Dooley Noted: 7/4/2015
This Independence Day, I’m giving thanks to some of my freedoms.
Among them, I am thankful for my independence from thinking that jogging is needed for fitness.
I remember when I thought I had to run to be fit.
It started in high school, reading too many fitness magazines.
Then, I suffered an enormous heartbreak in 2005.
So instead of gaining strength I’d been craving, it was easier just to lace up.
I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran, logging 50 miles a week.
I did very few strength and mobility corrections. I simply ran.
And I’ll admit this: I felt great – for a while.
I was toking up on my own pharmacy.
I had it down to a science.
I even carried glucose and water with me, to refuel during runs.
After mile 6, I felt like I was really hitting my stride.
After mile 12, I was running on my own drugs. I knew my own enkephalins and endorphins very well.
And man, was I doped up on my own dopamine!
Not a speck of depression was felt.
I really convinced myself that running past 12 miles was where I would find my fitness.
It’s where I thought my mental health was found.
I sacrificed sleep, friends, and outings so I could run my minimum 12 miles.
I thought I knew more than everyone else that didn’t run. I thought I found fitness.
I’m not stating all runners do this.
I’m stating I did this.
While completing a marathon, I had major hip pain. That hip pain haunts me to this day.
I don’t feel it – but I remember it.
I didn’t have the fitness to have permission to run the mileage I was running.
I made the mistake of not combining mobility, stability, and strength.
That trifecta is fitness, in my opinion.
Everyone has a different set point for fitness.
You have to find your fitness.
It may be different every week, every month, and every year.
But you map out your goals, and then you attack them.
I have now earned the permission to jog. But it’s funny how you don’t want to do things that start to stand in the way of your goals.
Today, I left my friend’s house on a 4 mile trek home.
I walked. I sprinted, and I even jogged bit of it.
What I found is that I enjoyed jogging the least of the three.
It doesn’t transfer into my total fitness picture.
So, I mixed most of the trek with sprinting and brisk walking.
I arrived in front of my parents door feeling amazing, having completed a task that met my current fitness goals.
Please, by all means, jog if it is part of your fitness plan. Do what you must.
But for those of you who think that you need to run in order to experience fitness, I’m living proof that it’s just not true.
You can do so many things for physical fitness besides jogging, and gait management for jogging is a real challenge.
I know my share about gait, and I know I could feel myself go into patterns that used to make me hurt.
For those not currently able to detect those patterns, it’s hard to know when to back off running to maintain safety.
If you are unsure if jogging or sprinting are right for you, see a movement specialist in your area that can help you.
You may find you are more suited for other things – or may need to combine running with the aforementioned trifecta.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
