What Does Running Do to Your Body? (by a Medical Doctor)

Get fit and stay healthy with the help of running. Discover what running does to your body, the amazing benefits, and how it can help improve your overall health.

Like any physical activity, it has its benefits but also its risks. It’s important to be aware of both before you start pounding the pavement. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out and run! Just know that you need to be aware of the pros and cons of this sport so you can make an informed decision about whether or not it’s right for your body type, fitness level, and lifestyle needs.

Running is one of the simplest, most straightforward ways to get cardiovascular benefits and lose weight. It improves aerobic fitness and can help reduce heart disease and stroke risk. Additionally, running works every muscle in your body, including your hips, glutes, abs, and shoulders.

How running changes your body

Running is an excellent and effective way to improve your overall physical health. Not only does it help you lose weight and tone up, but it also has many other benefits for your body. When running, muscles throughout your body are working hard to propel you forward, resulting in increased strength and endurance. Running increases the amount of oxygen that flows through your body, which makes your heart and lungs stronger. Additionally, running can help lower blood pressure and reduce stress levels due to the release of endorphins during exercise. Finally, regular running can improve bone density which helps protect against osteoporosis as you age. All of these physical changes will contribute to a healthier lifestyle overall and make you feel better in both mind and body.

The effects of running on the human body

Running is a great way to stay in shape and improve overall health. It has many benefits, including improved cardiovascular health, increased muscular strength, and enhanced endurance. Running can also help reduce stress levels, improve mental health and clarity, and even reduce the risk of certain diseases.

The effects of running on the human body are vast and varied. Physically, it helps strengthen bones and muscles, increases lung capacity and aerobic capacity, strengthens the heart and circulatory system, lowers cholesterol levels, burns calories for weight loss or maintenance, increases metabolism, improves balance and coordination, reduces joint pain caused by arthritis or other conditions, increases flexibility in the joints and muscles, builds endurance over time as well as improving posture.

Additionally, running can have positive psychological benefits such as improved moods due to endorphin release during exercise. All these factors make running an excellent form of physical activity for both beginners and experienced athletes alike.

Your blood pressure increases when running consistently

When running consistently, your blood pressure will naturally increase. This is because the body needs to pump more oxygenated blood to your muscles and organs to keep them functioning at a higher level. When running, the heart rate increases and so does the force of contraction of the heart muscle, resulting in an increased flow of blood throughout the body. This causes your blood pressure to rise as your arteries expand. Additionally, when running you are using energy from fat and sugar stores, which will cause an adrenaline rush that can also raise your blood pressure. You can keep your blood pressure at a healthy level by exercising regularly, but it is important to check your blood pressure before and after intense physical activity.

Blood pressure is your body’s way of telling you it is working too hard.

When you exercise, your heart beats faster, and your muscles contract more vigorously, which uses extra energy. This extra energy causes the pressure in your arteries to rise. If the pressure gets too high, it can be dangerous and cause a range of health problems. The best way to keep your blood pressure in check is to exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, eat a balanced diet that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, and limit or avoid alcohol and smoking.

This can make your blood pump harder and faster, leading to higher blood pressure. As we age, our bodies respond to stress by trying to keep things steady, so there are usually no changes in blood pressure unless there is an additional factor like diet or medical condition.

Regularly active individuals typically have lower resting blood pressures than people who don’t participate in much activity. But as we grow older, many people find their blood pressure rising even though they aren’t changing how active they are.

That’s because aging brings about weight gain and health problems that can affect blood pressure, such as diabetes or high cholesterol. Activity drops as people get less motivated to do things after they retire or when a disability makes it difficult to function physically.

Blood pressure numbers refer to the top number (systolic) and the bottom number (diastolic). The average person has around 130/80 for systole-diastole. A normal reading is below 120/80. Most doctors consider a reading of over 140/90 to indicate hypertension.

While running, your muscles are used more

Your feet work against gravity when you run as you push off the ground with each step. This action is what gets most people walking!

But aside from moving your legs, running also uses your arms and shoulders for balance and strength. The muscles in your hips and lower body work together to keep you stable while you move efficiently forward due to all the training your body goes through.

