ACL Injuries On The Rise

November 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

While the Concussion Bogeyman storyline is being advanced by the mainstream press there’s a real injury epidemic that’s brewing. This story doesn’t have the sizzle delivered by the combination of football and concussions, but it’s a growing problem with real statistics that make it a real concern. ACL injuries and the financial strain they put on our health care system are a much bigger problem than concussions.

Here’s a stat for you; Every year in the U.S. there are about 300,000 new ACL injuries and most of these injuries result in reconstructive surgery and extensive annual rehab at the cost of approximately $3 billion (yes, BILLION!).

Arthritis shows up in more than 50% of ACL-deficient knees as early as 5-to-15 years after surgery, which means that a huge portion of the population will suffer from severe joint problems and reduced quality of life. Extrapolate this data over the next decade and we have a serious problem, don’t we?

Otherwise healthy people, most of them in the prime of their lives, will be dealing with painful and sometimes debilitating arthritis. Using the known stats regarding ACL injuries, we can reasonably estimate that there will be millions of folks with arthritic knees experiencing a reduced quality of life in the very near future.

From the number of annual injuries it’s obvious that elite athletes are not the only people at risk of suffering an ACL blow-out. For a variety of reasons women have a higher risk factor of suffering a torn ACL. Women have a two to seven times higher risk for injury compared with men who play soccer and basketball.

Several key variables in the structure of the knee, and the structural differences between men and women, have been identified as risk factors for ACL injuries and in a large cohort study these risk factors allowed researchers to predict the risk of these injuries. Recreational athletes and professional athletes alike are all at risk, especially women, of experiencing an ACL blow-out.

There is no doubt that concussions are something to be concerned about for those who choose to play contact sports, but clearly this exploding problem with ACL injuries and the massive financial strain that it puts on the health care system is a situation should illicit equal – if not increased – concern.


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Steroids Strawman Set Up In Sports

October 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

Steroids are the new scapegoat; people are willing to blame steroid use for just about every possible adverse outcome experienced by anyone who has been a user.

Steroids are quite likely bad for users and steroid use can most-definitely be considered cheating for those involved in sports. The public debate over steroid use has been heated and emotional. The media, possibly because they feel guilty that they ignored this obvious problem for the better part of 4 decades, seems to want to make up for lost time by over-hyping every steroid-related story that hits the news wires.

Despite this new-found interest in covering steroids-in-sports stories, the media hasn’t gotten much better at reporting the facts. Misinformation still rules the day with regard to what these substances do, can do, might do, etc. The hyperventilating aside, there isn’t all that much detailed science to tell us how bad steroids are. The difference between steroid use and steroid abuse is vast and to discuss the effects of these drugs without making a distinction between the two groups is to give in to the hysteria. The data doesn’t provide a picture of the physical damage done by steroid use. We certainly don’t have any meaningful data to tell us steroid use leads to suicide or any catastrophic psychological disorders.

We have plenty of anecdotal evidence that steroids are bad, but there are anecdotal stories that show the opposite. That’s the problem with anecdotal evidence, my story can trump your story. Do a Google search and see how many actual studies you can find that give you a concrete picture about the physiological and psychological effects of steroids.

My position isn’t that steroid abuse doesn’t cause damage or doesn’t/cannot contribute to early death. Steroid use and abuse – and the behaviors and other decisions associated with its use – doesn’t occur in a vacuum. The scenario that we’ve been fed is BS, the modern day version of Adam eating the forbidden apple; the choirboy athlete gets a taste of the demon steroid and turns bad immediately.

Nonsense.

Steroid use is evidence of a screwed up decision making process. The popular narrative that steroids are the Bogeyman that causes all other problems resonates partly because people don’t want to think their kid can make a series of horribly bad choices that have disastrous, catastrophic results. Also, too many parents don’t want to believe that they are in any way – big or small – responsible for the bad decisions made by their kids.

I am a parent of three young boys who play sports, have coached thousands of kids over the past 20 years and am very concerned about this issue. I know if my sons or one of my players turned to steroids, or other illegal performance-enhancing drugs, I would assume a part of the blame. Frankly, if my sons ever turn to steroids or other drugs I will have totally failed them as a father. How many people are willing to take this responsibility? Unfortunately, over the past three decades parents have been looking for some family-external reasons to explain their kids’ bad behavior (By the way, it is not politically correct to tell kids they behave badly. Too judgmental.). Call it the,”Not-My-Kid” syndrome.

