Day: October 13, 2019

Categories
Running

TOP 7 REASONS FOR “WHY I RUN” (and you should too)

On January 1, 2018, I began my running journey. Yes, a well-documented one. I took a resolution to run 1800 km on that day. The reason was I wanted to get away from the pain that I was going through in my life. It was both: The mental and the physical. Somehow without knowing the exact reasons then, I discovered that I felt good whenever I ran. Running is mood-lifting. After a good run, you are sure to get that mood lift no matter what you are going through. I realized that I was able to get all the anxiety flushed out of my life. Running acted like a cleaning activity.

Before January 2018, I was running but not in a regular way. Sometimes I did, Sometimes I did not. I completed my goal of running 1800 km in the first week of December 2018. This year, I have completed running 1400 km so far. The goal is to repeat 2018 and exceed it.

So, here are the top reasons today that I run for on a daily basis.

  • Running has brought flexibility in my body. When I run, all my muscles get the exercise. The blood flows to the remotest corners of the body. All your body is rejuvenated by running. My locomotion has become better, I am able to bend better. My back, my legs, and my hands are flexible due to regular movements that they get. When you are running you don’t need to exercise or go to the gym. The running takes care of all that.
  • Improved Breathing and expanded lungs. Earlier, I used to go panting within minutes of starting to run. But, now, it’s not like that. I am able to run for several hours together without getting breathless. Your breathing improves. Our sedentary lifestyle is responsible for us not being able to breathe properly. But, when we run, we have no choice but to learn proper breathing techniques. Now, my breath is longer. Long breaths are better than short breaths for your health.
  • Burnt my belly fat running: I was 96 kg (211.6) at one point in time. I am now 78 kg(171.9 lbs). And I am maintaining my new weight for the past year. Running is an aerobic exercise and hence, it burns your fat faster. People who pay premium memberships to health clubs should note this. Most of you who go to the gym or health clubs are there for losing weight and look good. You would do a better job if you just moved out of your house every morning and ran in the sun early morning.
  • RUNNING IS A MIND REJUVENATOR: In a stressful job like banking, people are suffering from stress and acute anxiety. This is affecting the overall functioning of our mind and body. There are scientific studies to suggest that our overall performance goes down during stress and anxiety. The body and the mind suffers irreversible damage for life. Because of the stress and anxiety, there is a release of toxic chemicals in our body that permanently affect our organs like Kidney, Pancreas, etc. Running has become a way for me to flush out my anxiety and stress on a daily basis. No matter what takes place, I head for a run to relax my nerves and feel better. The reason why stress is relieved after a run is that running leads to the release of those chemicals like Serotonin, Dopamine, BDNF in our body that acts like drugs. These are naturally occurring drugs in our bodies that are released during the course of the run.
  • I AM SLEEPING BETTER THESE DAYS: To have a good sleep when you hit the bed, you need to make sure that you have tired your body and refreshed your mind. If you have some kind of anxiety in your mind, you will not get good sleep. If you have some kind of pain in your body, it will trouble you throughout the night. Running has made sure for me that I get a good night’s sleep every day. This is my best reward that running has bestowed upon me. I don’t want to exchange it for gold in my life. I have worked in the call center and I fully realize the importance of good sleep. There, I would find it difficult to get night sleeps. I felt happy leaving that job for this very reason. Otherwise, I miss my call center days for the fun I had and the people I met there. The release of happiness chemicals in our body puts us to sleep.
  • My bones have become stronger and healthier: I don’t get body pain often. I have not suffered any shin pain or back pain or any kind of a pain in my last 2 years of well-documented running. To have a good running, I get up early in the morning and head out to run. While I am running, the morning sun comes along and smiles at me. The whole morning world is different than the rest of the day. You need to get up in the morning to know how beautiful our world is and what hell we make it through the day. The morning sunlight is full of Vitamin D that is so essential for our bones to be fit and strong. Children suffer from Rickets and the adults suffer from Osteomalacia due to lack of enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps our bones with the absorption of Calcium.
  • Mental Strength: Running has no limits. You are unlimited. You can go on running for as long as you want. The more you increase your capability to run, the more your mind is able to experience the tough situations and learn to overcome them. I started out with running 2 km in the initial days in 2018. Now, I run for more than 21 km without discomfort. While one is pushing oneself to run for multiple hours, the mind learns to become strong. The brain chemicals promote running. You build an attitude by running. This winning attitude and not giving up under trying circumstances becomes a part of you. You develop a mind-frame that takes care of daily life challenges.

“No Human is limited.”

Categories
Running

5 STEPS TO “HOW TO START”

Before you start to run, there are other things that you need to start doing. I call them “The Pre-Requisites”

Some years ago, when I used to run on and off, I would injure myself often. As a result, I would pause running for days before I could come back to running. I would not graduate to a regular runner until I discovered the science of running.

Learning to run regularly takes time. It is not a one day or one week affair. You would need time to learn the ropes before you can turn into a pro. But the wait is worth every moment you invest into it. Once you have mastered the basics, the sky is your limit.

The Pre-Requisites:

  • A human body is comprising of several bones. They are inter-connected to each other like a network. These bones are connected to each other at junction points. These junction points allow the bones to twist and turn in different directions. So, you have joints like Knee joints, Ankle joints etc. Overall, it has been found that we have 360 such joints in our body.

These joints have a cushion like structures covering them. These are called Cartilages. They are responsible for keeping our joints in proper shape and form. Cartilages absorb shock and spreads the load to avoid a focus of peak stress at these joints. Thus your joints remain fit and help you in locomotion. Your ability to run free of joint pain issues for years even decades would depend on an compromised function of this cartilage.

When you are beginning to run, you would require to bring these cartilages to proper warm up. The years of inactivity due to our sedentary lifestyle would have made our cartilages stiff. If you would start running like a regular runner on day 1, you may end up damaging these cartilages.

So, what you need to do is allow your self ample time to start running. It may take a week of warm up for 25 minutes every day before I would recommend you to start running.

2. Breathing: Running is an aerobic activity. Your running would require you to inhale and exhale more than a normal person who does not run. If you would start running from day 1, you would feel breathless in a short distance. You will run for a while and then your running will come to an abrupt ending. You may pant and possible faint. So, don’t do that for the initial days of running. Just go slow and focus on opening up your lungs. That’s it.

There are few breathing techniques that can help you to become better breather. I will tell you that soon.

3. Shoes: Do some research and find about running shoes. Yup, these are not your plain canvas or sneakers. There are specially designed running shoes. They enable you to run without suffering leg injuries.

4. Location of your running: Avoid running on hard surfaces like roads, concrete etc. Choose off road locations that are muddy. You can go to parks that have open space for running. These days many communities organise park-runs as fun-filled activity. You can participate in them. Choose a location that is away from crowd. Running can be meditative.

5. Run as you like: Running can be done alone or with a running buddy. You don’t need to worry about the company. In case, you don’t have a company, it’s nicer. Put on some nice melodious music and go for run. After some time, you will forget about having company. Your run time will become your me time.