Running is an excellent form of exercise that anyone can do at any age. It does not need much space or time, which makes it ideal since many of us have limited amounts of both.

Running is one of the best forms of aerobic activity because it requires enough cardio to get your heart pumping but doesn’t use too much muscle energy. Aerobic activities lower the risk of death and health problems related to cardiovascular disease. If you want to improve your overall health, consider adding distance to your paces.

While running, your lungs take in more oxygen

Even though running is an activity that requires lots of energy, it can be done with proper training. When you run, your lungs must work harder to pull in enough air to fuel your body’s processes.

However, research shows that even short distances are just as effective at improving lung function as longer runs. This is important because most people with long-term illnesses like asthma or COPD would feel better if they worked out regularly.

If you have asthma, for instance, you should try to find a good way to breathe while working out. These include using a fast breathe-out before each breath in and/or slowly exhaling after taking a deep breath.

Physical activity is very important for people with cystic fibrosis to keep their health in good shape. Cystic fibrosis involves problems with mucus, so when people with this disease sweat, there is a lot of excess fluid and salt left over.

These things combine to create thick, sticky substances that clog up the bronchial tubes that lead to the lungs. By working out and actively moving your body, your muscles help flush out these fluids effectively.

Your skin produces more sweat

Sweat helps regulate body temperature, so it’s important you understand how to care for your skin while running. Ensure you drink enough water; if you feel thirsty, try drinking more.

Your blood circulation increases when you run, which helps keep your skin warm. That means dry skin can indicate poor overall health or even signs of dehydration.

You should also make sure your diet is appropriate for your activity level. This includes eating before exercise and being aware of what you eat and why.

On average, men’s feet get slightly wetter when they run, but women’s feet are three times as likely to get completely soaked as men’s!

This could be because of genetics, as most women have very thin skin. Also, muscles in the legs help retain heat, so people with less toned muscles may find their skin drier.

Your brain receives more oxygen

More oxygen for your mind comes from breathing, which is why most people breathe when awake. But there is another important time to use our breath!

When we exercise, our bodies need more oxygen to function properly. You will find that most sports have specific rules about how many breaths you can take per minute or per round. This is because having enough air and oxygen makes it easier to recruit muscles to work.

To burn glucose for energy, muscles need oxygen, so making sure you don’t run out is a key part of working out well.

Your lungs get used up working to supply your body with air and fuel, so make sure to eat well before activity and drink plenty of water after a workout.

When running, you burn more calories

Many people start walking or running to lose weight, but you may not know what happens to your body while you’re doing it. It can have some really interesting effects!

You use muscles when you run, which is very helpful for overall wellness. More muscle means better health.

Muscle helps keep bones strong, which aids in bone remodeling. This is when an old, broken bone is reorganized and replaced with a new bone to help fix the problem.

Running also speeds up your heart rate, keeping your blood flowing well. The healthier your cardiovascular system is, the better you will feel physically and mentally.

However, there are some things that walkers need to be aware of. If you suffer from knee pain, stop exercising until your symptoms disappear.

This could mean waiting weeks, even months, before starting back up again. Make sure your knees are stable and well-supported and try using cushioning socks to reduce joint stress.

Your risk of heart disease increases

While most people feel better after running, many don’t realize that running can harm some people with high cholesterol or diabetes.

Regular exercise is great for your overall health and wellness, but there are times when it may do more harm than good.

Running can increase your blood pressure, raising your risk of stroke or heart attack.

It also puts stress on your circulatory system, particularly on your arteries. This can cause atherosclerosis or thickening and hardening of the artery walls due to clot formation. Atherosclerotic plaques can become unstable, leading to a heart attack or stroke.

Some studies show that people who run long distances may have a slightly higher risk of heart problems than people who run shorter distances. However, this only applies to highly trained athletes!

For the average person, the best way to get the benefits of walking, yoga, or swimming is to do them in short bursts of moderate intensity. These activities are much easier to fit into your daily life and can help you achieve similar results.

You can decrease your risk of some types of cancer

While no evidence suggests running will increase your risk of getting any type of cancer, it does pose certain risks. By exploring these and how to reduce the risk, you can determine if this activity is right for you.