Recently Brent Musburger – legendary sports journalist and broadcaster – told a group of journalism students that he thought steroids might be able to be used by athletes – effectively and safely – under the supervision of qualified medical personnel. Cue the obligatory hue and cry.

While Musburger’s comments can be criticized, it’s not for his position that steroids could be used by athletes under a doctor’s care. Actually, it’s quite clear that athletes have been successfully using steroids, both with and without doctors’ help, for years, and Uncle Brent can be taken to task for not recognizing the obvious. Maybe he was afraid to go all out and say that many athletes have been successfully using steroids for years and now it might be time to level the playing field for everyone. Give everyone equal access so they can get equal benefits.

Exponentially more athletes are getting away with PED use than have gotten busted. Do you really think Brian Cushing and Shawne Merriman are the only linebackers in the NFL who have used? Do you really think all those who stood on the podium during the last Olympics were clean? What Musburger proposed – and it will never, ever in a gazillion years happen – is to allow medical professionals to determine whether steroids should be used. He said, “Let’s go find out. What do the doctors actually think about anabolic steroids and their use by athletes.” That’s a better and more honest suggestion than most of the waste-of-time drug screening/prevention programs we’ve had to listen to over the years.

Any time a kid dies it’s a tragedy. And suicide must be unfathomably worse for a parent to endure. But people who want to say steroid use causes suicide are ignoring the reality, and the dynamic, of how and why kids make decisions in general, and specifically bad decisions.

Another problem is that kids are allowed and encouraged to idolize athletes.

It would be ludicrous for someone to make the point that their son, who wanted to be a coach, became a depressed, beer-swilling drunk who crashed his car because Mike Ditka, Jim Mora, Dennis Greene and Brian Billick do Coors Light commercials. And yet we accept this line in the steroid use argument.

Using steroids is both a selfish and self-destructive decision. Selfish because your self interests come before everything else. Self-destructive because the position that you can accomplish your goals based on your own hard work is abandoned; this aspect is far more insidious. Athletes have gone to great lengths to hide and deny their steroid use rather than promote, defend or even justify it for precisely this reason. Steroid use is antithetical to the goals of competition and sport. The damage done by the decision to use steroids occurs immediately and is likely to be just as much of a problem, and harder to overcome, as any possible physical or emotional damage from the drugs themselves.


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Contador Claims Clenbuterol Innocence

October 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

This headline is timeless.

Regardless of the year, the news that a Tour de France winner tested positive for steroids, or any other banned substance, is about as shocking as the sun rising every morning or Lindsay Lohan entering rehab.  I’m sorry, that’s a cheap shot.  I shouldn’t put the rising sun in the same category as a falling star…Wow, that’s bad, too.  Ok, I’ll stop now.

So here we are, once again, this time talking about Alberto Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France.

According to news reports, Contador tested positive for clenbuterol, also known as “clen” by the drugs’ closest friends.  Here’s the statement released by Contador’s people, “The experts consulted so far have agreed also that this is a food contamination case, especially considering the number of tests passed by Alberto Contador during the Tour de France, making it possible to define precisely both the time the emergence of the substance as the tiny amount detected, ruling out any other source or intentionality.”

The list of Contador’s experts has not been made known as of this point in time, nor have we been given a clue as to the other possible “source or intentionality.”

I find it interesting that these cyclists – and any athlete who tests positive – always manage to inadvertently eat contaminated food that contains the kind of banned, anabolic substance that enhances performance.   Remember Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers?  He had the misfortune of using a protein powder that was spiked with all kinds of banned, potent muscle building agents.  Anyway…

Clenbuterol is a synthetic bronchodilator that is prescribed for asthmatics and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Clenbuterol has a reputation of being both anti-catabolic and anabolic in animal studies, which makes this steroid quite desirable for the kind of guy who would want to do well in the Tour de France.  Clen also stimulates your beta-2 receptors; this allows you to burn more stored fat than you normally – naturally – would.

So what this means in simple language is that clenbuterol is both muscle-sparing and muscle building – great for recovering during a grueling competitive event – while allowing the body to use more of its stored fat for fuel.  This is a great deal for any athlete.

