Questions from a Former Runner
I started running my freshman year of high school as a result of being part of my high school’s soccer team. I continued running up until I started college at which point I continued running sporadically. Towards the end of my senior year of college I did a very long run (about 20 miles) with little training as part of a fundraiser. This turned out to be a very dumb thing to do because since then I’ve not been able to run more than 3 miles without significant pain in my ankles and/or knees. I’ve tried everything from reducing the rate of increase of the mileage to changing shoes to switching to a treadmill and nothing seemed to work.
A week or so ago, I stumbled on this (link) article that you wrote (it was mentioned in a podcast I listen to), which led to reading a few other articles on startingstrength.com. It wasn’t long before I found your article (link) making the case against running, which was quite eye-opening, to say the least. Since then, I’ve read several more articles as well as watched several videos including this one (link) on the case for the Starting Strength model. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve started to look at things in a new light and have become aware of the fact that the soreness that I’ve been experiencing from sleeping on my shoulder wrong a few months ago (as well as other aches and pains I have from time to time) is probably due to my lack of strength.
All that to say, at this point, I’m 95 percent convinced, and the only reason that percentage isn’t at 100 percent is because I still have some unanswered questions:
- As a mechanical engineer who has done a lot of running and studied the way the foot is constructed, I can say with confidence that the human foot is an exquisite mechanical system that appears to be designed for the purpose of making it possible for people to run efficiently. Further, while (as you’ve pointed out), lifting heavy things is one of the most natural things a person can do, isn’t it also true that running is an entirely natural thing to do? After all, a runner requires even less equipment than the weight lifter (athletes in ancient times even did it in the nude without any equipment at all). How is it that one completely natural activity (i.e. strength training with barbell exercises) is extremely good for you while another completely natural activity (i.e. running) can actually be detrimental to your health with these differences becoming more stark as the activity becomes more extreme?
- One of the arguments in favor of the healthiness of running that I’ve heard is the fact that there are many old people (including nonagenarians) who run and sometimes do so for quite long distances (including marathons). Correct me if I’m wrong, but you are making a different point: not only can a person of any age improve their health by strength training, but also a person who begins strength training at the age of 10 can continue doing it until they die at 90+ without concern for injury that is associated with repetitive movements (or any of the other downsides to running you describe). Am I understanding that correctly?
- Anytime I encounter something that causes me to massively change my thinking like this, I’m extremely interested to hear what people who aren’t convinced by the argument have to say about it. In light of that, what would you say is the best argument against the Starting Strength model that you’re aware of, and what is your response? Furthermore, would you be willing to share something that someone critical of the Starting Strength program has written that you believe represents the best argument against it?
- My wife eats much more healthily than I do, and as is true of almost all women, would like to lose some weight (particularly after giving birth to my son last year). However, she long ago bought into Pilates and Yoga (not the wacky meditation part, but just the stretching part). How would you recommend that I explain to her that she would benefit far more from strength training when she wants to be skinnier, not necessarily stronger (after all, “beefy” is not really the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of attractive traits of the female gender)?
- Finally, in your video making the case for the Starting Strength model, you mention that there needs to be significant amounts of time (i.e. ~7 minutes for a novice and 15-20 minutes for someone more advanced) between sets to allow for sufficient recovery, which would seem to very quickly add up to a massive amount of time across 5 sets of 5 different activities. How much time do I need to be prepared to commit to strength training each week during the “novice” phase? Can it be done with a time commitment of just 1 hour per day?