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Seven Psychological Benefits Of Running

Running has been suggested by many medical doctors and therapists to the people who are in the quest to improving their mental health. This is because running, like other exercises, unquestionably takes care of the mental health as efficiently as it does to one’s physical well-being. There are various psychological benefits of running, but here are the seven most cited:

1. Lowers anxiety and stress
Runners are recognized to be less stressed and therefore are more able to manage their daily stressors properly. This is attributed to the fact that running refreshes their thoughts, keeps their minds off worries, and gives them ample and undistracted time to think, reflect, and concentrate. In addition, based on a number of reports, running is much more efficient in handling anxieties much better than medications.

2. Enhances mood
Whenever running, the body creates a substance called endorphin (endogenous morphine) that can cause a different sense of excitement. This state of euphoria is called runner’s high mainly because after running, folks are in the good mood, are happier, and indescribably feel better. Runner’s high is also thought to be responsible for the runners’ seeming “addiction” to running: Simply because they’re often intensely post-euphoric, runners keep running each and every possibility they get.

3. Improves confidence
The sense of achievement immediately after finishing a run or completing a target distance enhances the runners’ confidence. This is especially true of people which are naturally competitive they routinely sign up for marathons and other running events. Improved confidence also comes to people who have noticeably dropped a few pounds and achieved more toned and firmer muscles through running.

4. Fights addiction
Running is conceived to be a natural tranquilizer, which describes why therapists suggest it to those who are struggling with their addiction. Numerous successful stories are actually documented, saying that recovering patients use the time they would otherwise spend to meet their addiction in running. Through running, patients also grow to be mentally stronger to resist the urge of alcohol, drugs, or anything they feel addicted to.

5. Develops mental alertness and focus
Simply because running keeps the mind on the “now,” the mind is taught to focus and concentrate. Running in addition reduces mental fatigue, sharpens memory, and increases overall mental stamina. Runners, in effect, are found to have better problem-solving skills and tend to be more mentally alert than before.

6. Relieves depression
Running is found successful for curing clinical depression. The act of running, in accordance with therapists, serves as a psychotherapy, which gives the patients their own space to heal and connect with their selves better. In addition, they say this is a good distraction from all depressing things. Other than depression, medical doctors also find running an effective therapy for people who have other types of psychological disorders.

7. Enhances coordination
The coordination of mind and body is improved with daily running. Even if running with a flat, paved surface or on an uneven trail, the mind is trained to harmoniously work with the body to avoid stumbling and tripping over. Like the other psychological benefits of running, better mind-body coordination is important in daily activities.

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‘Metatarsalgia’ in Runners

Metatarsalgia is a bad term for a common problem in runners. It is a term that unfortunately gets used a lot but is quite a meaningless term and diagnosis. The term is like, for example, saying you have a sore knee. That sore knee could be due to any one of multiple different things. Metatarsalgia means pain in the metatarsals or forefoot, so it can be due to multiple different things. That is why the term is so meaningless.

The cause of the symptoms could be a callus of the skin under the ball of the foot; it could be a pinched nerve that causes shooting type pains; it could be a fat pad atrophy that causes problems with weight bearing; or it could be arthritis type symptoms inside the joints in the ball of the foot. Each of these potential reasons for metatarsalgia are very different to each other with different symptoms and different causes which just serves to illustrate just what a poor term it is to use.

Probably the most common cause for pain in the ball of the foot is a condition called a plantar plate tear. This is a strain of the ligament under the joints in the ball of the foot that can progress to a small tear. The pain is typically over the joint on the bottom of the foot and just distal to the joint. Usually it is the second metatarsophalangeal joint, but it can affect all or any of the joints. It is more common in those who exercise more. It starts as a mild ache that is often ignored, but it will progress unless there is a treatment started as it does not heal on its own.

Typically the treatment of a plantar plate tear is to use strapping to hold the toe in a plantarflexed or downward position to prevent it from bending up so the strain is given a rest. A rocker sole shoe or a shoe that is stiffer can also help do this. If this helps, it does tend to take a long time and patience is needed. If it does not help, then some plantar plate tears need a surgical treatment.