So like I said, isn’t it so crazy that a Tour de France winner would have the amazingly dumb luck to inadvertently eat food tainted with precisely the kind of steroid that could improve their performance?


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Hope If You Suffer With Tennis Elbow

August 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

By Sal Marinello

A recent article that appeared on the New York Times blog revealed the “secrets” of a new treatment that should make those who suffer from tennis elbow very happy.

For many people who play racquet sports, tennis elbow has been the bane of their existence. This painful – and in many cases chronic – condition is characterized by pain and inflammation, typically in the area of the upper arm near the elbow. It a classic overuse injury and one that has been really tough to treat. For years athletic trainers and physical therapists, along with their patients, have struggled to contend with tennis elbow.

Even though the condition is associated with tennis, those who have never come within a country mile of a tennis court, or a racquet of any kind, have suffered the pain and discomfort experienced by the racquet toting crowd. The treatments are varied and range from acupuncture to surgery, but the only thing these treatments have in common is their limited success.

So anyway, a group of researchers from the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City have developed a cheap and effective way of treating tennis elbow. It’s a simple series of exercises using eccentric contractions (when the muscle lengthens as it tenses) and an 8-inch rubber bar.

The researchers at Lennox Hill Hospital had such phenomenal success with this series of exercises that they stopped the study early, as subjects were improving as early as three weeks into the treatment, showing increased strength and decreased pain.

The best thing about this tennis elbow protocol is that you don’t have to be a doctor, physical therapist or athletic trainer in order to perform this series of exercises. If you are a tennis elbow sufferer you need to check out the story on the New York Times blog.


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TALKING SENSE ABOUT SWEET SUGAR

June 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

It kind of amazes me that some people get so freaked out by a tiny teaspoon of sugar.  Fifteen calories has never gotten such a bad rap. In the rush to place blame for the so-called obesity epidemic, this basic carbohydrate that every body needs for fuel, has become a scapegoat.

Nobody has ever gained weight because they put a teaspoon of sugar in their two cups of coffee every morning.  And despite what the Food Police will have you believe, there is no reliable science that indicates that sugar causes obesity or has some extra-caloric superpower that causes people to gain weight.

But some people still don’t get that it’s a simple formula of “calories in, calories out,” and if you eat more calories than you need for energy you will gain weight, and those calories can be in the form of carbohydrates, protein, fat or a combination of all three.  A person can eat the “healthiest” foods imaginable, but if they eat more than they need they will gain weight.  And for the record, one gram of sugar provides 4 calories, one gram of protein and one gram of fat provides 9 calories each.

The one gram of sugar provides the same 4 calories any other form of carbohydrate provides.  The difference between sugar and the other calories is that sugar is immediately converted into fuel that the body uses right away.  If you are active eating carbs and sugars are a necessary part of your diet.  And if you exercise carbs and sugars are a vital part of your fueling and recovery regimens.

If you enjoy sugar, use sugar. Natural sugar.  I’m of the belief that it’s better to use natural sugar – or use nothing – than to use an artificial or chemically altered substance.  And some believe that the taste of real sugar can help to control hunger, and as a result help people to manage their weight.


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CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY! TRAIN WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER!

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

You might think I’m crazy, my neighbors probably think I’m crazy and if you listen to me your neighbors might think you’re crazy.  And you might be crazy if you listen to me, but you will be in better shape.  Try sledgehammer training.

In the effort to get fit you don’t have to rely on traditional methods of training or standard types of fitness equipment.  Dumbbells and barbells are great, as are kettlebells, but there are other non-traditional implements that can be used to improve your overall physical fitness level.

Which brings us to the sledgehammer, as in a large, heavy hammer wielded with both hands.  There’s not much technique involved, but there is the need to exercise caution, so don’t go and swing away at something for 20 minutes the first time you try this kind of training.  You need to acclimatize your body to the overall demands that sledgehammer training will put on your body.

I wish I could say I thought of this program all by my lonesome, but alas it is not true.  For this I give credit to a Mr. Reinhard Engels who has come up with a simplistic yet brilliant approach to the indoor use of the sledgehammer.  He has worked out a simple yet effective total body routine that can be performed indoors in a small area in about 15 minutes, with a 10-pound sledgehammer.

Completing Reinhard’s “Shovelglove” routine is the prerequisite for embarking on a full-fledged, out-doors, bash-the-heck-out-of-a-tree-stump training program.

