`Jogging may not always help stay fit`

London: If you think that jogging can help you stay fit, better consult your doctor, for a leading British expert claims that it may not always help -- in fact, it can cause cellulite, heart attacks and joint strain.

For many years, running has been considered to be the ideal form of exercise. But, Greg Brookes, a London-based personal trainer with a clientele that ranges from celebrities and high-fliers to housewives, disagrees. "Lots of people start running to lose weight and it doesn`t always work -- and this is why. Small muscles use less energy and are more efficient. The heart is a muscle and if you force it to keep working for long periods of time it will naturally shrink to use less energy and become more efficient. "If you want to increase the size of your heart then you must strength, train your heart, not endurance, train it," a news daily quoted him as saying. The next is that running causes injury through repetitive movements -- an accusation that will be familiar to many whose knees or ankles have proved unequal to the demands placed on them, according to the expert. "When you run, two-and-a-half times your bodyweight is transmitted through your joints. If that force is repeated over and over, eventually your weakest joint will give out. "Usually the ankles or the knees are the first to go, generally because of poor hip and core stability. Wearing a brace exacerbates the problem by moving the strain on to next weakest joint while maintaining old injury," said Brookes. Long-distance running will often deplete your energy stores and then start breaking down your muscle tissue to use as energy. "If you want some serious muscle wastage and to reduce your metabolic rate, then keep running," Brookes said. He also claims that far from making your body leaner, running can cause it to gain fat. "Fat is one of our body`s favourite sources of energy. The more you run, the more your body prepares itself for your next run. You will actually start to hold on to more fat," Brookes said. PTI