Running, a form of cardio excercise, is one of the most easy & straighforward ways to get the important benefits of excercise. Because running doesn’t require expertise and specialized equipments. Its free and accessible to all who want to practice it and benefits are far more than the obvious. It helps improving almost all aspects of your health and gives you complete body workout.
“You just need a pair of decent shoes, some creativity, and maybe a friend or two to develop a walking or running plan,” says Daniel O’Connor, Ph. D., professor of health and human performance at the University of Houston. “It’s less expensive than joining a gym or having a personal trainer.”
The beginners should start with moderate running or brisk walking for 10 mins and then keep increasing the speed and time up to 30-45 mins. New runners need to remember it’s important to ease into your new plan but the important aspect is to keep in mind is the comfort factor which gradually gets intensified, listen to your body’s signals and accordingly move up to next level. Increase the challenge level of your workouts gradually to lower injury risk and get the best results. As a high-impact activity, running causes more overuse injuries than other forms of cardio.
Here are few reasons why we should add running to our daily routine.
- Running Helps to Build Strong Bones: Running is weight bearing exercise and therefore helps you strengthen your musculoskeletal. Especially in kids and young children whose bones are not completely developed. It also helps prevent loss of bone density related to ageing in adults.
- Healthy weight Management: Running, brisk walking, jogging are all considered efficient ways of losing fat and managing healthy weight. But important fact to remember here is when people lose weight through calorie restriction but without exercise, they tend to lose muscle along with body fat. But when they change their diet and exercise, they preserve muscle and lose more fat. Hence, a sensible diet plan is essential to achieve this objective.
- Improved Heart Health: Running helps to improve the health of the heart and reduce risks of cardiovascular problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or other coronary diseases. Running prevents blood clots in the arteries and blood vessels and supports healthy blood flow. However people with hypertension, should choose moderate running or jog on comfortable pace to keep the blood pressure lower and improve heart health.
- Strengthenn Lung Capacity: Running is a good way to maintain shape, fitness, and strength, but efficient breathing while running requires its own conditioning. Build your lung capacity up gradually by doing these breathing. With time running improves lung capacity and strengthen your respiratory muscles.
- Increased Joint Strength: Running increases the strength of your ligaments and tendons. If you run daily your joints will be able to withstand more mileage and more uneven terrain. “When we run, there is a high stress and load going through our joints and bone tissue that can improve bone density, helping to prevent osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The bone remodels itself frequently and adapts to the stress it is put through. Running can help our joint health so long as we are sensible with regards to volume and intensity.” However If your running technique is poor, you have weak muscles or imbalances, the wrong shoes or you overdo your running volume, you may suffer. “Problems can arise when an individual has a biomechanical issue that puts extra stress on a particular joint or when they do too much and refuse to listen to signals (like pain) telling them to rest or ease off,” says Brewer.
- Helps overcome Stress, Anxiety and depression: Running improves brain function almost immediately and helps release endorphins, also known as the feel-good chemicals in the brain. This boost your mood up and makes you feel positive and happy.
Running is considered the great exercise but it shouldn’t be considered the only form of excercise that you should perform. Running with improper gears could increase the risk of pain in knees and hips.
Along with running perform some upper body workout so that a balance of strength is maintenaned between the upper and lower parts of the body.