Running may make you more likely to get stomach or intestinal cancer because it can make you gain weight. As we discussed before, obesity raises your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems, so being overweight is not as harmless as many think.

But when researchers looked at studies done over five years, they didn’t find a clear link between exercise and the overall cancer risk. They also didn’t find strong evidence of a link between different types of exercise and certain cancers.

Running lowers cholesterol

Running stimulates enzymes that help move low-density lipoprotein (LDL, a.k.a “bad” cholesterol) from the blood to the liver so it can be excreted.

Jogging also helps increase the “good” cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein or HDL). A landmark March 1982 in the Journal of Cardiac Rehabilitation found that the number of miles run each week directly correlated with HDL cholesterol levels. This was the foundation for the research to come, supporting these findings.

Improves metabolic health

Beyond cholesterol, running can help improve all components of metabolic health — blood sugar levels, triglycerides, blood pressure, and body weight.

A meta-analysis published in Sports Medicine in April 2021 found that just one session of aerobic exercise lowered insulin levels and raised glucagon levels by a lot. This effect is well-regulated blood sugar levels, an indicator of good health. And it can increase insulin sensitivity for at least 16 hours after physical activity, per a January 2000 study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine. Lower insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance, can be dangerous, as it’s a precursor to type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Cardio is good for your heart.

Cardiovascular exercise is the best way to keep your heart healthy and strong. The benefits of cardiovascular exercise include:

• Improved cardiovascular functioning, which helps you live longer.
• Reduced risk of a heart attack.
• Reduced blood pressure (which means lower risk for hypertension).
• Lowering triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels can reduce your risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) and stroke.
• Weight loss or maintenance, reducing the risk of diabetes mellitus type 2 and other associated conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and arthritis as well as improving insulin sensitivity in those who already have diabetes mellitus type 2.

Running makes your heart bigger.

Running will make your heart bigger, stronger, and more efficient. That’s because it increases the capillaries that supply blood to your muscles, allowing them to use oxygen more efficiently. When you run (or do any other form of exercise), you increase your heart’s size and strength—a benefit that lasts even after you have stopped exercising!

Running can also help prevent heart disease and other conditions related to blocked arteries, like angina (chest pain) and stroke, by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels in the body.

You’ll be able to regulate breathing better.

Your respiratory rate (the number of breaths you take in a minute) is entirely under your control. When you start running, however, your body automatically changes how fast you breathe to meet the higher oxygen needs.

Your heart rate will also increase as your body needs more blood flow and oxygen delivered to cells. In response, the respiratory system will send signals from the brainstem (which controls involuntary processes like breathing) that tell the muscles in your chest and abdomen to expand and contract with each breath. When this happens, you may be surprised: you may feel as if getting enough air is difficult or impossible! This is because when we exercise aerobically—or use our aerobic system—we breathe faster than normal so that we can meet our increased need for oxygen by increasing how much air goes into each breath cycle.

We’ll also notice how different types of activity affect our breathing patterns differently: Activities such as yoga or tai chi tend to not only require less energy output overall but also involve slower movements with lower impact on joints; thus, they don’t typically cause people who do them regularly over time (and especially those who are older) any problems with respiration besides things like wheezing due to an upper respiratory infection (URI).

You’ll burn fat and calories.

Running is one of the best ways to burn calories. You’ll burn more per mile than walking, biking, and swimming.

This makes sense when you consider that running requires all your body weight to move forward and back with each step (in contrast to cycling or even walking), which means using more muscles and burning more energy.

Running helps you lose weight in a healthy way.

The first thing to mention is that running burns calories. Running at a steady pace for an hour will burn about 500 calories, equivalent to about one pound of body fat if done consistently for eight weeks. This means that if you are trying to lose weight by running, it’s important not only that you eat fewer calories than your body uses but also that they come from the right sources (see below).

Running also helps with weight maintenance after weight loss because it increases your metabolism and keeps it elevated long after the physical activity has stopped. This means more fat is being burned throughout the day. The key here is consistency. Increasing the number of calories you burn through the exercise regularly can help you keep off the weight you lose while dieting, even if you fast or eat very little at certain times of the day (like before work).

