What Are The Benefits Of Running And Jogging

We will now look at the benefits of running and jogging. Jogging is a form of slow running, leading to increased physical activity but less stress on the body than actual running. Jogging is generally used by runners when they warm up and cool down. Running is the rapid movement of your feet to get you from one place to another. The action is classed as running when both feet leave the ground simultaneously. We can either run or jog outside or inside on a treadmill. I have written a post on what is the best home treadmill.

We Can Break Down The Benefits Of Running And Jogging

• Mental Benefits
• Health Benefits
• Physical Benefits
• Social Benefits

We will break each of these down further in the following paragraphs.

Mental Benefits

Running is excellent for our mental health. The following are the mental benefits of running.

• Reduces stress – it helps control stress and deals with any mental tension that we may have. The old saying blowing off steam, and there is no better way to do this than going for a run.
• It helps your mood – running will make you feel better about yourself. In addition, it helps reduce anxiety and depression as blood circulation in the brain increases while we run.
• Aids sleep – a few hours after a run, when our body temperature drops back to normal, this tells our body that it is time to sleep. A good night’s sleep is essential for good mental health.
• Cognitive boost – running gives our brain a cognitive boost as it helps slow down cognitive decline as we age. The younger we start running, the better for our cognitive health.
• Improves memory – it helps improve our memory span, as seen below in an extract from a study by the University of British Columbia. “In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance, and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.”

Health Benefits

There are many health benefits from running, and the following is a list of some of these benefits.

• Cardiovascular fitness – as running is a cardiovascular exercise, it helps to improve our cardiovascular fitness. It improves our blood sugar levels which in turn delays diabetes, reduces our blood pressure, and lowers our heart rate, which improves our heart health, improves metabolism, and all these result in us living a longer life.
• Stronger bones – runners generally have stronger bones as it is a weight-bearing exercise. This is very beneficial because as we get older, many older people suffer from brittle bones.
• Helps build stronger muscles – running builds stronger muscles in the gluteal muscles, quads, and calves; building stronger muscles depends on how we run. Long-distance runners use different muscles for sprinters, as sprinting is all about power from the legs.
• Strengthens your lungs – runners generally have a better lung capacity from running all those miles. Strong lungs mean better endurance, stamina, and performance.
• Better immune system – runners generally find that they don’t pick us as many colds or flu as they have a better immune system. So usually, if I feel a cold coming on, I put on my running gear and go for a 30-minute run. This usually results in me beating the cold before it starts.

Physical Benefits

We will now look at a few physical benefits of running as well.

• Weight loss is one of the most significant benefits of running, which is why many people will take up running. When we start running first, we will lose a lot of weight, provided we eat a regular diet. Over a period, the weight loss may plateau, and when we reduce our weight, this will help with many of the health benefits of running.
• Burn excess calories – while we run, we will burn plenty of calories,s which helps our weight loss goal.
• Tone the body – running will help tone the lower body, especially the butt. In general, if we run, our whole body will look more toned as we lose weight while running.

Social Benefits

I will now have a look at the social benefits of running.

• Friends – can run with old friends but we can make many new friends when we go out. We often share our deepest thoughts when we go out for a run with a friend, as it helps clear the mind.
• Motivation – when we run with other people, we are more motivated than if we run by ourselves. We will often run harder and faster when we run with someone else. It will also motivate us to try to run further as we will have a companion to help us when we struggle.
• Accountable – if we arrange to meet other people for a run, we are more likely to turn up than if we are going out on our own, as this is because we have the attitude of not letting someone else down. If I am meant to run by myself and change my mind, nobody will know the difference, but I will feel bad if I let someone down.
• Know an area better – I find when we go out running that I will try different roads to see where they lead, I have got to know a lot of different routes by just chancing my arm.
• New suggestions – When we go out running as a group, another runner will often give me a tip that might improve my posture, my breathing, or how I run up a hill.

Final Thoughts

I have now looked at all the benefits of running and jogging, which I have broken down into four different areas. First, I hope you understand better how good running and jogging are for the body and mind.