By Cool J in Minneapolis
There's a controversial blog post making its way across the
interwebs, and I am reposting it here to see what you think. It's entitled, "
Why Women Should Not Run."
I love to run, and can't imagine just
stopping. However, I do agree that you should never
just run. Variety is the spice of life, and exercise variety is also a vital piece of the fitness puzzle. I struggle to find time to fit in all the other "spices" while marathon training, but I recognize how important strength training, yoga, and anaerobic exercise are to overall fitness.
As mean as it sounds, I do know lots of "fat-skinny" runners. Just go watch a marathon, and you'll wonder to yourself...
how is THAT guy able to run so fast? I personally noticed a drastic weight loss only during my first marathon training period. Since then, my weight has pretty much remained constant, even though I'm burning 2,000 calories before 10 am on any given Saturday. Has my body adjusted, as this article would argue, in such a way that now my metabolism has slowed, and my body is retaining fat?
Read this article (posted below), and let me know what you think in this
fitting debate.
Should women not run?
 |
| Deep in debate...perhaps about whether women should run? |
From:
http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/5343/why-women-should-not-run/
WHY WOMEN SHOULD NOT RUN:
"I’m not sympathetic.
When I look at the fat guy in the gym wasting his time doing
forearm curls to lose weight, I feel no sympathy. When a big tough meathead
gets stapled to the bench by 365 pounds—after trying and failing with 315—I
don’t feel any sympathetic pangs there, either. Even when I see a girl spend a
half hour bouncing back and forth between the yes-no machines—the adductor and
abductor units—only to have trouble walking the next day, I can’t muster even
an iota of pathos.
Nobody told these people to do these things.
Then, however, I watch my friend Jessica running on the
treadmill—day after day, year after year—like a madwoman, and going nowhere.
Her body seems to get softer with every mile, and the softer she gets, the more
she runs. For her, I feel sympathy, because the world has convinced her that
running is the way to stay “slim and toned.”
There’s a Jessica in every gym. Spotting them is easy.
They’re the women who run for an hour or more every day on the treadmill,
setting new distance and/or time goals every week and month. Maybe they’re just
interested in their treadmill workouts, maybe they’re training for their fifth
fund-raising marathon, or maybe they’re even competing against runners in
Finland via some Nike device. Doesn’t matter to me, because years of seeing my
friend on the treadmill has exposed the results, which I’m not going to
sugarcoat:
She’s still fat. Actually, she’s gotten fatter.
I’ve tried to rescue her from the clutches of cardio in the
past, but my efforts didn’t work until a month ago, when she called to tell me
that a blood test had confirmed her doctor’s suspicion: She had hypothyroidism,
meaning her body no longer made enough thyroid hormone.
Her metabolism had slowed to a snail’s pace, and the fat was
accumulating. This was her body rebelling. When Jessica asked for my advice, I
told her to do two things: To schedule a second test for two weeks later, and
to stop all the goddamned running until then.
I’m not here to pick on women or make fun of them. There are
men out there who do the same thing, thinking cardio will wipe away the effects
of their regular weekend beer binges. It’s more of a problem with women,
though, and I’m targeting them for three very good reasons:
1. They’re often
intensely recruited for fund-raisers like Team-In-Training, lured by the
promises of slim, trim bodies and good health resulting from the months of
cardio training leading to marathons—in addition to doing something for
charity.
2. Some physique
coaches prescribe 20-plus hours per week of pre-contest cardio for women, which
essentially amounts to a part-time job.
3. Steady-state
activities like this devastate the female metabolism. This happens with men,
too, but in different ways.
I hate a lot of things about the fitness industry, but
over-prescribed cardio would have to be at the very top of my list. I’m not
talking about walking here, nor am I referring to appropriate HIIT cardio. This
is about running, cycling, stair-climbing, or elliptical cardio done for hours
at or above 65 percent of your max heart rate. The anaerobic threshold factors
into this, obviously, but I’m painting gym cardio in very broad strokes here so
everyone will understand what I’m railing against.
Trashing steady-state cardio isn’t exactly a novel idea, and
the better physique gurus figured at least a portion of this out years ago,
when they started applying the no-steady-state-cardio rule to contest
preparation. They failed, however, to point out the most detrimental effect of
this type of training—one that applies specifically to women:
Studies—both clinical and observational—make a compelling
case that too much cardio can impair the production of the thyroid hormone T3,
its effectiveness and metabolism, particularly when accompanied by
caloric restriction, an all too common practice. This is why many first or
second-time figure and bikini competitors explode in weight when they return to
their normal diets, and it’s why the Jessicas of the world can run for hours
every week with negative results.
