8 Fat-Burning Exercises You Can Do Instead of Jogging If You Have Joint Pain

This article was written by Scott Murphy, a writer who loves to write an article on various topics such as health, fitness, exercise etc. He has the passion for the sport over 20 years. He is a regular contributor to AllRowers.com, a site offering reviews, workouts, industry news and education about the benefits of rowing and regular exercise.

Running is one of the most popular exercises and it’s easy to see why so many individuals choose it as their go-to workout. Unlike most other forms of exercise, running doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment or any particular location. All you need is a good pair of running shoes and you can literally get out there and go, anywhere that you want. It’s low cost, high impact and has plenty of physical and psychological benefits, but depending on the individual it may not be the best choice. Read on below to see if it may not be suited to you.

The Physical Drawbacks of Running

While running can help to burn calories and tone muscles, it can also have some significant physical drawbacks. You’re probably aware that running can be tough on your knees. This is especially true if you regularly run on a hard surface like concrete or asphalt. But the physical issues don’t stop there. Not only does running put a lot of strain on your joints, it can also lead to stress fractures and lower back pain and even kidney damage.

And while it’s great to think that a few months of running can help you shed excess pounds, it’s also worth noting that while running can help you to burn calories and lose weight it can also lead to loss of muscle tone. If you don’t pair your regular running routine with strength training, you run the risk of losing muscle weight rather than just fat, which can leave you looking and feeling worse than when you started.

The bottom line: if you have weak knees, joints or back pain, running may not be for you. Also, if you enjoy running make sure you’re pairing it with strength exercises so that you don’t lose muscle tone.

Emotional Considerations of Running

For certain individuals with specific psychological tendencies, running can actually do more harm than good both physically and mentally.

Though you can take advantage of the social aspects of running by running with others, most of the time it is actually a very isolated activity. You’ll find yourself out on the road all alone and if you already have a tendency to be a loner this can just accentuate the feeling. It can actually remove you from needed sources of support and lead to feelings of loneliness. For people who have eating disorders it can make you even more focused on your weight, again heightening your low sense of self-worth and leading to more unhealthy habits.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the “natural high” people get while running (i.e. rush of endorphins), can be a dangerous effect for those with an addictive personality. For these people, running can become similar to a drug and they can develop an unhealthy need to constantly feed that obsession. Sometimes, these are the people you see out there in all sorts of weather, even in dangerous conditions, running as if their lives depend on it, because for them they quite literally do.

The bottom line: if you have suffered from addictive behavior in the past, or find that running exacerbates your feelings of loneliness, stay away from or minimize this type of exercise.

8 Alternatives to Running

With all of the potential drawbacks of running, if you’re looking to get a good workout but not push yourself too far, you might want to consider the benefits of rowing instead. Unlike running, which focuses solely on the legs, rowing allows you to work muscles in both your upper and lower body. It is also much lower impact than running which means the risk of injury is far lower. And yet you can still get plenty of benefits provided you approach it correctly. The bottom line is that running isn’t necessarily the right way to go when it comes to exercising, so consider all of the facts before you lace up those running shoes and hit the road.

In addition to rowing, you can also try: