Running
 

So, running is supposed to be the overall best workout anyone can get right? I have a few questions any of you health freaks can help me out with.
1. Does running outdoors burn more calories than running on a treadmill? Cause I can run longer o a treadmill.
2. I perfer to bike or jump rope, how much more do I have to do these to equal one hour of running? I have heard jumping rope may actually better than running, is this true?
3. What other workout is recommended for overall body workout and cardio? (Besides swimming).
4. Any diets that actually work better than the "Eat less, move more" diet? I doubt it huh?

people say running is an overall workout, but legs aside, it probably wont develop your other muscles as much as you would want.

what most serious gym guys I know do is go through periods where you focus on weight lifting and high protein/calorie intake and periods where you focus on running and other cardio to burn fat.

I dont think treadmills burn any less or more carbs that running, though getting used to running in an enclosed area and the same speed (lest you trip and fall can get getting used to.

as for the jump rope/bike question, try looking up HIIT in a search engine and try to apply that.

Depends what muscles you want to work, but I hear swimming is actually the most efficient work out. As someone who both runs and bikes every now and then, I'd say if you have the time, biking is a much better work out because you can go for longer and it works your muscles more. It just takes longer to do it.

I would advise against only treadmill running. A treadmill creates the same stresses on the same parts of your legs because the surface is flat and uniform. Running outside results in running on all sorts of different surfaces at different angles and such that it distributes the stress to other parts of your legs and helps a little to lessen the stress of running. I personally prefer running outside since it is more interesting. 30 minutes running outside feels like 15 minutes or so. 30 minutes on a treadmill feels like an hour. I hate treadmills...http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/mad.gif

I had no idea you knew how much I wanted to develop the other muscles. Since I don't even know, can you elaborate on what you mean by that? From what I heard, besides swimming, if you had to pick one excercise over everythig else, most people would pick running. I'm not very knowledgeable in this area though.

I like running outside because it is more interesting, like nodachi said.

I don’t know about the fat burning properties of jumping rope, but it is a great exercise for Kendo! Probably only suburi can beat it. It improves ashi-sabaki and te-no-uchi!!!!!! One of my senseis always tells us to jump rope.

I should start doing suburi at home.

Running is good if you want improved cardio fitness, or if you want to get good at running. Other than that, you'd have to have some goals in mind in order to recommend what the best exercise would be.

Lose weight, gain stamina, and be good at running. I know jump rope helps a lot with kendo, but I want to be able to fly around in other sports. I noticed that in a lot of sports, running well/fast/long will compensate for a lack of skill when it comes to simple street play (basketball, soccer, American football).

Haven't read any research on this, but from experience I think jumping ropes is of a much lower level of cardio fitness as comparing to running... At least I have never felt my lungs exploding in 1/2 hour of jumping ropes, but for running over 20 minutes, I'll start to feel that...

Great thread - Ive been trying to jog lots to improve my cardio but..... man, I hate it. Im going to borrow my sisters computerised exercise bike and do that instead and Ive been wondering how it compares to running.

Plus its too damn hot to run at the moment. >40C (104F), bah.

The concept 2 rowing machine is as close to real rowing that you can get without getting wet and is probably the absolute best cardio exercise you can do. Do thirty minutes @ 5 minute miles with a stroke rate of 15 per minute if you can.

Well, running will improve stamina some. I'm with the others about outdoor running being much better and easier than treadmill running. About the sport thing, I'm not so sure. I mean, it really depends on what kind of shape your in now. If you're already somewhat fit, then improving your long distance running may help you in sports less than you think. I am only reasonably fit, but I can run for rather long distances (not quite marathons, but close), but I'm still not much faster than my friends when messing around in sports, even though I can run about 10 times farther than the person I'm thinking of. I think that's because sprinting/burst endurance is very different than long distance endurance. We had a good thread on that kind of excercise a bit ago. Try looking that up.

Oh, I was under the impression that you can run faster if you just excercise jogging. Because you would get an overall better/stronger body for running. I would say I can run fast, but my weight is pulling me down.

The problem is that the muscle fibers required in long distance endurance is different from the fibers required for short sprinting...

Actually, I think that while jogging may be better to burn fat and endurance is a good thing, to improve Kendo strikes speed it is better to run in short sprint bursts at full speed than jogging.

jumping rope is sick exercise when done in propper rythm TT !!!

Man, I need endurance and weight loss just as much, if not more, than speed. I heard somewhere that walking at a quick pace actually burns more fat/calorie than running. So what about this? Would jumping ropes work out those muscles required for sprint bursts? Cause I can walk to lose the weight, then jump ropes. Once a week, I can also sprint excercise and lift weights even. What do you think?

best workout , defenetly cross country skiing,and the feeling running through a snow covert country is fantastic...........

but you need....snow...

tgsfg, if you are thinking about kendo then it is best to not do too much running. Maybe 3 times/week, less than 1 hour each time. If you get into daily running for long distances, then you will be developing as an endurance athlete which is counter to what you want for kendo. But if you consistently hit 3 shorter runs/week and combine that with good diet, you'll lose weight and build sufficient cardio for kendo.

To help with the explosive power needed for kendo, I recommend compound weight-training exercises like squat or snatch, performed explosively. If you want to do that, it's best to get an experienced person to show you how to do the exercises properly. Alternately you can try bodyweight exercises like hindu squat, hindu pushup, box jumps, step-ups.