fast twitch muscle fibers compared to the Glutes, meaning they work closer to peak capacity during a given running pace where as Glutes can last longer before building up a lot of acidic waste. Being Quad dependent creates 3 big problems (wrecks your knees, you will get fatigued faster during endurance training, quads can’t match the total body control of the Glutes)

3. Build a bigger spring, get a bigger boost. Running speed can be simplified to stride length x stride frequency so focusing on force production was always a focal point for my training methods. Jay showed me that force production requires not only muscular changes but wiring changes as well. Meaning that in addition to training the muscle to become stronger, bigger, and denser, just as much emphasis needs to go towards training the brains connection to the fibers so it can recruit more fibers, become more explosive, and develop inter muscular coordination. (The Toe Yoga part was great too)

Hope This Helps!

Ethan Halfhide
ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist
​Head Trainer at www.panaceafit.com