Who would rather look like a runner or weightlifter?

This weekend was brilliant for me. My rugby team went unbeaten all year, which for any sporting side is a great achievement. As first year as captain, I had the responsibility of making my team’s end of season speech. As you would expect from any sporting team at the end of a very good season, a certain amount of drinking would take place, but being a rugby team its fairly difficult to avoid. Being the no-good lush that I am, I indulged and suffered the consequences the next day. The hangover always reminds me why I endeavour to eat and drink healthily the majority of the time!

However, it was a great season and like the rest of my team look forward to going up a league next year. The off-season presents a number of opportunities for a sportsman. For me firstly, I can spend a little bit more time with my long suffering and ever patient wife- no doubt by September she will be happy to be rid of me on a Saturday afternoon again! It also gives me a chance to let some ongoing aches and pains heal, and get in the gym so that I am fitter and stronger next year.

My off-season this year will be a little different to most. As most people know, I have been walking round for the last 18 months with a broken wrist, having sat through numerous consultations at St Peters, and having had my op cancelled last Christmas, I am due in for the op at the end of July. After which, due to a bone graft they will take from my hip, I will be laid up for a couple of weeks. With the recovery time looking to be close to 3 months, I have a longer off-season than most, so therefore have perhaps more time to get bigger, stronger and quicker. I will keep you updated with my training programme and you can see my progress.

This weekend was also the London Marathon. A fantastic event, in which normal, everyday people from across the world participate. However, watching the television camera scan across the start line makes me wonder exactly how good for you marathon running actually is. Aside from the amount of stress that running puts on your joints, there is an abundance of evidence to suggest that exercising for longer than an hour catapults the body into a catabolic state, meaning the excessive stress begins to breakdown tissue.

Many people see running as the be all and end all. They feel they need to burn fat to look good, but when given the choice of whom they would rather look like Paula Radcliffe or Marilou Dozois-Prevost (google her!) or Seb Coe or Josh Lewsey, they tend to choose the later. The majority of my clients have far greater success in the gym lifting weights as oppose to pounding the streets. As fitness coach Charles Poliquin says ‘human beings were designed to throw stones at rabbits, not chase after them’. Not to say that running is not a worthwhile fitness pursuit, but there are far better, healthier ones.

Conversely, on Sunday afternoon I went over to see the Chinese State Circus in Guildford. It was a brilliant show. The athleticism the performers showed was fantastic. All of the performers in the show looked great. All of them had clear, defined musculature. All were balanced and strong (males and females). Although I never had the chance to find out for certain, I’m fairly sure none of them had ever taken part in a marathon.

When people tell me that running is the best form of exercise it does beg the question. Who would rather look like a runner or weightlifter?