And here’s a quick note on the concept of “hardcore” as it applies to working out.  Hardcore is a state of mind, in that a person is willing to deviate from convention and use all the tools and knowledge available in order to come up with an interesting, fun and effective way to train.

Hardcore isn’t going to a gym and struggling and straining and making loud noises in order to do curls or leg extensions or the bench press.  Being big or wearing old, ripped, tattered workout clothes don’t make someone hardcore.  If you’re hardcore, you don’t train with belts, wrist wraps or spend most of your time on machines.

Don’t be intimidated by the concept of hardcore, embrace it.

Once you’ve spent a month or two with the “Shovelglove” you can venture outside and seek out an old tree stump, log or railroad tie or score an old tire from a local auto repair shop.

All you need is a 10-pound sledge, safety goggles (to prevent anything you hit from shooting into your eyes) and the willingness to work hard.  This kind of training is great for every part of your body from your fingers to your toes, and especially works on your core.  Core training is all the rage these days and nothing will work your core like 20 minutes swinging a sledgehammer.

The first time you head outside, after you warm up with some “Shovelglove” moves, spend only 10 minutes actually hitting something   You will be generating quite a bit of force so you don’t want to overdo and suffer an injury.  Working on terrain, and not on a level gym floor, will force your body to move in ways that you probably aren’t used to, which is another reason that you don’t want to do too much right off the bat.

Do yourself a favor and take your time, as the best approach is to “sledge” for about 10 minutes at a time three times per week.  From here, you can add time to your sessions until you can go for about 25 minutes at the most.

You will be amazed at how sledgehammer training will improve your physical fitness.  Buy a sledgehammer now.


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DUMB AND DUMBER: MARK AND JAY MCGWIRE

February 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

Comments made by Mark McGwire’s bodybuilding idiot of a brother illustrate A) what a joke body building is and B) why  bodybuilders should NEVER be allowed anywhere near real athletes.

So Mark McGwire’s loose-cannon brother has come out with a book, and in it he details his big brother’s steroid and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) taking regimen.  Does anyone really care what this little man has to say about his disgraced brother?

As a matter of fact, who really could be interested in what he might have to say about anything, what it’s like to be the  talentless brother?  Is there that much interest in bottom feeders these days?

Note: Someone should ask Jay if he helped his NFL quarterback of a brother Dan McGwire get an edge, as well.

Jay McGwire’s comments really speak volumes about how little bodybuilders know and why they should be ignored when they talk about athletic performance.  Here’s a sample of idiocy from Little Jay, “Oh, his strength. His leg strength was awesome. I talked about what he is doing on the leg press — over 600 pounds for 20 reps. That is pretty good for a baseball player. And that is the key in baseball, I think. … Mark didn’t really have big legs until after that. He couldn’t do some other serious leg workouts because of his lower back issues, so we had to be careful with that.”

Hey Jay, did you stop and think the leg press machine might be responsible for your brother’s back problems?  What did you do to try to strengthen the lower back, huh? Also, as a guy who supposedly spent a lot of time in the gym, you should know that 600-pounds on the leg press is common-place, unless you’ve spent your time in Curves’ gyms.  And come on, what functional purpose does the leg press serve for a baseball player, not to mention for a guy who is approaching the end of his career? A lot of people can leg press 600-pounds for 20 repetitions, I have seen it countless times and it is completely unimpressive.  It also proves nothing and is indicative/predictive of nothing.

More nonsense. “And obviously his arm strength, getting those hands through the [hitting] zone. Think about it, it is pretty remarkable. He is gaining 30 pounds over three years, and that is the right way to do it because you go slow and the body reacts slow in the ways of getting it more flexible. So Mark was more flexible 30 pounds heavier. Now think about that torque that he could have. That is why the ball was going out of stadiums.”

WTF? This is gibberish. It would take thousands and thousands of words to try to decipher this garbage. It’s classic bodybuilding, throw some jargon around, figure you’ll impress/intimidate people who supposedly don’t know as much, and Voila, you sound like an expert.  He actually sounds like a moron.

At 170-180 pounds Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron were hitting home runs, why couldn’t Mark McGwire hit them at 225-pounds?  Oh, and the Cardinals’ new hitting instructor had more strike outs than hits during his years as an active player in St. Louis.

