Awareness of the importance of maintaining health makes long-distance running more popular among urbanites. But also be aware, in addition to bringing benefits, there are health risks that lurk in long-distance runners. You can always avoid it by doing warm ups.
As is the case with running a marathon, before doing a long-distance run, you need to prepare for physical and mental health. In order to grasp all the possible health benefits of running, you must prepare your body fitness, high discipline, and strong commitment so that the benefits of long-distance running can be obtained and the adverse effects can be avoided.
Running is one type of sport that’s not only easy, but it’s totally free to do. In running itself, there are several types of it you can do, such as sprint or commonly referred to as short-distance sprinting, fartlek running (speed play), and long-distance running or commonly called marathon.
Many people love this type of exercise because it is one of the most effective types of exercise no only to increase endurance, but also to burn fat in the body. Of these types of runs you can also see the benefits of running fartlek, the type of marathon that people love the most.
This is because in addition to being able to burn more fat, it can also produce its own satisfaction, especially for those of you who love to travel. Usual recommended time to do it is around 20 minutes, as explained in the benefits of running for 20 minutes a day.
The long-distance running itself is distinguished by the distance traveled, which range from a distance of 300 m, 500 m to 1000 m. You can further surpass it by running for a mile, or approximately 1,6 kilometers.
To do it, you don’t have to be in a specialized track in a stadium. Instead, you can also do it by going around the highway or around the place where you live with the right distance and time based on long-distance running.
Besides being easy and does not cost as much as other sports, there are various benefits that you can get after running long distances.
Health Benefits of Running A Mile A Day
- Reducing The Risk of Heart Disease
For those of you who want to maintain your heart healthy and stable, you can do a long-distance run every 1 to 2 weeks. This allows you to reduce your risk of heart disease, as running is included in cardio exercises that can increase the work activities of the heart.
So, the size of the heart can become larger and able to accommodate more oxygen that is needed by the body and accelerate the circulatory system. Though you’re exercising regularly, don’t forget the regular intake such as the benefits of eggplant.
- Boosting Morale
Not only relieve stress, you can also be more excited in doing your every activity. This is because when you run long distances, there is a target, a goal that you want to fulfill.
This desire unconsciously affects your subconscious to increase the spirit in living all activities in your life. That way, you will be a person who is passionate and always optimistic.
- Relieving Stress
You need to know that by doing long-distance running, you can relieve the stress you suffer. While running, you can release stress and make your mind calmer.
This is because by running, you will not only focus on the speed and running movement you do, but also the beautiful scenery that’s presented around. Doing this every weekend would be such a blast to “recycle” yourself every week.
Though it’s good, running alone can’t be a nice medicine to your stress. Accompany it with delicious and healthy intake such as the health benefits of grape juice after the run to make yourself more refreshed.
- Provides Better Body Shape
For most people, especially women, having a slim and beautiful body shape is an ultimate dream. You can get it by doing long-distance running regularly every 1 week with a steady rhythm of speed.
By doing it regularly, you will get fat shrinkage and tightening in different parts of the body. Your body will look slimmer and sexier by the time you’re used to it.
- Increases Body Strength
One of the benefits of long-distance running that can be obtained is increased muscle strength. This is because long-distance running can affect the increase in the number and size of mitochondria, which are the muscle powerhouses of the body.
Running long distances can train your body to utilize fat as an alternative energy source in addition to carbohydrates. This reason becomes one of the appeals of long-distance running, especially for people who want to lose weight.
To add more variation to the exercise, you can also have the benefits of swimming to shape some muscles.
Caution and Recommendation
In addition to bringing benefits, there are a variety of risks that long-distance runners need to be aware of, including
- Causing Injury
Long-distance runners are generally more at risk of injury, particularly knee injuries and leg fractures. In order to minimize this risk, runners are advised to do a series of exercises and warm-ups before long-distance running.
- Increase the Risk of Heart aAtack
Although it can make the body healthier, long-distance running can also increase the risk of heart attack. This may be related to increased or heavy cardiac load during long-distance running.
To benefit from long-distance running and avoid the risks, it is advisable to do a series of preparatory and warm-up exercises before running. Start a long-distance run by running slowly while gradually adding speed and mileage.
Also, do interval training to increase the running speed. Interval training is performed by combining high intensity exercises and low intensity exercises interchangeably. In other words, a sprint is interspersed with a slow run.