If you want to start taking care of yourself, your health, and your body, there is nothing better than going for a run. It is a cardiovascular practice that is widely beneficial for your heart, your muscles, and your mind’s health. This article will tell you about the health benefits of running and, thus, you can see for yourself why it is such a recommended practice to incorporate into your day-to-day life.
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Table of Contents
Main Health Benefits Of Running
Improves quality of life
- Several factors influence the improvement of the quality of life.
- Running helps us not only physically but also psychologically and socially.
- To improve quality of life, the World Health Organization recommends taking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day.
- With your running sessions and being more active in general, you will meet and even exceed this goal every day.
Decreases mortality
- One of the great benefits of running regularly is that it helps us have a better physical condition.
- Several scientific studies link an excellent physical condition with a lower probability of suffering a cardiovascular accident and suffering from osteoarticular injuries.
- The latter can generate a disability that shortens the life of the person who suffers it.
Helps prevent disease
- Science has shown that a lack of physical activity increases the likelihood of disease in general.
- So going for a run is one of the easiest, cheapest, and most fun ways to get away from many types of ailments.
Improve your cardiovascular health
- Physical exercise is beneficial for heart health. Reasonable blood pressure control is essential when it comes to preventing any cardiovascular accident.
- For example, research carried out by Ketelhut showed that blood pressure during exercise reduces with weekly training sessions.
- Aerobic exercise is associated with decreased blood pressure compared to other therapies, including some medications.
- In addition to reducing blood pressure, practicing running will also improve your cardiovascular health in other respects, among them helping you reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL).
- The so-called “bad” cholesterol and increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is known as “good” cholesterol.
- Likewise, the practice of running improves the performance of the heart muscle.
- You must not forget that the heart is a muscle, and the better the understanding of its fibers, the greater the benefits of running for your cardiovascular health.
- Running helps to have a strong and healthy heart, also improving recovery capacity.
Strengthens the bones
- Bone mineral density is a measure of minerals (usually calcium and phosphorus) that a certain amount of bone contains.
- Bone mineral density values are used to diagnose osteoporosis, and they are also a good predictor of the fragility of this tissue.
- Physical exercise is a great precursor in creating bone and preventing certain diseases related to it.
- When running, the muscles put tension on the bones, which favors the creation of bone tissue.
- Therefore, practicing running helps you have healthier bones.
Improves mental health
- Beyond the physical benefits of running, running also significantly helps improve mental health.
- From feeling part of a group of people who do the same activity to choosing your next race with some friends.
- Running regulars help you improve your mental well-being and live more fully.
- When you exercise, the body releases certain chemicals, including the famous endorphins, also known as “happiness hormones.”
- Endorphins can interact with brain receptors, reducing, for example, the perception of pain.
- In this sense, people who run regularly are generally more active and more optimistic about life.
- Other benefits of running include reducing stress or preventing anxiety and depression and helping you sleep better.
It helps to lose weight
- Going for a run will help you control your body weight if you combine running with a proper diet.
- It would help if you interspersed different types of training to optimize your body in the consumption of varying energy substrates.
- Not only low intensity and long duration workouts but also high-intensity workouts such as series or hills.
- In any case, it should not be the activity of choice if you are highly overweight since the impact on your joints can even be harmful.
Running Brings Great Benefits. But It Also Carries Some Risk
- Indeed you were already very clear that running is good for you, for your body and your mind.
- But, despite these significant advantages, unfortunately, an uncontrolled practice also carries a particular risk of injury.
- Data as curious as that injuries occur per 1000 hours of race practice or increase training volume (especially in the early stages of learning).
- It is a clear indicator of the risk of injury, especially in people being overweight, indicate that you should progressively improve and avoid the risks of overtraining.
Therefore, whether you will start running if you are already an expert runner, we recommend that you consult a specialized professional to advise you on the best training plan for you.
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