“Our sport is your sport's punishment.” This is often a quote used to describe running, as in other sports, if you get in trouble, your punishment is to run. Not many people like to run, but for those that do, it has amazing physical health benefits and is something you can do your whole life. There were 5 major health benefits that I personally gain from running:
Running is a great sport to strengthen your lungs. A lot of people don’t like to run because of how out of breath they feel while they are doing it. But over time, it will become easier to breathe as your lungs will adapt to the way you run. This is because your lungs learn to deliver more oxygen to the bloodstream quicker, and become more efficient at getting rid of the waste product, carbon dioxide, in the body. The endurance capacity of your respiratory muscles increases, allowing deeper, fuller and more efficient breaths when you run. With regular training, you grow more capillaries, which means you can get more oxygen to your muscles quicker. The more you run, the alveoli you grow. Alveolus are parts of the lung that take oxygen and introduce it into the bloodstream via capillaries.
Running also helps your heart. Because runners have strong hearts, they typically have a lower resting pulse rate and intake a higher amount of oxygen. As a result, the organ can handle pumping a larger amount of blood per beat, which helps the heart perform its job with ease. Running reduces your risk for heart disease and helps to prevent high blood pressure. While you are running, your arteries expand and contract, helping to keep your arteries fit which in turn keeps your blood pressure within normal range.
By running, you can also strengthen your immune system. Regular running builds up your tolerance to germs, which results in fewer minor illnesses by attacking and eliminating bacteria, viruses and fungi. But of course, just like any sport, don't overdo it and don't work out while you are sick. Overtraining can slow normal immune function, so it’s important to get the right balance of frequency, intensity, and length when you run.
Most people run to keep their weight under control. Running burns more calories than most other types of exercise because it requires many different muscles to work hard together. It also helps you continue to burn calories long after a workout, helps to suppress your appetite, and targets harmful belly fat. This shows, as most runners are sticks.
The last benefit that you gain from running is stronger bones and stronger legs. Since running is a weight bearing exercise, it helps to make your bones stronger instead of weaker, like some sports. Even with this said, running is also known as a sport with a high incidence of stress fractures. All runners, especially women, should know how to protect their bones and ensure good bone health throughout their lifetime. The loss of too much bone can result in osteoporosis. I personally experienced this last year with shin splints that turned into a stress fracture. It wasn't fun at all, so everyone needs to make sure that they are careful.
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