Then Jay McGwire spoke about his brother’s drug cycles.  More Neanderthal musings.  Just like Greg Anderson, the alleged personal trainer who ruined Barry Bonds’ body with steroids and unsound training, Jay McGwire dosed his brother up with massive amounts of drugs.  Again, bodybuilders who don’t do anything that can be considered even remotely athletic just need to add muscle, and ingest tons of drugs.  Baseball players and real athletes don’t need to pack on muscle at any cost, especially at the cost Jay McGwire exacted on his brother’s body.

No less of an expert than BALCO Labs’ Victor Conte says, “The first thing you are going to see is size. You are using Dbol (Dianabol) and this stuff at this dosage, you’re going to look like Hercules, if he is doing the weight training. At 12 weeks and those dosages, this is not baby food.”  By the way, you can train like Olive Oil and you’ll look like Popeye if you dose up like Mark McGwire did.

The final insult comes in the form of this statement by Jay McGwire, “Jay McGwire repeatedly stressed that any changes weren’t just from the drugs, but that his brother trained ridiculously hard, often six days a week. And the combination paid off.” This is just bullshit.  The drugs are responsible for allowing someone to train “ridiculously hard, six days a week.”

Don’t buy this nonsense. And don’t but the malarkey that teammates and team personnel didn’t know what was going on.

Mark McGwire cheated by taking performance-enhancing drugs because he wanted to break home run hitting records and his brother was right there with him every step of the way.


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McGWIRE SQUANDERS CHANCE TO COME CLEAN

January 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

Spare us the tears, Mark.  It’s 2010 and nobody is buying the pathetic nonsense that you didn’t take steroids to help you hit home runs.  Furthermore, if it weren’t for steroids – not androstenedione, creatine or any other supplement – Mark McGwire would have been out of baseball around the time he was setting home run records.

Steroids were responsible for allowing McGwire to embark on his magical 8-year run that began in Oakland in 1995.  That’s all we needed to hear.  Not getting that simple,unqualified admission made the McGwire/Costas interview kind of silly.

McGwire acted like a little kid who got caught doing something wrong and broke down in an attempt to minimize the punishment and engender some sympathy.

Although it is sad that McGwire is still lying to himself and is still in denial about his steroid use.  His claim that he didn’t take steroids to hit home runs defies logic, especially when you consider that Little Mac had the help of a public relations firm.

And let’s ignore Tony LaRussa’s defense of McGwire.  LaRussa was on the scene of two of the biggest steroid scandals in baseball’s history, the Jose Canseco/McGwire A’s and the McGwire St. Louis Cardinals, and now he wants to bring Mac back to the scene of one of the crimes.  I wrote about this years ago, and my case holds up to this day.  LaRussa has managed to skate through all these years without having any of this steroid stink stick to him.  Don’t buy this “Teflon Don’s” take on McGwire or anything to do with the steroids in baseball story.

The overlooked joke of this whole story is that Mark McGwire is coming back as the Cardinals’ hitting instructor.  McGwire is a guy who struck out once every 4 times at bat and was worthless at the plate when he didn’t hit a home run.  In his last year, after the steroids had ravaged his body, he had a .187 average, 56 hits with 29 home runs and 4 doubles.  He struck out 118 times in 299 at-bats, the 4th highest total of his career in about 40% fewer total at-bats for the season.

The bottom line is that Mark McGwire got another chance to come clean and he blew it.


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Tiger Woods: Adding Muscle Mass Is Always Welcomed By Athletes

December 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

Health and Fitness Advice

As the New York Times reports that Dr. Anthony Galea, a physician who has treated Tiger Woods, is being investigated for providing Performance Enhancing Drugs to athletes, debate is being waged on sports talk shows across the radio dial; did the revealed-to-be-a-horn dog golfing great use steroids or human growth hormone and if he did, how much, if any, did these drugs help?

As usual, when discussing athletes and PED use, logic and facts take a back seat to emotions, incorrect and inconsistent assertions, and misinformation about what these drugs can and cannot do.

Arguments are being forwarded in this debate that were used when baseball players got caught using steroids and HGH.  Steroids don’t make the athlete, technique does; bulk doesn’t help these athletes; young athletes don’t really get any benefits from the recovery benefits offered by PEDs; the athletes were great when they were teenagers and young men, so why would they need to take PEDs to get any better, and the list goes on.

