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I found the bias against jogging thread very interesting as I jogged on and
off for the past 20 years having been sold on Cooper's aerobics way back.
Nowadays at 44 years old I'm not so sure.

When I was with the commandos a big part of our fitness training was jogging
(actually more running) with the theory being that we might have to get from
A to B quickly and still be fit enough to fight.

However, I am pretty slim anyway and with all the running I was even
skinnier.  A warrant officer came up to me one day and asked me if I was
sick due to my emaciated look.  Now it is true that I was fit but fit for
what? To run reasonably fast over 5km.  To maintain a jogging pace with army
webbing (about 12kg) for 10km in an hour, and to jog (shuffle) with a 25kg
pack for 20 miles (32km) in less than 5 hrs.  These were all green beret
tests and you became fit enough to do these specific tests if you trained.
But where in the real world (and also the world of hunter gatherers) would
you need it.

Although there are instances of tribal people who ran long distances
(apaches running down horses comes to mind) how often was it necessary. IIRC
Australian Aborigines seem to have walked about 15km per day in their food
quest.  Some of this may have involved short sprints after goannas or
whatever but I've never seen anything about jogging or long runs. I don't
think it was necessary.

When I worked on an Australian TV show a few years ago, I had to place film
crews out in the bush and then go and retrieve them.  The area was quite
hilly.  I remember the first time I walked up one of the big sand hills I
was puffed and thought to myself I've got to get fitter.  After about 3
weeks of walking up and down these hills I was very fit (for walking up and
down hills) and no longer puffed.

It seems to me that our bodies respond to the type of exercise we give it.
Lift weights, get fit for lifting weights.  Jog, get fit to jog.  I don't
know how much the benefits cross over though.

I'm into bodybuilding now and don't do any jogging etc because I want to put
weight on.
Cachexia (wasting away) seems to be a major problem of elderly people and
there are a large number of bodybuilders from the 20's, 30.s 40's and 50's
who are still around and in fantastic shape with plenty of muscle on them,

I will probably start getting into walking soon as that seems to be the most
natural and least stressful thing we can do for our bodies and also what I
would suspect our ancestors did the most of.  Having said that however,  I
went in the Kosciusko tour cross country ski race last year and the first
group out were those over 70 and they were in good shape and skied the 14km.
So maybe there is something to aerobic conditioning especially if it is
gentle on the joints as X-country skiing is.  Just my 2 cents.

Cheers

Sean

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