Hey everyone, just a quick question here... I have been told by some that jogging on the balls of your feet is beneficial for your calves, in terms of strengthening them and whatnot. I was just wondering, is this truth or fiction? On the rare occassions that I do jog (twice a week at best), would it be a good idea to stay on the balls of my feet or is that pretty much gauranteed to screw up my legs? I think I read somewhere a while ago that many Thai fighters jog on the balls of their feet, but I'm not certain. Thanks.
Jogging on the balls of your feet will make you slower infact jogging will make you slower. If your doing LIT though jog in the most comfortable way. If you want stronger calves from running do something like tabata sprints. Hill sprints while holding weights will realy get the calves.
There was a recent article in Mens Health about this, the upshot being yes run on the balls of your feet, because it's more natural and reduces injuries. I can't remember which issue, but it can't be more than a couple months ago if I can still remember it, LOL. BTW, I'd love to see a citation in some sort of scientific or medical journal that jogging makes you slower. :bang:
Yes jogging on the balls of your feet is better, it allows your calfs to take the impact rather than your knees and other joints.
Your body acts like a spring, jogging on the balls of your feet takes a lot of the direct impact off the knee joint, hence it cna be healthier for you
Ok it will make you faster than doing nothing, but jogging will destroy fast twitch fibres as any exercise would, but they will be rebuilt as slow ones. Well thats how I understand it. So to avoid this, but still get some cardio is to do circuit training. Pick a few exercises, pullups, burpees and clap pushups and do them in circuits. Doing specific anaerobic work where you need it, hitting a punch bag etc.
How do you know this? It sounds totally wrong. It seems like all the great boxers and fighters do tons of jogging everyday when preparing for a fight, and these guys are the pinnacle of their art/style. I try to jog everyday but I run on woodchip covered trails not hard pavement so I don't really worry about the stress on my joints.
I've been experimenting with running on the balls of my feet. It's killer if you do it continuously so try one KM doing it then one km not doing it and so on for your entire run. It may reduce impact on your knees and what not but it will increase impact on other parts of your leg, so watch out as you can strain other stuff if you're not used to it. Also jogging is great! Never even suggest it sucks!
Jogging does not "destroy" fast twitch fibers , in the same way sprinting dosn't "destroy" slow twitch fibers. You have type 1 fibers( slow twitch) Type 2a fibers (intermediate fibers) and type 2b fibers(fast twitch fibers) What does happen is your fibers adapt to imposed stimulus EG. if you sprint alot, your body's fast twitch fibers will grow, just like muscle does when weight training, they do not increase in numbers. So if you wan't to increase explosive speed/power you need to do explosive work EG: sprinting. In doing this not only will your Type 2b fibers develop, but your Type 2a fibers take on characteristics of the fibers being recruited. So in short if you do alot of jogging, you wil not get slower your fast twitch fibers will remain, but what will happen is your type 1 fibers will grow meaning your legs or what ever it is you are training will have increased endurance.
