Running!

Your best worst friend!

I absolutely loathe running... I know, I know it is one of the best ways to tone up and many people love it,  but i am not one of them. Personally my legs are too short and i am just not built for it! All complaints aside i still do run, not often, but i do run. 

Health Benefits: 

• Running is a great strength builder for your muscles, tendons and ligaments. strengthening these muscles is what helps tone your body
• When you increase your muscle mass you decrease your body fat content.
• Running increases heart strength (your hear is after all a muscle) which in turn increases the amount of blood it can bump in your body without becoming exhausted. 
• Reduces risks of heart attack, stroke and other chronic heart disease. 
• Because running is a weight bearing exercise it increase your bone density
• Running is also a great way to burn large amount of calories.
• Running can also relieve stress and release natural endorphin's in your body. 

Now i have heard of life long runners having bad knees and even hip surgery. This makes me want to look at the other side of running, the wear and tear of the exercise. Now i know that any exercise when done o long amount of time can wear on your body, especially when aging comes into play. 

The Down side to running: 

• Running has a greater risk of injury than many other exercise activities.
• Running is rough on the joints such as knees, ankles and hips. 

Yes there are very few down sides...but i would take them more a warnings than reasons not to run. It is important to make sure you have the proper running shoes as well as proper running form, doing this will help you prevent injury and provide you with a less painful running experience. Below are two visuals of what good and bad running looks like. I am a very visual learner so instead of a list i think these will be more beneficial. 

This is good running form!

Don't run like this...PLEASE.

I chose the bad running form mostly because i thought the pictures where comical, not so much for the articles underneath them.

SO GET OUT THERE AND RUN... I know it isn't fun just remember it is good for you :)!

References:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/running-2012-top-10-health-benefits-running-183200080--spt.html
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02928/The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Running.html