Why Running And Jogging Is The Best Exercise For Your Body

Both running and jogging are natural activities. Nature makes you stand up, and then it’s normal for you to run, walk, or jog as your growth makes you develop and mature. However, there are a few things to consider. Is hitting at your local gym natural or man-made? Is it nature’s call to go for those bulging biceps and triceps or those eye-popping six- or eight-pack abs?

“No” is the obvious response. This is a man-made decision based on your own whims and fantasies. When you work out with the goal of getting a body like one from another planet, things can sometimes go horribly wrong. But these are obviously dangerous, and research shows that the death rate has been steadily going up because people are doing too much gym work that is neither necessary nor, to some extent, natural.

Having said this, it does not imply that we dislike the gym. We are gym enthusiasts. We enjoy strength training with free weights and exercise equipment. And there are numerous reasons why you should do it, whether your goal is to build muscle, lose fat and calories, or improve your overall health. But the benefits of running or walking are much more long-lasting and convincing, so any man should think about starting to run.

From the aesthetic benefits to the mental advantages, there is a reason why so many individuals are addicted to running. While we’re not suggesting you give up the gym, we do recommend you consider taking up running as well. Running, walking, and jogging bring you closer to nature by letting you breathe in lots of fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun. Go and live the organic way of life.

When you become a runner, your life is altered. However, you may be unaware of how much it enhances every aspect. Here’s proof of the incredible benefits running can provide:

Running Adds Years To Your Life.

Numerous studies indicate that running extends your life expectancy. This has led to the oft-repeated remark, “If exercise were a pill, it would be the world’s most popular pill.” Notable: it would also be the cheapest option, with minimal to no cost.

A 2021 review of research on running and longevity found that runners have a 25–30% lower death rate from all causes than people who don’t run. It concluded that any amount of running, even once per week, is preferable to none.

Another runner-specific study demonstrated that runners gain approximately three years of life. Why? Some of the biological pathways are better heart health; better body composition (less fat); less cholesterol; better control of glucose and insulin; stronger bones; better hormone regulation; and better brain function.

However, few of us simply desire to live longer. Instead, we wish for a long, fruitful, healthy, and active life. This is where running and physical fitness excel. Due to the fact that “seniors” consume a significant portion of the public health budget with their late-life illnesses, a great deal of research focuses on what can be done to keep them healthy. Exercise almost always wins this contest.

Recent research at Ball State University found, for example, that a group of 75-year-olds who had been running and biking for 50 years had biological profiles that were more like those of 25-year-old graduate students than those of their 75-year-old peers who didn’t exercise.

In a second well-known study, researchers at Stanford compared local runners in their mid-50s to Stanford residents who didn’t exercise, but both groups got the same high-quality medical care. After twenty-one years, the death rate among runners had decreased by more than fifty percent. Unexpectedly, runners reached particular “disability scores” 11 to 16 years later than non-runners. In other words, they remained younger for a longer period of time. And as the age of the people studied went up, so did the benefits seen in runners.

Running Is A Better Choice For Your Knees And Back.

This is one recurring advantage that many individuals find hard to believe. They believe that because running is an impact sport, it must be detrimental to the joints. In addition, everyone is familiar with a few runners who developed knee pain and had to switch to cycling. True, but sedentary, out-of-shape adults have worse knee and back problems on average than the majority of runners.

Looking for evidence? Okay, reasonable. This study looked at 675 marathon runners and compared them to 675 people who didn’t run marathons. The researchers found that the number of active marathoners with arthritis was lower in their group than in the general U.S. population. Even ultramarathoners appear to fare well. When researchers looked at the knees of runners who had just finished a multi-day, 2700-mile run across Europe, they found that “the extreme running load does not appear to have a significant negative effect on the femoropatellar joint tissues.”

In a study of 44 people who ran their first marathon, 17 men and 27 women, researchers found that the bone marrow and articular cartilage in the knees of first-time marathon runners got better for at least six months after the marathon. The same applies to the lower back. In a 2020 report called “Long-term running in middle-aged men and intervertebral disc health: a cross-sectional pilot study,” researchers looked at how far apart the discs were in runners who had been running for a long time and in people who had never run.

The height of their lumbar intervertebral discs (IVDs) goes down less with age in middle-aged long-term endurance runners. And the longer the subjects ran, the better their disc spacing appeared. The same applies to weekly mileage. More running was better.

Running Helps You Sleep Better.

If you haven’t seen numerous articles about the significance of sleep in the past few years, you’ve been, well, sleeping under a rock. And sleep may be particularly crucial for athletes. After all, it is during this time that the body repairs itself. Christie Aschwanden, a science writer, says in her book Good to Go about sports recovery that sleep is one of the few “recovery techniques” that is backed up by solid evidence.

According to Johns Hopkins experts, “We have solid evidence that exercise helps you fall asleep faster and improves the quality of your sleep.” According to a study in the American Journal of Lifestyle Exercise, working out and sleeping go hand in hand. The more you exercise, the more quality sleep you require. In addition, the worse your sleep habits, the less likely you are to regularly exercise.

Runners used to be told that going for a run in the evening would keep them from sleeping that night. A 2018 meta-analysis of 23 studies on the topic, however, produced the opposite conclusion. Except for intense interval training performed within an hour of bedtime (don’t do it! ), evening exercise improved falling asleep and the quality of sleep.

Running Allows You To Lose Weight And Keep It Off.

Running burns more calories than most other activities because it involves the constant movement of the entire body. And you do not need to run quickly to achieve maximum fat burn. Almost as much can be gained by running slowly (but it takes twice as long).

According to an editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2019, the adage “you can’t outrun a bad diet” is, at best, only partially accurate. “It is indisputable that exercise can and does result in weight loss,” the authors write. In addition, it has “a multitude of other positive health effects.” If you want to keep track, approximately 100 calories are burned per mile when running. (For more accuracy, multiply. 75 x your body weight in pounds will give you your individual calorie burn per mile.)

Weight loss is not difficult, but maintaining a healthy weight is incredibly challenging. Multiple studies have demonstrated that significant weight loss is possible in about six months. Unfortunately, the weight soon returns. After another six to 18 months, the hair typically returns in full and sometimes even more. Everyone has heard of “yo-yo diets”; this is the same thing.

People who stick to a long-term exercise plan are the only ones we know of who beat the odds. One program, the National Weight Control Registry, has kept track of these people who have lost weight and kept it off. The NWCR is monitoring a large group of individuals who have lost an average of 66 pounds and have maintained their weight loss for 5.5 years. Ninety percent of them exercise an hour per day, on average. 98 percent of individuals have modified their diet in some way.

The authors of a 2018 study titled “The Effects of Exercise and Physical Activity on Weight Loss and Maintenance” found that those who exercise 200 to 300 minutes per week maintain their weight better than those who exercise less than 150 minutes per week. Lower body weight appears to “substantially improve” health-related quality of life. However, achieving this goal requires effort and consistency.

Running Improves Your Immune System.

David Nieman is a scientist who studies exercise and has run 58 marathons. He has spent the last 40 years studying the link between exercise and immunity. Aside from looking at how runners’ diets affect their immune systems, he has found mostly good news and a few things to watch out for. His overview: Your immunity goes up when you work out moderately, but it can go down (at least until you’re fully recovered) when you work out for a long time. Dark-colored fruits and vegetables help your body stay strong and healthy.

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