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Running For Losing Weight: Six Facts You Should Know

A result of the intense physical demands, running is known as an effective way in losing weight. And also to some individuals, losing weight is their primary cause of sticking to a running program. Nevertheless to properly shed pounds, it is important to learn a number of info about running to lose weight.

1. Running replaces body fats with muscle tissues. The latter, nevertheless, are more dense and also heavier than fats. Thus, a couple of weeks in your jogging workout, you will discover that you don’t drop pounds, you really gain weight. It’s okay. It only signifies that your running is working effectively. With continuous efforts, you can eventually lose the extra pounds.

2. Running is an excellent calorie-burner. Within a study, its reported that people who underwent an organized physical exercise burned 2,800 calories a week and dropped 30 pounds. On average, a 150-pound individual burns 100 calories per mile, in case a runner is committed to running five miles per day, he is able to lose more or less 500 calories every day, and 2,500 after five workouts per week. And that would mean a significant loss. Nevertheless take note that caloric expenditure differs depending on body weight. A 110-pound runner could lose 80 calories per mile; a 200-pound may burn 150. Also it is important to remember that as the weight falls, the level of calories to get rid of similarly drops.

3. Reducing your weight is all about burning much more calories than you take in. Consequently, there’s something to be said about observing your food intake. Do not forget that to lose a pound, you need to burn 3,600 calories, so keep away from foods that will give you higher calories than that. When you are on your running regimen, reduce coffee, alcohol, chocolates, fast foods, and junk foods. You should instead consume far more carbohydrates.

4. Running will work when done regularly. If you’re serious about losing weight, you should commit to a regular running schedule and stick to it. One thing you should remember: running several days every week works more effectively than one-day running, regardless of the length of time. Although daily running is perfect for losing weight, three or four days can meet the goal.

5. Extreme running, or running on a fast pace, is effective in weight reduction. It has always been considered that slow running ushers you in the fat-burning zone. In which, however, is negated by recent researches. In accordance with studies, intense running in truth uses up much more calories. But because it is likely to be more damaging, intense running is best done for shorter periods and should be scheduled, at the most, twice each week.

6. Running program needs to be changed to achieve the desired weight. You have to understand that the body gets used to the hard work overtime, becomes efficient, and thus uses up less calories. The body, in effect, stops reducing your weight. To achieve your desired weight, you must combine changes in your regimen every so often. Three steps you can take: run at a higher speed, increase the distance, or run for more periods. Keep in mind, running for losing weight can be a little tricky, but if you stay attuned to your body, it can become fairly manageable.

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Growth Plate Injuries in Kids Who Run

The growing bones in children are susceptible to injury if too much load gets applied to them too soon and the bones are not given time to adapt to loads. Generally at the ends of each bone are cartilage growth areas that growth occurs at. It is this softer cartilage area that is prone to damage. Problems with these growth plates tend to be more common in those who are more active or are heavier. All of these problems come right on there own when growth in the bone is completed and the cartilage growth area merges with the rest of the bone.

Osgood-Schlatter Disease:

This is the growth injury at the front and top of the tibia bone just below the knee cap. It occurs where the tendon from the knee cap insert into the tibia bone. The insertion area can become swollen, tender and a small hard lump can appear. It is usually very painful on activity and especially when climbing stairs. The treatment of Osgood-Schlatter Disease is usually with a reduction of activity to within pain levels and the use of ice after activity to help with the pain. Stretching and strengthening exercises are also often used.

Severs Disease:

This is an injury to a growth area at the back of the heel bone that is more appropriately named calcaneal apophysitis. The symptoms of Sever’s is pain at the back and sides of the heel bone, especially if you squeeze the bone from the sides. It is usually more painful after activity. The best way to deal with Severs disease is to reduce activity levels to tolerable levels, use ice after activity.

Kohlers Disease:

The is a damage to the growing navicular bone in the foot with the pain being typically felt on the top of the foot, just in front of the ankle joint. It commonly affects younger children. A typical sign of Kohler’s Disease is that on x-ray the bone is very thin. This is more serious than the other types of growth injuries and can have long term consequences, so these are typically placed in a walking cast to immobilize the foot.

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Should you change the way you run?