T3 is the body’s preeminent regulator of metabolism, by the
way it throttles the efficiency of cells. It also acts in various ways
to increase heat production. As I pointed out in previous articles, this
is one reason why using static equations to perform calories-in, calories-out
weight loss calculations doesn’t work.
When T3 levels are normal, the body burns enough energy to
stay warm, and muscles function at moderate efficiency. When there’s too much
thyroid hormone (hyperthyroidism), the body goes into a state where weight gain
is almost impossible. Too little T3 (hypothyroidism), and the body accumulates
body fat with ease, almost regardless of physical activity level. Women
inadvertently put themselves into a hypothyroid condition when they perform so
much steady-state cardio.
In the quest to lose body fat, T3 levels can offer both
success and miserable failure because of the way it influences other
fat-regulating hormones. Women additionally get all the other negative
effects of this, which I’ll cover below. Don’t be surprised here. This is a
simple, sensible adaptation of a body that’s equipped to bear the full brunt of
reproduction.
Think about it this way: Your body is a responsive, adaptive
machine that has evolved for survival. If you’re running on a regular basis,
your body senses this excessive energy expenditure, and adjusts to compensate.
Remember, no matter which way we hope the body works, its endgame is always
survival. If you waste energy running, your body will react by slowing your
metabolism to conserve energy. Decreasing energy output is biologically savvy
for your body. Your body wants to survive longer while you do what it views as
a stressful, useless activity. Decreasing T3 production increases efficiency
and adjusts your metabolism to preserve energy immediately.
Nothing exemplifies this increasing efficiency better than
the way the body starts burning fuel. Training consistently at 65 percent or
more of your max heart rate adapts your body to save as much body fat as
possible. After regular training, fat cells stop releasing fat the way they
once did during moderate-intensity activities. Energy from body fat
stores also decreases by 30 percent. To this end, your body sets into
motion a series of reactions that make it difficult for muscle to burn fat at
all. Instead of burning body fat, your body takes extraordinary measures
to retain it.
Still believe cardio is the fast track to fat loss?
That’s not all. You can still lose muscle mass. Too much
steady-state cardio actually triggers the loss of muscle. This seems to
be a twofold mechanism, with heightened and sustained cortisol levels
triggering muscle loss. which upregulates myostatin, a potent destroyer
of muscle tissue. Say goodbye to bone density, too, because it declines
with that decreasing muscle mass and strength.
And long term health? Out the window, as well. Your
percentage of muscle mass is an independent indicator of health. You’ll
lose muscle, lose bone, and lose health. Awesome, right?
When sewn together, these phenomena coordinate a symphony of
fat gain for most female competitors after figure contests. After a month—or
three—of 20-plus hours of cardio per week, fat burning hits astonishing lows,
and fat cells await an onslaught of calories to store. The worst thing
imaginable in this state would be to eat whatever you wanted, whenever you
wanted. The combination of elevated insulin and cortisol would make you fat,
and it would also create new fat cells so you could become even fatter.
I won’t name names, but I’ve seen amazing displays of
gluttony from some small, trim women. Entire pizzas disappear, leaving only the
flotsam of toppings that fell during the feeding frenzy. Appetizers, meals,
cocktails and desserts—4000 calories worth—vanish at the Cheesecake Factory.
There are no leftovers, and there are no crumbs. Some women catch this in time
and stop the devastation, but others quickly swell, realizing that this
supposed off-season look has become their every-season look.
And guess what they do to fix it? Double sessions of cardio.
This “cardio craze” is a form of insanity, and it’s on my
hit list. I’m determined to kill it. There are better ways to lose fat, and
there are better ways to look good. Your bikini body is not at the end of a
marathon, and you won’t find it on a treadmill. In fact, it’s quite the
opposite if you’re using steady-state cardio to get there. The show may be
over, and the finish line crossed, but the damage to your metabolism has just
begun.
Don’t want to stop running? Fine. Then stop complaining
about how the fat won’t come off your hips, thighs, and ass. You’re keeping it
there.
And as for Jessica, my friend whose dilemma sparked this
article? She took my suggestion and cut out the cardio. Two weeks later, her T3
count was normal. Go figure."
