Posted By: Stella Pike | June 14, 2017
Running is an excellent way to improve your physical health and lose weight. Regular daily running can also help you prevent high blood pressure and heart diseases. There is nothing new right?
But did you know that running has many benefits for your mental health, and it can literally add years to your life?
That’s right. Running is the best stress relief activity that can have a tremendous impact on the quality of your emotional and mental life. It can prevent depression, improves mental stamina, widen your social circles and improve your appearance.
Stick with me to the end of the article, and you will learn how can running boost your life quality.
Legs are the biggest muscle group in your body, and they waste more energy that any other muscle group. That’s why running is an activity that can burns more calories than any other exercise.
But do you know that regular jogging can make you burn calories even after you finishyour daily routine?
Yes, you read that right. This is an effect called “afterburn, †and it is common for people who run on a regular basis. What it means for you is that with this effect you will burn extra calories during the rest of your day, after you finished your exercising. And most important, you don’t have to be Usain Bolt and run 100 meters for 9,69 seconds to get this benefit. The bottom line is that you can use at least 70% of your maximal strength and still get this “afterburn†effect.
Sedentary lifestyle, along with a high blood pressure and obesity are the main factors for cardiovascular diseases. The main question here is how can you protect yourself from cardiovascular diseases.
Here is the answer:
Running on a daily basis significantly improve your cardiovascular healthby increasing your pulse and strengthening yourheartmuscles.
Although the effect of asingle run of 30 minutes per daymay looklike asmallportion of effort, it has a beneficial effect on most of the risk factors for cardiovasculardiseases.
I can bet that you have heard this sentence before: “Running is bad for your bones!â€
And guess what… That is not true.
Running increases your bone density and builds your bone health. If you run on a daily basis, your bones will be much more resistant to injuries and less prone to osteoporosis. The movement pattern that develops inside your knees during each run will even protect you from arthritis.
Some runners may have poor bone health because they do not take enough calories to fulfill their daily minimum calorie intake. But be aware that these cases are extremely rare andyour 30 minutes daily run is far from an activity that you can not meet with your dailycalorie intake. So there is no reason for you to stop your running routine.
Many studies prove that running reduces your risk of infections and boost your immune system over the long term. But how?
During the physical activities, your body creates white blood cells. These are the protection system of your body, that can combat all kinds of diseases. Running has fascinating benefits regarding fighting with infections and viruses.
People who runregularly experience ashorter period of sickness per year compared to the people who don’t exercise.
However, sometimes running can be a double-edged sword.It is important to stay consistent and committed to your daily running tasks but not over-train yourself.You must remain in the zone that is doable for your body and keep pushing theboundaries with small and secure steps.Remember, you can’t become amarathon runner overnight.
People who run regularly are at lower risk of cancer than people who don’t. How is it possible?
Some scientific studies showed that exercising could decrease the risk of certain types of cancers, specifically colon and breast cancer. How physical activities reduces cancer risk is not entirely known. It is thought that the benefits are a resultofwell-managed metabolism and moderate levels of particular hormones likeestrogen and insulin. However regular and balanced running is not declared as a harmful activity by any scientific examination.
As I said before, not all of the benefits of running are physical.This activity can significantly improve your mental health, and provide a noticeable boost to your self-esteem and confidence.
Set your goals at the appropriate level and achieve them accordingly. That will help you get a greater sense of empowerment about yourself, widen your social circles, boost your confidence and make you feel constant improvement on yourself.
In today’s fast living environment, stress is an inevitable part of our lives and lying in your bed and over thinking will even make things worse. So what you should do?
Get out and start running. Physical activity will produce endorphins in your brain. That is a chemical that acts as a natural painkiller. Endorphins will increase your ability to stay calm and makes falling asleep easier. Regular running will bring notable changes to your mood. It will reduce your stress level and will make you ready tostand, fight and defeat all the toughest moments in your life.
Running is a simple activity, and there is not much of a “learning curve†like there might be for other physical activities and sports. It is a such a natural motion that helps you stay fit and healthy at the same time and boost your life quality.
Whether you are slow or fast, running on a track or around your neighborhood, training or only taking some time out for a casual jog, it all counts toward your final goal for fitter, healthier and stronger version of yourself.