This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.
Running, walking, and jogging can all provide a step in the right direction if you want to shape up. Experts say these activities are not only excellent aerobic exercise but can be the easiest and most natural route to fitness.
Running is one of the most natural and pure systems for developing balance in your body. There are also a host of other benefits that running can bring to your body and mind, including physical fitness, mood enhancement, stress relief, and an overall feeling of well-being.
Reasons Why You Should Be Running
Humans have been running for a very long time. Our physiology has evolved to be highly specific and highly functional runners.
Running has many benefits for the mind and body. It can improve your overall health, reduce the risk of death, help balance weight, and protect bones and cognition while building self-esteem and community. Even a once-weekly run can bring you the positive effects of running and you can always build the habit slowly.
Consider these reasons why you should start running:
Strengthens Your Feet
There might not be a better exercise for developing strong and coordinated foot patterns. Your feet are built like springs, but without proper training, they lose their elasticity.
- In some cases, this means you could lose some of your strength and power when you are pushing through your feet on squats and deadlifts.
- A strong base is a strong lift. Running can help to provide you with a strong base of support and elastic-like tensegrity in the feet.
Running Is Great for Alignment
Assuming you have a half-decent running form, your jogging is going to be great for alignment. The average person sits for about 6 hours a day. Without standing and running, your body may become accustomed to slouching and back pain.
- Slowly moving into more running can be one of the most effective ways to improve your posture and train your muscles to fire properly.
Running Is Euphoric
Think back to when you were a kid: running around and playing outside was likely the most fun you have ever had. This same experience can come back as long runs provide a literal high that leads to a euphoric state.
Physical exercise, running included, is known to release endorphins in the brain. Endorphins act as a natural “drug” that makes a person more energetic, more awake, and, yes, happier.
- On top of having an amazing experience, you are conditioning the body to better utilize oxygen and improving your body composition.
Is Easy to Moderate
Being fit and healthy is the in thing. It never goes out of style. Your body is the most valuable asset you could have in your lifetime. Thus, it is important that you take good care of it. Give it the proper attention it needs. When it comes to ensuring and maintaining health, the best option is to do cardio training.
What Is Cardio Training?
Cardio training involves any activity that requires the use of the large muscle groups of the body in a regular and uninterrupted manner. It elevates the heart rate between 60 to 85 percent of the fastest heart rate you could get.
Some of the usual cardio training activities are walking, jogging, running, aerobics, cycling, swimming, and rowing. Cardio training is considered an aerobic exercise as one is required to move from one exercise to another.
Cardio training like running is one of the easiest styles of training to make progress in.
- There are only two basic premises – intensity and duration. Either you run longer at a lower intensity or you run shorter distances at a higher intensity.
- Making progressions is as simple as running longer at higher intensities and working up to greater paces.
Running Takes You Back to Your Roots
Many people will even make the most of their runs by wearing barefoot shoes. If this is your preferred method, ensure that you work into this slowly, as modern shoes have shaped your feet for some time.
- Strengthening your feet to work effectively in a barefoot setting will take time, but the rewards will be drastic.
What if You’re Strength Training?
In the world of strength training, many people are afraid to go running. They fear that, by running, they will lose muscle mass and may forfeit some of their strength.
Does this idea have any validity? In other words, could running really put a damper on your strength returns?
Yes and no.
Running is a type of training that requires the same form of energy that your weight training uses, especially if you are running at a high intensity or for a very long duration.
So, if you are a strength athlete, you might want to avoid very long distances, as it will put stress on the joints (in excess of your weight training) and it would dissolve some nutrients you need for weight training.
Running for short distances, however, can still provide you with some great benefits.
Let’s Start Running
Running is perhaps the most fundamental of all sports, and it is economically the least costly to perform. Consequently, it is the most democratic and most competitive of all sports because individual merit can prevail despite economic equality. It is a sport for everyone, the whole world over.
So, whether you go to the gym, don’t go to the gym, or you’re strength training, running can benefit you in many ways.
Running every day may have benefits for your health. Studies show that the benefits of running for just 5 to 10 minutes at a moderate pace (6.0 miles per hour) each day may include: reduced risk of death from a heart attack or stroke. reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.
Running is the one activity that’s physically exhausting but mentally and emotionally recharging. Every run presents a new challenge, a new opportunity to push myself, and a new time to reflect on everything else going on. In my life, there’s nothing else quite like it. Simply put, it is my sanity.
Hey, your body is made to move, so move it! Give those running shoes a workout! Start running today and reap the rewards.
More On Running: How to Run Every Day: Benefits and Best Practices