Different sports and different athletes, but the same bad info and faulty logic.

For the sake of discussion, let’s accept the” big picture” assertion made by some folks that athletic performance in golf is (somehow) different than all other athletic endeavors, and therefore, steroid use cannot improve the swing and play of a golfer.

So what?

Tiger has displayed such incredibly bad judgment in the way he has handled his personal life it’s entirely reasonable that he would use the same faulty decision making process regarding the use of PEDs.  Knowing what we know about this mess, Tiger’s reasoning skills are obviously suspect.

What we know about athletes who use PEDs, their motivation is that they believe taking the drugs will help.  It is also clear that many athletes are willing to go to extreme measures to be successful and to gain an edge over the competition.  In this regard, could Tiger be that different from Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Rodney Harrison or any other uber-competitive, successful athlete?

The nonsense about increased muscle mass – aka “bulk”- and steroid/HGH use comes from what people think they know what these drugs can do as a result of stories about body builders and other meat heads.  Unless the definition and physics of “athleticism” and “ability to perform more work” has changed, increased muscle mass is never a bad thing; a relatively small increase in muscle mass can reap large performance benefits.

A golfer, baseball player, tennis player, swimmer or any other athlete will benefit from increased muscle mass and athletes who use PEDs don’t have to look like this, they look like this.

By the way, Tiger is known to have hit the weighs hard and has added muscle to his body over the past several years, so it’s clear that Tiger thinks adding muscle to his frame will help his game.

Again, for the sake of argument if we accept the line of reasoning that adding muscle is detrimental to a golfer’s performance to explain why Tiger Woods would not use PEDs, how can this “no improvement” be measured?  Whether from weight lifting and PED use, or weight lifting alone, if he wasn’t as muscular would he have won more tournaments?  First, there’s no way to know this and second it is not logical to say that Woods wouldn’t use PEDs simply because he didn’t want to add muscle mass.

In the real world we can’t ignore the facts for the sake of argument and the unshakeable reality is that additional muscle is beneficial to any athlete, athletes are aware of this, and as a result follow many strategies – ethical and unethical, legal and illegal – to improve their performance.  However, while increased muscle mass can’t be considered to be a detriment, there is no doubt that a golfer – or any athlete – can decrease performance and increase their risk of injury by following an improper weight lifting regimen.

There is no evidence that Tiger Woods has taken steroids, human growth hormones or any other banned PEDs.  However, absent any proof, hackneyed and ignorant arguments cannot be used to explain why he wouldn’t.


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The Ugly Runner

October 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

By Sal Marinello

We’ve had some nice fall weather over the past few weeks here in New Jersey and that means joggers are out in force.  It’s very similar to what happens when spring springs and the first batch of 70 degree sunny days show up after a long, ugly winter; joggers take to the roadways and sidewalks en masse.

The problem is that most people are what I call, “Ugly Joggers.” Now don’t jump to conclusions – especially you, Marianne – as I’m not talking about a person’s looks, but rather their running “form,” and by using “form,” I’m being very kind.

Over the past week or so I’ve seen at least 40 joggers, but only 2 or 3 could be considered to be running with proper form.  The form breaks run the gamut; short stride length, no hip extension, improper (or no) arm swing, leg drag, valgus and varus, limp.  Think of a flaw and you’ll see it when Ugly Joggers are in season.

Do yourself a favor and stop jogging.  Get exercise, but leave the jogging and running to the real runners – no offense.  If you want to go out and pound your skeletal system into powder at least seek out an expert that can teach you how to run.

I find it funny when people ask me what they can do to improve their cardiovascular fitness and I tell them to swim, and they tell me, “Oh I don’t want to swim, what else can I do?” I get the same kind of response from folks who want to know how to improve their distance running, like they can’t be bothered to do the right thing.  As if it’s an insult to be told that they need to learn how to do something as simple as running.

Actually, running properly is difficult for most people, even athletes.  I spend a lot of time teaching high school and college athletes how to run properly and correcting their form.  Show me 100 high school athletes and I’ll show you 95 kids who don’t know how to run. And for adults the percentages would be even worse.

So if you aren’t jogging the right way, don’t do it at all. Go for a brisk walk, do calisthenics, or take a swim, but lay off the jogging.  When you consider that each step of running places a force on your joints up to 3 times body weight, your body will thank you for exploring low-intensity/low-impact options.


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