Running, Mind, Body, and Sole Health Benefits

Running may be painful and tiring, but it has also become a very popular past-time all over the world. Running can benefit your entire body while keeping you fit and in shape. Studies show that running five miles a day can burn up to two thousand calories at a time. Running is a cost effective easy activity that anyone can do anywhere.

Running cannot only be beneficial to your body but also to your mind therefore it helps your health in many ways. Knowing how beneficial running is has made it very popular in the last few years. By increases your health overall why wouldn't you consider it? In addition to losing weight, relieving stress, improving lung function, also running will help boost your immune system. A free, besides a good pair or running shoes, the activity that can benefit your way of life seems like a smart thing to start. There are so many more benefits to running that should get people motivated.

Running is an easy, free, excellent way to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. Once achieve your targeted weight running will help you stay consistent. Running is an effective exercise that burns the most calories per minute. "Syracuse University researchers measured the actual calorie burn of 12 men and 12 women while running and walking a mile each. The men burned an average of 124 calories while running, and just 88 while walking; the women burned 105 and 74." (www.RunnersWrold.com, How Many Calories Are You Really Burning? By Amby Burfoot: 2005) Seems like an easy choice.

Running has also been known to boost up confidence in many individuals. Running becomes beneficial to your mental health as well. It can provide a lift in self- esteem and make you feel better about yourself in the long term. Usually when you run you set a goal, which is a sense of empowerment. When you reach that goal, it will leave you feeling proud and accomplished and then you may set an even bigger goal. That seems to be the trend lately. Starting off with a small race like a 5k, then maybe move on to a 10k, a half marathon, and if you are that ambitious, you may even one day run a full marathon. After completing a marathon, the feeling you get has got to be the ultimate confidence booster. The empowerment that comes along with running can have so many mental benefits.

Stress is a huge problem in America and running has been shown to alleviate stress. Stress causes so many mood and health issues as well as affects sleep and your appetite. Running causes your body to rid the excess hormones and energy, which will help in all of these areas. Running also alleviates and reduces the risk of tension headaches. According to Matthew Stults-Kolehmainen, Ph.D., a kinesiologist at the Yale Stress Center raising one's heart rate can reverse damage to the brain caused by stress. "Stress atrophies the brain -- especially the hippocampus, which handles a lot, but the memory in particular. When you're stressed, you forget things." (Www.HuffingtonPost.com/ HuffPost Stress-Less Challenge, Day 11: Exercise Tricks To Help You De-Stress: 2013)

Depression can be alleviated by running as well. You may not feel like running when you are feeling down and out, but you will find after a short time hitting the pavement you will start to secrete the hormones that improve your mood naturally. Running is a very fast effective way to alleviate depression. Running improves your health and is beneficial to you spirit as well as mind and body. Even going out for a very short run will have you feeling energized, and you can focus more. Starting off your day this way can help you enjoy a better quality of life both short-term and long-term. Having a better body image from running will also contribute to feeling depressed or anxiety for many people as well. It seems to be a circle if you look better you feel better like a cycle of positive. Research shows that running helps your brain feel good, which also helps with feelings of being isolated and that can fuel mental illnesses. The mind and body work together as one: a team. That relationship is crucial for an overall good quality of life.

Running is also a disease preventative and can even lower the risk of breast cancer in women. The likelihood of heart attacks become lower, and strokes can be prevented by using this free tool. Running has also been suggested to people who are in earlier stages of diabetes; people diagnosed with high blood pressure, and people with osteoporosis. Running helps your arteries retain their elasticity and contributes to strengthening your heart. When your heart is healthy, you significantly reduce the risk of heart attack.

Running can also be used as a form of therapy. Everyone needs down time to explain his or her minds. It gives you time to think quietly, which lowers anxiety levels and gives you a better outlook. You can also use running as a tool to being more social if you struggle with social issues. Whatever the reason is that you may start running you meet people with similar situations, and it's a bonding tool. Hearing their stories and comparing yours, reaching your goals, and feeling better about yourself makes for great results all around. Simply finishing a route you set for yourself without stopping is an achievement in itself. Joining a run group is very motivating and can be a form of therapy as well.

Running has also benefited so many different communities as well. You may not be able to find a cancer cure by running, but you can create a sense of community and giving. There have been several runs that have helped get large groups of people healthier, raise money for various causes like devastating storms, diseases like the cancer runs and walks, and other charitable events. Running is one activity that will bring people together for great causes and makes you feel better both emotionally and physically while also benefiting others. It is a domino effect when family and friends see you running they feel the need to join in. Happiness is contagious and usually shared within groups. It may be a three-mile run or a marathon, but people seem to be inspired to make lifestyle changes.

Now just because running is beneficial to your health doesn't mean that will come easy and will not have you fit and trim in one day. Sometimes one may question why they are even running at all. Why risk injury or endure the pain it may cause at the beginning? Is it so you can have that extra cookie or is it to have more energy? Running is not something you have suffered through alone. Even if the pain is sometimes a bit overwhelming, there is always someone who can relate. The long-term effects of running will outweigh the pain you may feel. Even if you feel running is an individual activity there will always be people who admire and respect you for taking on the challenge of this sport and health benefit. Running has an enormous influence on so many and leads to more active healthier lifestyles. Not many sports can do that, and it is free!

Most individuals think of burning calories when they hear the word running or losing weight and forget about all of the physical benefits until recently when it seems to have become an epidemic. Running frees your mind, alleviates the stress of reality, and the mental benefits surpass any other daily sport or activity you will find. Along with all the pluses of running come to the social benefits. The challenges that come along with running also bring unlikely matches of friends together. Striving for similar goals and enduring this task can create relationships that last a lifetime. Again, very beneficial to a better quality of life. You don't have time to make physical or social comparisons to others. Instead, they can related to these new friends. They feel the same stresses and know what the other person is going through. People who exercise on a regular basis are proved to be genuinely happier and healthier with more energetic and more creative.

Overall running can help the mind, body, spirit connection, which allows for a better quality of life in the long run. Studies show the health benefits of running are an enormous factor in reducing your changes of basically everything we can think of, from a cold to cancers. It is one of the best aerobic activities for the physical conditioning of your lungs and heart. Running is like no other type of exercise because it relieves stress, helps cure depression, clears your mind, and makes that overall healthy connection of mind, body, and spirit. All benefits of living a happy, healthy, longer life.

Work Cited

www.RunnersWrold.com, How Many Calories Are You Burning?/ By: Amby Burfoot http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine www.abouthealth.com Benefits of Running/By: Christine Luff www.active.com Running Safety Tips/ By: Elizabeth Narins www.Time.com Is Running Bad for Your Knees? Maybe Not! /By: Adi Narayan www.HuffingtonPost.com/ HuffPost Stress-Less Challenge, Day 11: Exercise Tricks To Help You De-Stress: 2013