- RUNNING TO LOSE WEIGHT
This is probably one of the ways that running can improve your health. Being overweight is associated with many diseases including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and much more. Running is a high activity exercise that helps you to burn the excess calories, which assist in the removal of excess fat in your body.
When you run, your body will use more energy than usual. To get that energy it is forced to burn the fat. Besides helping you to lose weight, running also helps you to maintain the right weight.
Remember the lack of exercise makes our body store fat, which is the main source of weight in our body. However, when you make it a habit of running or jogging for at least 20 minutes a day, your body will remain in shape and healthy. The best thing about running is that you do not have to be sprinting at the speed of a marathoner to get the benefits.
Research shows that you just need to be exercising at an intensity that equals to about seventy percent of VO2 max. This is a speed that is little faster than normal jogging and slower than a marathon pace.
- STRENGTHENS YOUR MUSCLES AND LUNGS
Another reason why you should consider running as part of your exercise is that it will help in strengthening your muscles. Running exercises your legs muscles. If you run regularly ensuring that you have the right running gear your muscles are constantly challenged to grow.
This is great for people who take part in a sport that requires stability such as boxing, karate and similar as well as other athletics. The key here is to ensure that you do not over exercise in a bid to gain muscles. Start by warming up and then increase your pace gradually.
Another benefit of running is that it is good for your lungs. Running will increase your heart rate, and by doing so, it will increase your lung function. This will increase the efficiency of your respiratory muscles allowing you to have healthy lungs. Additionally, running will cause the alteration in the flexibility of chest wall lungs as well as improving the lung volume. Improving the health of your lungs is great for everyone especially if you take part in an exercise that requires a lot of effort.
- HELPS IN IMPROVING YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
Today we live in a busy world where you have to balance work and family. While trying to accomplish these things in the best way possible we are faced with a lot of problem leading to stress and in some cases depression. For this reason, it is important to look for a way that you can unwind and clear your mind for you to face the next day. One of the best ways to clear your mind is through running.
When you run, your body will produce endorphins hormones, which are responsible for elevating your moods. This makes you feel happy removing anxiety and fear from your body. Additionally, when you run, you tend to get away from work or home helping you to breathe in fresh air, which is a good way to clear your mind.
Although you can run indoors with the help of treadmill, try running at least twice every week in the outdoor. On the other hand, when one start to run the heart will start pumping more oxygenated blood to your brain thus helping in its performance. This will play a significant role when it comes to elimination of diseases such as Alzheimer.
- IMPROVE YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH
Running will not only help in improving your mental health but also helps in improving your physical health. Besides helping in toning your leg muscles, running will assist in the development of stronger bones. Running exercise also helps to increase the bone density of your hips as well as legs.
This makes it an excellent choice for women in menopausal stages as they are prone to low bone density. This will also help in the prevention of diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis. Running is one of the most rigorous activities which also keeps your mind from disruption which are the major causes lack of sleep.
Lack of quality sleep will not only have a negative impact on quality of your work but also contribute to stress. Additionally, running also plays a significant role in speeding up the process of digestion of food. This will help in the absorption of nutrients from the food you have taken. The running exercise also contributes to boosting your metabolism, which is crucial as it keeps your digestive system healthy.
- PREVENT SOME FORMS OF CANCER
One of the major issues that are affecting millions of lives is cancer. This deadly disease caused by various reasons some of them being overweight, lack of proper digestions, some types of foods, and lifestyle among others. The good news is that running can help in preventing some forms of cancers including colon cancers breast cancers among others. Most of the cancer patient that have included running in their daily lives have reported that it has helped them to increase their quality of lives by improving their mental health as well as helping them to cope with the treatment.
CONCLUSION
Running regularly will improve your general health and play a major role in keeping your body in shape. Regardless of your age, it is good to incorporate this exercise into your daily activities for you to reap the benefits. As everything, else starting might be somehow tough, but things will get better as your body will adjust. After a few weeks, you will start enjoying running and reaping the full benefits.
Author Bio
Emily is the founder of GoAheadRunner, where she and her associates blog contain articles to provide everything a runner needs, whether you are a seasoned pro or an absolute beginner. The blog provides information on latest training, running gears and supplements and much more!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilygoahead