Why Being Fit Doesn’t Necessarily Mean You’re Healthy. How Running Below Your Aerobic Threshold Can Help You Burn More Fat, Stay Healthy, and Run Faster

phil maMany runners confuse being able to run a fast race with being healthy. But they aren’t the same.

Unfortunately, if you take a quick look around at your next group run or race, you’ll note that more of your running mates may be classified as unhealthy than they would like to admit – nagging injuries, frequent colds, or unhealthy practices outside running that impact health.

That’s what Dr. Phil Maffetone noticed when he started seeing runners hobble through his doors when he first opened his clinic in NYC.  The injury rate and general lack of overall health from many of his fittest patients got him thinking about how he could reduce injuries and improve overall health while still helping them run faster.

The result was a revolutionary training process, which was later coined the Maffetone method.

In this interview, we chat with Dr. Maffetone about what is method entails, how it works, and how it can help you run faster and stay healthy. Here are some of the specific topics we discussed:

  • The difference between being healthy and being fit and how this impacts both beginners who pick up running to “get healthy” and experienced runners who think they’re healthy just because they can run fast.
  • How you can learn to use bio-feedback and your instincts to run the correct effort levels and keep yourself injury-free
  • Dr. Maffetone explains what his famous method is, how it was developed, and clears up common misconceptions about what it is and isn’t.
  • Why aerobic development is important, how running easy is better for aerobic capacity than running too hard, and how it impacts fat burning and marathon training.

Dr, Maffetone is definitely one of the pioneers in the field of training and using heart rate data. I guarantee you’ll learn a ton and walk away a much more intelligent and thoughtful runner about your training.

Watch this week’s show now