What are the Health Benefits of Running?
Are you physically and mentally tired after this long time of quarantine? Now that the lockdown is beginning to end and summer is coming, you maybe consider starting running.
Running is considered as a popular and convenient leisure-time physical activity with a significant impact on longevity.
Health benefits.
Running helps you sleep better. It is considered that 30 minutes of running a day can improve your sleeping pattern, improve your mood, and boost your ability to focus, especially for adolescents.
It is proven that running can help feel better and makes you more resistant to stress. In a review done in 2012, it was shown that exercising can really boost your mood and prevent depression. Cross-sectional studies link exercise habits, such as running, to protection from harmful effects of stress on physical and mental health.
Running helps you lose weight. While running you can burn a lot of calories but also several studies have found that the “after burn effect” could help you burn significantly more calories over time. Especially moderate to high-intensity running continues to burn calories after exercise.
Running is considered as an aerobic exercise, and aerobic exercises can speed your metabolism in the hours after a workout by increasing the resting metabolic rate. You need a better resting metabolic rate, because you can burn more calories after your workout.
The more muscle on your body, and the less fat, the higher your metabolic rate, so if you can build up your muscle, and reduce your body fat, you’ll have a higher resting metabolism and more quickly burn the fuel in your body.
Even a 30-minute run can improve your focus, memory and fight against age cognitive decline. If you want to keep your mind healthy then exercising is one of the best things you can do.
Running can help reduce the risk of having other metabolic diseases such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Running just 5-10 minutes a day can make big difference in your overall health.
Are there any risks?
Even though running is considered one of the most popular ways of exercising, if you are new to running you have to take some risks into consideration.
The biggest risk of running is the overuse of joints.
If you are diagnosed with arthritis or other degenerative joint conditions we do not recommend starting with running. Consult with your doctor or physiotherapist before starting any type of exercising. We really recommend low impact exercise and weight lifting.
If you are overweight running can feel hard on your joints especially your knees. Listen to your body and do not overdo it. If it feels uncomfortable in the beginning then you can change it with biking.
Overtraining. Excess running during the beginning can really damage your knees and also can exhaust you. So always start with short distance running and after mastering the 5km run then you can start adding more km every time.
Conclusion
Running every day can really have great benefits for your health. But do not forget to give your hard-working running muscles a break.
Combine running with other type of exercising such as weight lifting, Pilates, yoga, High Intensity interval Training (HIIT), swimming etc.
If you need help consult with your physical therapist, doctor or trainer. They can provide you with an appropriate running schedule.