5 Amazing Health Benefits Of Running - You Need To Know

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he thought of ‘running’ takes me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane and makes me revisit my school days, which had a pulse of its own! The phrase, ‘on your mark, get set, go! said by the physical education teacher, and all children hurriedly run to the finish line…

There’s energy in the memory itself, I tell you! Running was one of the factors that kept us all happy and full of life during our childhood…in the fast-forward life, all of us are virtually running behind our commitments to an extent that we have forgotten what running means in actual sense. It’s high time, there is a need to actually run to bring back the fitness, health, energy, and efficiency of childhood days.

Running is an aerobic exercise that’s something super easy to perform, doesn’t require any training, doesn’t need a gym membership or equipment. Running is a time-efficient, accessible, fantastic exercise to be involved in, it offers rewarding benefits to your health, lets you unspool the tangles that build up over days…

1. RUNNING IMPROVES HEART HEALTH

Running is an aerobic activity that’s an excellent means of conditioning the cardiovascular system. Aerobic activity utilizes both fatty acids and carbohydrates for energy. When you run, your muscles demand more oxygen. To meet the increased demand for oxygen, the heart increases the number of beats per minute and pumps more blood with each stroke. Over time, the heart adapts to the faster pumping, causes blood vessels to relax, and prevents high blood pressure. High blood pressure is associated with heart attack, stroke, vision loss, bone loss, and sleep apnea. Running not just increases the cardiac output, but also increases your resting blood pressure. Running increases the number of capillaries in the body, keeps the blood vessels elastic, prevents heart ailments associated with high blood pressure, running increases the capacity of muscles to use the oxygen when it gets to them. Running 30 minutes few times per week helps reduce low-density lipoprotein.

2. RUNNING IMPROVES MENTAL HEALTH

During times of stress, your mind and body can amplify each other’s signals and create a cycle of stress and anxiety. When your body is under too much stress, it releases more cortisol, excessive cortisol can break down the immune system and makes you more susceptible to illnesses. Running can lower cortisol levels, stimulate the production of endorphins, the chemicals which interact with receptors in the brain to trigger positive feelings, reduce the perception of pain, and function as mood elevators. Aerobic exercise promotes more blood circulation to the brain, helps maintain blood vessel health, promotes feeling of relaxation, and optimism. Running combats anxiety, stress, promotes calmness to counter depression, may help preserve cognition, and is beneficial to increase your overall sense of vitality. Running in the outdoors improves alertness and a sense of morality.

3. RUNNING HELPS LOSE POUNDS

Maintaining a healthy weight should be at the top of your to-do list if you want to be healthy. Running doesn’t just improve your cardiovascular health but also helps increase your metabolism. The big advantage of running is that you involve large muscle groups, which increase your metabolic rate and consequently lead to more calorie burn and weight loss. The act of running gets your body moving, increases the efficiency of the body to deliver oxygen to meet its energy demand and burns more calories than we consume in calories each day, leading to weight loss.

4. RUNNING STRENGTHENS MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM

Any physical activity for that matter increases your musculoskeletal health status. Musculoskeletal fitness appears to be particularly important for elderly people to reduce the risk factors for disability and to improve their functional independence. Running acts as a strong contributor towards promoting and enhancing musculoskeletal strength. Running is a type of weight-bearing exercise that involves continuous, rhythmic movement of large muscles, it constantly challenges your muscles, involves eccentric muscle contractions, contributes to greater fat burning, endurance, increases levels of ATP in the muscles, and improves muscle power. Running helps improve bone strength in the legs and spine, strengthens muscles in the lower body like glutes, quads, and hamstrings.

5. RUNNING BOOSTS ENERGY & SLEEP

Adequate sleep is often deprioritized in the busy lifestyle, sleep has now become fragmented. Sufficient sleep is essential for optimum health, restoration of nervous, immune, skeletal, and muscular systems. Chronic sleep disturbances predisposes an individual to cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, early mortality, almost all bodily systems are impacted by poor sleep. Regular running improves the body’s sleep routine by increasing the release of endorphins that promote feelings of calmness. Running allows anxiety and stress to float away, promotes mental clarity and a positive attitude, renews vigor, energy, helps beat fatigue.

Fitness doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently…

Come on, people let’s beat the ill will and lace up our shoes to run through our journey of self-improvement…

Also read: 15 Minutes Skipping Rope Workout For Fat Loss

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