Running too much?

Not too long ago I was listening to one of the morning sports shows. Sometimes the hosts go off on a tangent. That particular morning the host was. He was trying to bring home the point that we can’t out train a bad diet. So he brought up his marathon training days where he’d run 12 miles a day through the week and 20 miles on the weekend (talk about a crap ton of cardio!). And his diet wasn’t very good. He noticed his physique looking “ softer”, less lean.

I’ve run a few marathons myself (See the above photo). Training for my first was similar to his in some regard that it was all cardio based/ running. I was a few pounds heavier back then. And running was a bit painful at times. I still train for marathons. But I spend more time in the weight room instead of my running shoes. In fact, a vast majority of my training these days are spent lifting weights specific to an endurance athlete.But are long distance runs still necessary for me? Absolutely, at least as long as I’m training for marathons it is. In fact, the only people that need long distance running in their lives are endurance athletes.

For the rest, running is a great source of exercise. It’s relaxing, and fulfilling to challenge yourself to do more. And if you’re enjoying running, by all means do more. But if your goals are more aesthetic based and you don’t care much for running, lets take a step back.

To briefly revisit how I opened up this blog, that sports show host was doing insane amounts of training. He reported aesthetically less than optimal results. Now that’s interesting . So lets go over some research to find out why.

Dr. Jason Cholewa, PhD CSCS outlines what contributes to muscular hypertrophy (growth) and atrophy( breakdown) in his article, “Muscle Hypertrophy Workout For Beginners:Definitive Guide”. As Dr. Cholewa points out, the 2 controllable factors that contribute to muscle growth are diet and mechanical stress(lifting weights). As he says, resistance training causes protein synthesis. This combined with increased protein cause muscles to grow. And when we get stronger we’re burning more calories at a resting state(I talked more about that in a previous blog)

And he also explains 2 things that contribute to muscle breakdown. 1 of those things is too few calories and amino acids. The other is excessive cardio. As Dr. Cholewa explains, “ emotional/ cognitive stress and too much cardio ( hours per day,, not. 20–30 minutes a few days per week) lead to the secretion of hormones that breakdown proteins”. And when we breakdown protein we break down muscle. And when that happens, what’s left?

In laymen’s terms,, too much cardio or running with no resistance training lead to the dreaded “skinny fat” physique. The morning show host I was watching was correct that we can’t out train a bad diet.. But that wasn’t the reason his physique changed.

Run if you like running. But ask yourself, what’s your goal??