Running helps developing muscles and bone strength, and also keeps your weight in check. If you have a busy day or week, or are on a holiday, you should consider squeezing in jogging (or brisk walking) in your routine.
Running offers many benefits, including:
- Improved cardiovascular fitness, and burning of calories. It helps maintain a healthy weight and reduces risk of heart disease.
- It helps build strong leg bones
- It is great for Mental health and for Immune system
Does Running Put Your Knees at Risk?
Running doesn’t ruin your knees, its a myth and not the truth says fitness freak Milind Soman.
Fitness freak Milind Soman (former supermodel) has been running for nearly one-and-half decade now, but never had any knee injury.
“It’s a perception (running puts knees at risk), but it’s not the truth. The truth is anything you do with wrong technique will cause you injury,” said the over fifty year old model cum actor.
And if at all you get injured, its because of poor technique. But that’s true for most other activities as well, be it dance and game, playing sports, etc.
So why do people get injured due to running?.
Here’s what Milind has to say:
- In India, most take up running for health and recreation when they hit middle age. In a country like India with no culture of exercise, sports, and fit lifestyle, suddenly people have started running in the thousands, inspired by each other.
- “So, what happens is everybody runs when they are children till the age of 10 or 11. Then they stop running for 20 years before again starting running at the age of 35. Obviously the muscles you need for the activity and also technique, every thing deteriorates.
- “Your body has not been doing it for so many years. And plus your weight changes, may be you become heavier…All the balances change. So, when you start running or do any activity or sport, you have to start very, very gradually. And as your body becomes stronger, then you have to increase.
- “What a lot of people do is they jump (after not running for 20 years) before they can run, and they run before they can walk. It’s important to give one’s cardiovascular system time to adapt, become stronger, be able to understand balance and coordination all over again.”
- “Now, I have been running since 2003 and I have never been injured. I have always increased it very, very gradually. Whole purpose of doing endurance sport is to understand your body better, it’s not about timing, it’s not about competition, it’s about understanding your body, mind, potential”, says Soman.
- People in India are today engaged in fitness activities, unlike 20 years ago. “In fact, when I started running, I saw no body else running. People said ‘Arey pagal daud raha he dekho’ (look, this crazy man is running)! Group of people, every body who ran at the time were ridiculed. But it’s now kind of become admiration. Now it’s wow…I wish I could do that. It has become aspirational,” he said.
- “Every political party, rotary club, every college, school, all organisations organise running events. This is something that ignites the aspirations of people. People are beginning to inspire each other, and that’s how it grows,” Soman says.
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