No, there really isn’t.

I’d love to end the post here but I can’t really, right? I mean so many people may take offence and many more may not understand what I mean.

Let me clarify. If you want to lose weight and look better why are you running? What’s the point? To “burn” calories 🙂 THIS will make you look better? What about your muscles will they look good after running a lot? I doubt it……..

2 champions above, one runs a lot the other not so much, well when he runs it takes about 10 seconds the other guy, well that’s about 2 hours plus. Both guys train to be good at what they do and after years of training this is how they “look”. Who would you rather look like?

There is one word that describes all of what is going on in these 2 pictures.

Hormones.

Before I go any further if you’re a recreational athlete that competes regularly then of course you need to run! But for people that want body composition gains such as less fat and more muscle read on!

When a particular training style is applied to an individual hormones will dictate what happens to the body. Why? Well the body is always adjusting and adapting to the stimulous applied to it. Different stimulous, different hormonal response. If the human decides that he/she will run over many kilometres and do this frequently the hormones will decide the best physical adaptation to enable optimal function for this activity. Looking like Bolt won’t be it but looking like Kipchoge possibly could be.

And that is atrophied muscles, weakened joints and quite possibly restricted movement patterns.

Now I respect all professional athletes, I truly understand what they must do to get to the level they need to be at to be making a living from their sport or athletic pursuit. But for you guys running will not cut it, your hormonal response will not leave you happy with the results.

Bolt looked the way he did because in training he sprinted over short distances and lifted heavy weights. And his hormones REWARDED him with the body he had.

Furthermore it does come back to function and being true to our ancestral roots. Did we ever run in our evolutionary pathway? Rarely if you have done any research around this area which I have. We had to be evasive, jumping, sprinting, weaving or we used those attributes to capture prey. We had to lift, push, rotate, squat etc, all patterns covered in previous posts.

But running, from what? A big cat or other predator. I don’t think so! Running is not truly functional for humans, especially the heel strike silliness that modern running shoes promote. And as a result we do not get an optimal hormonal response certainly not the one we get from sprinting (or other HIIT protocols) or lifting heavy weights.

Train smart, tap into the chemistry of our evolutionary pathway and reap the benefits!

If you want to know more download my FREE eBook HERE!