Gait retraining is a hot topic. this is about changing the way that you run. There are multiple theories and ideas and lots of disagreements about the topic. This discussion with James Dunne from PodChatLive is a good overview of the topic and issues:

Additionally this discussion with Izzy Moore looked at running economy, especially the energy costs of changing the running technique:

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How to fix plantar fasciitis

Heel pain is the most common musculoskeletal problem seen by podiatrists in runners. The most common cause of that heel pain is a condition known as plantar fasciitis. The problem with it being so common is that everyone is an expert on it and everyone has there own magic cure for it that they thing everyone should use. There is no shortage of advice for runners on how they should treat plantar fasciitis in social media, in eBooks, on YouTube and on forums. Every time you see a runner ask how to get rid of plantar fasciitis you get plenty of advice of what worked for them, therefore you should try it. However, for each recommendation of a particular treatment that gets given, there is another runner says that it did not work for them. Many of the treatments that you see recommended can not possibly work, but those runners swear by it.

So what exactly is plantar fasciitis? The plantar fascia is a very strong ligament that runs across the bottom of the foot connecting the heel bone to the ball of the foot. From the location of this ligament it should be obvious that its role or function is to support the arch of the foot. This means that anything that puts too much pressure on the arch of the foot is going to predispose the plantar fascia to injury. The factors that increase that load include the amount of running you do, your body weight and how tight the calf muscles are. They all put pressure on the arch of the foot and put increased strain on the plantar fascia.

The classic symptoms of plantar fasciitis is pain under the heel and first few steps pain when getting up from rest, especially out of bed in the morning. If you have that, then there is a pretty good chance that you have plantar fasciitis. Other conditions can cause similar symptoms, but are much less common.

How should plantar fasciitis be treated? The best way to reduce the load in the plantar fascia. You do that by reducing your running volume down to a level that can be tolerated. You stretch the calf muscles to reduce there impact on stressing the arch of the foot. And you use foot supports to hold up the arch so that the ligament does not have to work so hard. That’s it. Once it starts to improve, you then gradually and slowly increase the running distances and intensity.

There are many other treatments advocated for plantar fasciitis. A lot of them do help, but they help by reducing the pain and inflammation, which can be important. However, the key is to reduce the load by the methods mentioned above.

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Tips for Running: A Guide for Beginners

Have you decided running regularly like a form of practical workout on your weight loss or physical training activity? You are with the right track. Running is definitely a great and practical activity that can provide your body with an ideal cardiovascular or aerobic exercise. Running forces you to sweat profusely, a sign of which your body is metabolizing faster as well as burning up extreme stored fats. But you shouldn’t just run. You need to do it right and do it correctly. Should you be beginner, here are some useful tips to serve as your guide.

First tip: It is the best time to start running. Running as well as other physical exercises are great for your body whatever your age is. Routine physical exercises could provide perfect benefits: you would have more energy; the chances of developing a heart ailment would be reduced; you can sleep better and get more relaxation; and you would be able to lose weight. It would never be too late to start out running.

Second tip: Speak to your doctor. Before starting running as well as other exercise programs, it may be proper to drop by your doctor’s clinic. Try to do so more especially if you are suffering from heart related illnesses, unhealthy weight, difficulty in breathing, as well as chronic fatigue. Your physician may advise you on how to get proper pacing and could guide you about how long you should keep running per session. It is not safe to overdo running.

Third tip: Start out with a simple running or walking program. It’s not far better to start on a high level. Humbly begin at low-levels. You may run or walk shorter distances any time beginning the running program. You may even opt to run at least once a week initially. As you go on, you could slowly increase the distance, the duration, as well as the weekly frequency. Observe that as you go on with your regular running physical exercise, your body could take greater distances and also endure longer sessions. You are maximizing your body’s resistance.

Fourth tip: Monitor your pulse rate. Running and other workout routines when done efficiently could help the heart beat less. This is because the heart is properly trained. When the heart beats slower specifically during your relaxed hours (like bedtime or after waking up in the morning) it indicates the heart is successfully pumping a lot more blood throughout the body in every beat. Perform a simple test. Get your heart beat for each minute everyday, soon after you wake up in the morning. In case your pulse rate is higher today as compared to yesterday, it implies you are overdoing your exercise. Continue your running program once your heart beat normalizes.