Your body may adapt to running more easily than to more complicated sports.

That is to say, running is an excellent way to begin exercising without investing in equipment or paying for a gym membership. You don’t need fancy shoes or specialized clothing—just your own two feet. Running is also easier on the joints than other sports because it’s so low-impact.

Running can be as simple or complicated as you want it to be. You can run at home, out on the road with friends, or by yourself in the park—the endless!

Running can boost your immune system.

Running can boost your immune system.

One of the most important benefits of running is that it helps keep your immune system strong. When you run, your lymphatic system gets a workout, which helps clear out toxins and other waste products from the body. This process also helps keep illnesses at bay. It improves overall health, especially if you’re an older person who doesn’t have time to visit the gym every day or simply isn’t up to regular exercise.

You’ll be able to fight off diseases better than someone who doesn’t exercise regularly, so if you are planning on traveling abroad anytime soon (or just want to stay healthy), consider investing in some running shoes!

Running increases the length of your telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes.

You may have heard that running can help you live longer, but did you know it can also help your cells stay healthy? Your DNA contains a lot of information, including instructions on how to build and maintain your body. The ends of each chromosome are capped with protective structures called telomeres.

Like the plastic tips on shoelaces or the end of a balloon, these caps protect chromosomes from damage and keep them stable. As we age, our bodies make less of an enzyme called telomerase, which helps keep telomeres in good shape. This means that our cells’ chromosomes get shorter and can become damaged more easily over time.

When this happens in every cell in the body at once—or even just some cells—it could cause problems like heart disease or cancer down the line! Running increases the production of an enzyme called telomerase, which preserves these protective caps at their ends (and prevents cell death). All in all, running has been shown to increase the lifespan by as much as five years!

This means that runners tend to live longer than people who don’t run.

• Running can help you live longer.
• Running keeps your immune system strong.
• Running increases the length of your telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes.
• Running helps you lose weight in a healthy way.
• Running can boost your confidence!

Running builds leg muscles, but it also builds upper-body strength.

Running builds leg muscles, but it also builds upper-body strength. The arm and shoulder muscles are important for running motion, making them feel sore after a long run. Running helps you build endurance and improves core body strength by working your abdominal area.

Running may not be as beneficial for your abs as situps or crunches, but it does help build up muscular endurance, leading to stronger abs over time.

Studies have shown that running can help boost your confidence and help you feel less anxious.

Studies have shown that running can help boost your confidence and make you less anxious. Running might also help you feel more confident because it’s a great way to relieve stress.

Running has been proven to improve both physical and mental health. It’s also been shown that running helps people sleep better, which is important for overall well-being!

If you’re already a runner, you know how great it is for clearing your head and working out the kinks.

If you’re already a runner, you know how great it is for clearing your head and working out the kinks. Running is also one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. The body needs regular exercise to stay in shape, but not too much or too little. Too much exercise can lead to injury and exhaustion, while too little will make your body feel sluggish and put on weight. As long as running isn’t causing any problems for you—like shin splints or plantar fasciitis (runner’s foot)—you should keep doing it!

Running will make you fitter, but it will also make you happier!

Running is a great form of exercise because it will help you lose weight and strengthen your heart. It can also boost your immune system, increase the length of your telomeres at the end of each strand of DNA and determine how long you live. This means that running helps us live longer!

Conclusion

Running is an excellent form of exercise that can have a positive impact on your body. It will help you to burn calories, increase muscle strength and tone, improve cardiovascular health, and strengthen bones.

Additionally, running can reduce stress levels as well as improve your mental well-being. The increased blood flow also helps to oxygenate the body which increases energy levels. Furthermore, running is an effective way to lose weight since it burns more calories than most other physical activities. Finally, running has been known to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes because it helps keep your body healthy and functioning properly. All in all, running provides numerous benefits for both physical and mental health.

Today, the health benefits of running are so many that it’s easy to get caught up in the hype. We feel that the health benefits of running are under-appreciated in our society, and they deserve much more than they’re getting. Hopefully, you’ll see soon enough that these benefits are real and worth your time and effort indoors and outside.