Why Jogging for Weight Loss Sucks!

It is a common misconception that jogging is ideal for weight loss. While jogging does serve the purpose of elevating the heart rate, it does little toward a proper full body workout.

As you know, the quickest way to lose weight is by consuming less and exercising more. The problem steady state jogging is much of the weight that is lost is muscle (catabolic activity). The breaking down of muscle must be offset by building it back up, which is only possible with the proper foods and exercises that concentrate on building muscles. Only with muscle-building in mind can a fat loss program be effective and sustainable. Weight loss in this way assures that muscle tone is increased at the same time.

Jogging for weight loss is not ideal because it concentrates solely on certain muscles because the movement is very limited and repetitive. This is certainly not the best way on how to get slim unless you keep increasing the amount of jogging you do. As the body gets accustomed to a duration of jogging at a certain speed or exertion, the only way to improve results is to speed up the jogging pace and/or do it for a longer time. Another way to get more results would be to make the jogging route harder as in going up steep hills.

Steady state jogging does not do as much good for the heart as you might expect. It does not prepare it for heart rate changes that happen rapidly, nor does it do the same for blood pressure the way cyclic exercise does. High intensity interval training allows for bursts of energy followed by a recovery period. This is a much better program for strengthening the heart muscle and needless to say, for weight loss as well.

Cyclic training is much more natural the way exercise is when participating in sports. It is more interesting for the person going through the exercises, too. Fewer people drop out of high intensity interval training than the steady state cardio sessions because it is not boring and redundant.

After a steady state workout, the period afterwards has little caloric burn because the body has become accustomed to the constant elevation. It returns quickly to a normal rate and calories are not consumed anymore. Cyclic training elevates and lowers the heart rate during the workout, and calories are burned during the cool down period after the exercising is finished.

With the limited exercise time that many corporate employees like us have available, we need to get as much from the workout as we can. Of course jogging is much better than doing nothing, but it is certainly not the best exercise to reduce tummy fat and build muscle at the same time.

Unless your goal is to be able to finish a marathon, jogging is certainly not the best way to lose weight. High intensity interval training provides a great return on a few minutes spent exercising and is a program that fits into the corporate schedule of short available time allotments to expend physical energy.

Cyclic training also improves blood circulation to the brain, so that time spent after the exercise is more productive in the office. After it is all said and done, do you want to spend your limited time jogging or doing more optimal exercise?