How Running Affects Your Body
If you are interested in toning your body, you may consider running. We all know someone who runs every day and how lean and healthy they look. Running is the best exercise to shed fat and stay healthy and fit. Some recent studies have shown that running burns more fat than lifting weights, especially around the belly area.
But weight loss is not the only benefit running brings to our bodies. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that running exerts a lot of pressure on our joints and muscles, so if you want to be injury-free, it is vital to invest in proper quality gear – especially running shoes. Running shoes are also crucial if you’re going to have the best athletic performance you can achieve. For quality shoes, you can find more info on WalkJogRun.net.
Although when you are only a beginner runner, you may find your runs very hard, once you start to get used to your workout, it becomes quite meditative and joyful. Here are some benefits running brings to our physical and mental health.
Running improves mood and fights depression
While you are running, your body produces endorphins, which are the feel-good chemicals in our brains, thus enhancing your mood and relieving the feeling of pain and discomfort. This helps to improve our mood, but it also leads to a state called ‘runner’s high,’ which is the purest happiness all runners want to achieve after their runs.
Running keeps our hearts healthy
Aerobic activity, such as running, is found to improve the health of our cardiovascular system. There is a myth that running significant distances, as ultrarunners do, is actually bad for the heart, but a big body of recent research showed that this is actually not true. Although it was found that running for even 5 minutes per day can have a positive impact, running 40 miles per week gives you a better and healthier heart than running 13 miles per week, for example. This means that the more you run, the healthier your heart is.
Running is the best stress relief
Many studies have shown that running improves our brain’s ability to deal with stress. Scientists think that aerobic exercise increases levels of serotonin and norepinephrine, which increase the feeling of happiness, but also make your brain much stronger by generating new neurons.
So, if you had a stressful day at work, hit the treadmill, and you will notice your mood drastically improving as you run.
Running actually improves your bone health
Another myth about running is that it makes your knee bones weak, but this is not true. Running does stress bones, but this stress is not harmful to our bones, it actually helps increase the bone density. Research shows that weight-bearing exercises, such as running, promote better bone health than some other activities, such as cycling. But it also has a better impact on bone health than other weight-bearing exercises, such as strength training.
But this does not mean that you should not do other forms of exercise to have stronger bones. Combining running with other activities will give you better results, scientists found.
Running improves your cognitive abilities
Scientists found evidence that running is the exercise for you if you want to improve your memory and help to slow down your age-related cognitive decline.
Also, the researchers found that running improves our problem-solving abilities up to 20 percent!
Running twice a week reduces our chances of developing dementia, and it is not important when you start running. Becoming a runner in your fifties can also drastically improve your overall health and reduce the risks of mental and physical diseases.
