Jogging loses popularity

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 34

Jogging loses popularity

NZPA-AFP Washington mJogging, a national craze for the last 10 years, has started to slide in popularity. For Americans have discovered that they do not have to pound the pavements of their cities to keep healthy. Alarm bells started ringing two years ago when James Fixx, “founding father” of jogging and author of a book on its advantages, fell down dead in his track suit. He was 52. Since then orthopaedists, gynaecologists, and cardiologists have issued warnings about the dangers of too-strenuous exercise, whether jogging, marathon running, or aerobics.

The marathon is also out of favour. Gone are the days when dozens of perspiring runners could be seen, some on the point of collapse like the former President, Jimmy Carter. The word is moderation these days. Many young women who devoted years to jogging admit that it is useless to overdo exercises to keep healthy.

Armies of walkers have replaced joggers and marathon runners, invading parks, pavements and shopping centres. Walkers are encouraged by newly formed clubs, many for pensioners, as well as such publications as “Walking Magazine” and videos praising the “perfect sport.” The bicycle has also come back into popularity, boosted of course by Greg Lemond’s sensational win in July’s prestigious Tour de France, the first time that a nonEuropean has won the trophy across the Atlantic.

An estimated 30 million American adults have bought bicycles this year, a staggering 36 per cent sales increase over 1985. Scientific surveys sup-

port these more reasonable outdoor activities.

A recent one published in the "New England Journal of Medicine” showed that out of 17,000 students who entered Harvard University from 1916 to 1950, the ones with the best athletic and games records in later life were no healthier than . the bookworms. Two other scientific surveys, done out in California by the universities of Los Angeles and Stanford, showed that moderate sporting and outdoor activities possessed the same health-giving qualities as strenuous exercise.

Dr Steven Blair, of the Aerobic Research Institute at Dallas, Texas, said, “You do not have to be either an athlete or a Jane Fonda for gymnastics to do you good.” In fact, even Jane Fonda, the “goddess” of aerobics, has been forced to moderate her advice, and her next video will be on moderate exercises for the over-40 age group. The 5U527.5 billion ($55.27 billion) sports industry has also seen a few changes. Jogging shoes no longer sell as well as before —' down from SUSI 9.4 million ($39 million) in 1984 to SUSI 7.6 million ($35.37 million) in 1985. On the other hand, the sales of stout-soled walking shoes have increased.

Muscle-building and weight-lifting equipment has suffered from a loss of popularity — 2.7 million units were sold in 1985 compared to three million units in 1983.

Fixed rowing machines and bicycles, on the other hand, have soared in popularity. But the American sports industry is not expected to lose money because of these pattern changes. Experts consider that walkers and cyclists will easily make up for the fall-off of joggers and marathon runners.