Comment by AtlasBarfed
4 days ago
AND YOU DON'T NEED TO RUN to start with.
And if you are overweight and sedentary DON'T RUN TO GET INTO SHAPE.
Walking, hiking, swimming, biking, and weight training. Mix all of it so you get cross training effects and distribute stress across many domains.
Running is, by the standards of the statistical hole America is in terms of obesity, an "advanced" activity. We're talking about something that involves a stress increase of 2.5x to 4.x over walking.
Now consider that an obese person with an extra 50 lbs of fat is on their body. Running will be an extra 200 lbs of stress on your feet, and none of that fat tissue is absorbing impact or stabilizing that impact. And on top of it, the fat will disrupt the neuro-biomechanical flow of your neuromuscular system, making you less coordinated and therefore also harder to absorb the impact.
As I said elsewhere: use GLP-1 to get the fat down and simultaneously employ a gentle ROUTINE activity program that morphs into more and more exercise and exercise variety.
"And if you are overweight and sedentary DON'T RUN TO GET INTO SHAPE."
This. Many people aren't in good enough shape to run. And if they do run their form is often terrible.
There was a website years ago at WasWayFat.com about a guy that lost a ton of weight just stepping on an aerobic stair in his home.
Wayback machine has it: https://web.archive.org/web/20170710225625/http://www.wasway...
My feet seemed to get better after I started running. First time without pain in some time. Even walking made them hurt before. It’s taken a few months to build up though.
BMI of 29 starting so not obese but overweight and running has me down at 27 now.
Peter Attia in his book "Outlive" recommends exclusively zone 2 training for sedentary beginners: half an hour, 3x a week, of light to moderate exercise (e.g. on a stationary bike), for half a year or so before more strenuous exercise is added.
It can be really hard to get cardio without running. I still agree despite that.
It is, it is so low-cost (running shoes) and available (walk out the door).
And doing it is close to the maximum calories you will burn per unit of effort and time.
If you are overweight enough that running carries a significant risk of joint issues then just walking at speed is likely to be enough cardio for you.
Rucking will get you your cardio
Isn't this similarly hard on your joints to running, though, which is part of the problem with running when you're overweight? Or am I overestimating the joint impact?