The Health Benefits of Jogging
There are many health benefits of jogging. For starters, it’s a great cardiovascular exercise which increases your heart rate slightly. This is exactly the type of exercise you should be doing if you are looking to lose weight and improve your overall fitness. Jogging is also reasonably easy to do, costs you almost nothing, and you don’t need any equipment other than a comfortable pair of shoes. You can take up jogging by yourself, or get your friends together and go jogging as a group. Some areas even have organized jogging groups for all fitness levels that you can join, if you feel you need the encouragement
Weight Loss
One of the most obvious health benefits of jogging is weight-loss, and many people take up jogging for this reason. The reason jogging, or any other cardiovascular exercise, helps with weight loss is simple. Jogging uses energy (calories), and if you use up more energy than you take in the effect is weight-loss. Jogging is also very good for improving muscle tone which can aid weight loss and help with creating a slimmer, more defined figure. You should aim to increase your heart rate slightly for around thirty minutes each day for maximum effect. Of course you don’t want your heart rate increasing too much and you shouldn’t be too out of breath. If you find that you are so out of breath or become unable to speak, you should take a break until your breathing returns to normal
Better Mood
Research has shown that cardiovascular exercise, such as jogging, can help relieve depression and make you feel generally happier. This is because endorphins and ‘feel good’ hormones are released during exercise which have been shown to improve mood. This improved mood even continues after exercise stops. With regular exercise, mood can be significantly improved over the long term
Reduces Stress
Another one of the great health benefits of jogging is that as a cardiovascular exercise, jogging can reduce stress levels. Exercise such as jogging reduces short-term stress due to endorphin release, and reducing short-term stress will help to relieve longer-term stress over time. Jogging is a particularly good stress relieving exercise because you can simply pop in some headphones and jog away – there is nothing to focus on other than your music and where you are going
Also, people who undertake regular exercise, such as jogging tend to sleep better at night. There are many reasons for this including the reduction in stress levels brought about by regular exercise. There is also thought to be a hormonal reason for sleeping better after exercise, and some people think that simply burning off extra energy by exercising can contribute to a better night’s sleep. Whatever the reason, getting a better night’s sleep has all sorts of benefits; including less stress, better concentration and less irritability during the dayReduce Cholesterol and Blood Pressure
High cholesterol is a growing problem in our modern society, caused in part due to a diet which is too high in fat, which can build up in the arteries. High cholesterol has many associated problems, including high blood pressure and heart disease, and it is a known risk factor for heart attacks. Undertaking simple, regular exercise such as jogging has been shown to reduce cholesterol levels over time, which in turn reduces the risk of developing
any of the associated complications
Jogging is also a great way to reduce blood pressure, in part because it helps reduce cholesterol, but also because of the way your body responds to exercise. Your blood pressure is higher during the time you are working out, but due to exercising it will be lower than it would normally be when you are not working out. It is a complicated process, but it does work and studies show that cardiovascular exercise can significantly lower blood pressure over the long term
Cardiovascular exercise such as jogging helps your muscles to use oxygen more effectively, which benefits the muscles and your overall health. Every cell in the human body needs oxygen to survive, if your body can use that oxygen more effectively then you may find that you don’t get out of breath as easily. For example you may find just now that climbing a few flights of stairs leaves you feeling a little breathless for a few minutes; this is because your cells need oxygen and because you have increased the workload of your cells by climbing the stairs, they now need more of it. This causes your body to increase the rate you are breathing in order to pull in more oxygen. However, if your cells can use the oxygen you already have more effectively, then you will not need to breathe faster to accommodate the extra oxygen demands
Great Way to Start Exercising
Finally, jogging is a great exercise to take up if you are just starting out with regular exercise because you control the intensity. You decide how fast to go and how far; you can even use the popular technique of jogging for a set amount of time then walking for the same amount before going back to jogging again, and continue repeating this process until you reach your destination. As your fitness improves, you can increase the jogging time and decrease the walking time, or increase the distance of your jog. This allows your work out to grow with you as your level of fitness improves and ensures that you don’t tire yourself out too much when you’re first starting out
The health benefits of jogging are numerous; it costs very little to take up and you don’t need a costly gym membership to do it. You can jog wherever and whenever suits you, as long as it is safe to do so, and it is something you can do yourself or in a group. Jogging will improve many aspects of your health, particularly your cardiovascular health, as well as improving your general fitness
