Jogging
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Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase fitness without stress, though people may jog short distances if they are in a hurry, but don't wish to exert themselves.
History
Jogging was previously called "roadwork", when athletes in training such as boxers, customarily ran several miles each day as part of their conditioning.In the 1960s or 1970s the word "roadwork" was mostly supplanted by the word "jogging" and this form of running became quite popular among many people at that time in the United States, especially after it was popularized by Jim Fixx in his 1977 best-selling book The Complete Book of Running.
Exercise
Jogging is a "high-impact" exercise that places strain on the body, notably the joints of the knee. This is actually one of the basic reasons for doing the exercise, as the impact drives growth processes in the areas of the body stressed by that impact. Some people drop jogging in order to take up "lower-impact" exercises such as stair climbing, swimming or cycling.Jogging can be combined with other kinds of exercising.
Jogging is often used by serious runners as a means of active recovery during interval training. The runner who may just have completed a fast 400 metre repetition at a sub-5-minute mile pace, may drop to an 8-minute mile pace for a recovery lap. The jog might be carried out in much poorer, looser form whose purpose is to "shake out" the body and maintain circulation to eliminate, from the muscles, metabolic waste products produced during the bout of hard work.
Jogging as a sport
Because jogging isn't a well-defined term and doesn't aim at achieving any specifically identifiable goal, jogging cannot be classified as a competitive sport. There isn't any clear set of rules by which competitors could be disqualified for cheating by transitioning from jogging to running, other than the general observation that they are running with too good a form, and trying to win by moving too quickly.Poor form
Jogging is also characterized by what might unkindly be termed 'poor form'. Joggers, or runners who are jogging, sometimes demonstrate a hunched posture, carry their arms too high, and leap excessively high into the air and land heavily on the heel. Such form wastes energy and exacerbates the impact of the exercise. (An elite long-distance runner can move three times as fast as a jogger, yet experience much less impact due to a smooth form that minimises vertical motion, and which doesn't exhibit the heavy rear-foot landing during the footstrike.)Jogging with a Stroller
Many busy parents take up jogging while pushing a three-wheeled jogging stroller carrying their small child or baby. This has proven to be highly dangerous in colder parts of the world where babies have been known to freeze to death (Ottawa, Canada 1997, London, UK 2004). The adult keeps warm while jogging, while the temperature of the child drops rapidly as it is sitting still and is exposed to a prolongued rush of cold wind.Books
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- The Complete Book of Running (Hardcover) by James Fixx, Random House; 1st edition (September 12, 1977) ISBN 0394411595
- Jim Fixx's Second Book of Running (Hardcover) by James Fixx, Random House; 1st ed edition (March 12, 1980) ISBN 039450898X
See also
External links
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