Jogging is an Exercise that you can do anywhere, an exercise to get your heart rate up and your body moving.

For beginners, it can sometimes be a little uncomfortable to adjust to the weird feelings of your heart rate beating rapid and rapid breathing.

But, this is something you get used to overtime. A lot of exercises will get your heart pumping.

When you jog your body is carrying your weight meaning you can build some muscles and lose some fat.

The best thing about jogging is that it doesn’t require any equipment, apart from a decent pair of running shoes.

It can be done anywhere. Indoor running on a track or on a treadmill, or outdoor jogging through the city. Either way, you will still feel the benefits of jogging.

But, recent studies are showing that jogging is bad for you.

A recent study suggests that jogging more than three times a week, maybe as bad for you as never doing any exercise.

In fact, they have claimed that it can be more harmful to jog more than 1-2.4 hours a week.

What, Is jogging bad for you?!

Panic not, we have decided to look further into this study and find out if jogging really is bad for you.

The Study

Let’s start with the study that claims jogging can be as bad as no exercise at all…

This Danish study involved 1500 people and was carried out by researchers in the Frederiksberg Hospital, Denmark.

The Danish Heart Foundation funded this study.

The aim of the study was to find out what the ideal amount of jogging would be to have positive effects on lengthening your life.

It is common knowledge that people who are physically active generally live longer.

But the ideal amount of exercise to improve lifespan, in terms of intensity, frequency and duration, is not known.

Previously in a different study, the researchers claimed that jogging up to 2.5 hours, at a slow to average pace for up to three sessions a week was associated with the lowest risk of death.

They also suggested that jogging more or less than this was not associated with a reduced risk of death. This claim was investigated further in the current study.

Participants in the study were assessed on what type and how much physical activity they did in their leisure time. For those who were almost entirely inactive or only did light activity for less than 2 hours per week in their leisure time, they were considered ‘sedentary’.

Those who regularly jogged were asked about their pace, the total time the jogged per week and frequency of jogging per week. They were then categorised into the following three categories: light joggers, moderate joggers and strenuous joggers.

These individuals were followed up and anybody that had died in this period was identified through a national death register.

Other lifestyle factors were taken into consideration such as gender, education, diabetes, alcohol intake and whether they smoked.

The Conclusion

They found that light and moderate joggers have a lower risk of death compared to sedentary non-joggers.

However, strenuous joggers did not differ in the risk of death compared to sedentary individuals.

Although, they noted that more research is necessary for this area before this finding could be incorporated into the physical activity recommendations for adults.

Limitations

There were 1000 joggers that participated in this study, however, considering the joggers were split into categories, some categories were much smaller than others. This was the case in the strenuous joggers which reduces the ability to analyse to detect differences between these smaller groups and the sedentary group.

In the strenuous jogger’s group, there were 36 people, only 2 of those had died when they were followed up. This is essential when concluded the study. The numbers were not equal and therefore the results were impacted.

The smaller numbers cannot identify with certainty that there is no difference between active joggers and the sedentary group.

So what should we take from this study?

It is common knowledge that those who are active are likely to live longer without considering other factors.

Some exercise is better than none.

We believe there is no such thing as too much exercise, as long as you are refuelling your body with nutritious foods, staying hydrated and allowing your body to recover properly.

So is jogging really bad?

Jogging helps your cardiovascular system. It keeps you healthy both physically and mentally.

Benefits of Jogging 

As we already know, jogging is an exercise that is associated with many benefits.

Providing you have proper form and a good pair of jogging shoes.

Jogging is an exercise that can help to prevent obesity if done regularly. You will burn calories and even lose weight whilst potentially burning belly fat.

It helps to improve your cardiovascular health and lowers blood pressure.

As well as, improving the immune function and cutting inflammation.

Bone and joint health will be improved, moderate exercise has been associated with being a treatment for joint function.

Although, some people may suffer from their joints. If you already have bad joints or pain in the knees, it would be better to choose a lower impact exercise rather than making your condition worse.

As previously mentioned, improving psychological and mental health. Jogging may even reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.

Our last thoughts…

We believe that exercise, no matter what kind, is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and prolong your life.

We do not believe that jogging more than three times a week is bad for you and puts you in the same category as sedentary people in regards to reducing the risk of death.

A healthy lifestyle consists of a nutritious diet and exercise.

So get your running shoes on and go for that jog, stay active and live healthier.

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