Running For Youth
Running is one of the best gages for youthfulness.
“Even 5 to 10 minutes a day of low-intensity running is enough to extend life by several years, compared with not running at all.” — Harvard Health edu
Kids run everywhere. If you simply observe a group of kids playing, chances are they are running around after each other. Somewhere along the path of aging this tendency to run slowly decreases. Maybe its after high school when most of us are no longer playing sports or attending PE class. Now we have a population where most people over age 30 couldn’t run a mile, even if it came down to saving themselves. Although most would argue they easily could run a mile, delusion of inaction. Put it to the test and run! Your body will fire off many different indicators proving your youthfulness to your mind, which may have thought otherwise.
Running is such a simple task, yet requires a good amount of will power to heave yourself off your couch and run for the sake of it. Especially when you don’t ever do it. Running is something too many take for granted. It gets overlooked as child’s play. Everyone can easily identify the physical health benefits of running, which we will look at a little later. But fewer understand the psychological benefits of running are just as valuable as the physical ones.
Ask any runner what it’s like to overcome and endure the grueling pain of every indicator in your body telling you to stop. Your heart pounding, lungs starving for oxygen, muscles tight body pumping with blood, not knowing how much longer can you keep this up. Until suddenly you have mentally overcome the noise and blast through to a state ease and euphoria. Your primal senses re-igniting. The perpetual movement of putting one leg in front of the other hypnotizes you locking you into a flow state. Your mind becomes clear, dopamine flushes your system. You are practicing meditation in motion.
“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” — Lance Armstrong
Runners learn to endure and persevere through pain and mental hurdles. It’s something that can translate into the rest of your life and not just in the physical pursuits. Most people however prefer to play a game of mental gymnastics. They become flexible in their decision making to better fit their daily feelings. “I don’t feel like doing that today”. “The weather is horrible outside”. Others forge their minds in the fire. Through discipline. “I don’t want to do it today — that’s exactly why I’ll do it”.
When your skin is continuously met with friction or pressure, it develops calluses. Look at any body builder’s hands, MMA athlete’s ears, or a guitarist’s finger tips. A hardened layer forms on top to protect it and toughen it up. Calluses are marks of rigorous, consistent practice, and development. The same holds true for your mind. the obstacles of the mind is harder to overcome than those of the body, but once the mind prevails, the body will follow without fail. Managing to push through using the sheer strength of your mind. No motivation, no inspiration. Just willpower.
“The reason it’s important to push hardest when you want to quit the most is because it helps you callous your mind. It’s the same reason why you have to do your best work when you are the least motivated.” — David Goggins
Beyond mental fortitude, running has been proven to lower depression and fight against the aging of cognitive abilities. Exercise, like running is one of the single best things you can do to slow the cognitive decline that accompanies normal aging. Running clears your mind, improves circulation, and eliminates toxins. I never feel better than right after a good run.
There’s something weirdly primal about running. It’s such a basic function humans we’re built to do and have been doing for hundreds of years. It feels very natural and innate. Running used to be integral to our survival. Our bodies adapted to running because we had to do it to get food to survive. This helps explain the biological processes occurring behind the scenes within us.
The rewarding effects of endurance activity are modulated by the hormone leptin, a key hormone in metabolism. Leptin modulates multiple components of brain reward circuitry. Signaling in dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) which plays a significant role in reward system of the brain. Influencing motivation, cognition, and aversion. Pre wired into us from our days as hunter and gatherers. Leptin plays a key role both in regulating energy balance and encouraging behaviors that are rewarding for the person’s metabolism, like engaging in physical activity such as running to find food. This also helps explain the runners high feeling.
Another lesser known fact about running in relations to burning fat, being healthy, and staying young is the scientific process by which burning fat happens. When we burn fat, most of the mass is breathed out as carbon dioxide. Contrary to what many may think, the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat. the British Medical Journal, reveals that 22 pounds (10 kg) of fat turns into 18.5 pounds (8.4 kg) of carbon dioxide, which is exhaled when we breathe, and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg) of water, which we then excrete through our urine, tears, sweat and other bodily fluids. Getting the heart rate up and the breathing heavy is the best way to burn off that pesky fat. Studies also have shown that regular runners enjoy a 25–30% decreased risk of all causes of death, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The business of anti-aging has grown into a $250+ billion dollar industry. Yet over look running as a possible cure. If you could put the effects of running into a pill, it would be a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company. But that would require too much effort and is no quick fix. Running is easy in theory, but there are many times it is the last thing we want to do consistently. But the payoffs are hard to ignore for those willing to endure.
Running may be the best fountain of youth we know of to date. But on top of that it can be used as a tool for personal development beyond just being healthy and youthful. By running your helping to fortify your mental well being and strengthening your discipline muscle. These consistent habits and perseverance will bleed into other aspects of your life, far past just simply running. No need for a gym membership, personal trainer, or equipment. Simply lace up your boots and hit the road, anywhere you may be. As Phil Knight would say — “Just do it!”
Some other of the most common benefits of running include:
- reduced anxiety
- reduced feelings of depression
- increased memory and focus
- increased flexibility and improved mobility
- increased immune system
- improved response to insulin
- weight loss or maintenance
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150831085456.htm