And finally, listen to your own body. Soon after running, it is normal to feel exhausted. There may also be tolerable muscle pains. Be alert whenever you feel dizzy or experience chest pains after the activity. In which may mean you have overdone that and you have reached or exceeded your threshold. When such undesirable feelings happen, cut back on the training load and immediately seek the opinion to your doctor.

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The Numerous Benefits Of Running

For most people, running is strenuous, boring, and frequently painful. Even so, you see today a lot of people running just like their lives depended on it. (This is actually true to a point.)

There are many reasons why people participate themselves inside running nowadays. Foremost this is to stay in shape or to obtain their ideal body weight. Research has revealed that the potent combination of appropriate diet and also the right exercises are the most effective technique in reducing your weight.

Weight loss

For all its boring features, running is really effective in allowing a person to shed an average of 100 calories for each run mile. Biking and also walking, on the other hand, only burn a small fraction of these calories on the same amount of time.

While we burn around 2000 to 5000 calories each day doing nothing, running 5 miles each day burns an additional 500 calories.

The velocity in running has little or no effects on the number of calories expended. Rather, it is weight that counts. A 220-pound person running an 8-minute mile burns 150 calories. An individual weighing 120 pounds running the same pace uses up a measly 82 calories.

Understand that a person needs an excess of 3500 calories to be able to gain a pound. Which means you should burn that much number of calories as a way to lose a single pound.

Overall health

Another motivation of which drives runners is the health benefits they get. Running helps reduce blood pressure levels by maintaining the elasticity on the arteries. Within a run, the arteries get exercised as well, that with all the blood moving about.

Running also maximizes the lung’s potential, keeping it strong and powerful. Deep breaths force the lungs to apply more tissues, but half of both are unused. Running helps to make the lungs use the majority of its tissues.

Running also strengthens the heart and helps prevent heart attacks. In a run, the heart muscles are exercised, thus keeping this fit and also strong by itself.

The heart of an inactive person beats 36,000 more times every day compared to that of a runner. The reason is simple – the runner’s arteries are wider and blood flows smoother.

Endorphins

Nearly all runners keep this secret to themselves: running will give an intense exhilaration and euphoria just after a run. And they’re addicted to the feeling and that inspires them the most.

Science had already found out the nature of this natural high: beta endorphins. They’re released by the body’s neurons meant to reduce the pain following a run. It generates a sense of extreme happiness as well as exhilaration and can be so intense it often can replace other addictions to drugs, alcohol, including appetite for food.

Natural tranquilizer

Theres a trend for doctors now to recommend for their patients suffering from clinical depression as well as other psychological disorders to try running. That is based on studies that show running as a natural tranquilizer. Patients are considered to be less tense, less confused, less depressed, and less fatigued.

Whichever your reasons for running are, it is a safe bet that it’s one of the better natural disease-fighters man had discovered. What’s more, it’s cost-free and it’s delirious as well.

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The Right Start: Running Strategies For Beginners

Running is definitely an enjoyable, low-maintenance sport that it is no surprise most are enticed to get involved with it. Quite a few beginning sportsmen, however, initially find running somewhat dangerous and also exhausting and thus give up. Fact is, it can be, particularly if the beginner runners have not been properly educated. To get the most out of running, it is vital that every beginning sprinter knows everything with regards to the sport and is prepared enough for it. Following are a few running tips for beginners that will make an otherwise rigorous sport towards a satisfying activity.

1. Consult with your personal doctor. Keep in mind that running is an intense exercise and requires a great deal of your strength. Thus, it is advisable to ask your doctor if your body is up with the challenge. A family doctor may consider your age, weight, fitness level, and special conditions (breathing or heart problems) to derive a sound decision. Getting appropriate details on your body will also help you in choosing a running program.

2. Set attainable goals. Do you wish to reduce weight? Or reduce your cholesterol level? Or join a marathon perhaps? Whichever your goals are, make sure to see them through. To keep you encouraged, it is beneficial to have a timeframe. In the event the goal, however, is not met with the appointed time, it’s okay. Don’t worry, but continue to try focusing on it. The real key here is to avoid stressing yourself for a goal your body just isn’t ready for.

3. Have a running program. Three things you will need to take into account in selecting a running program: age, level of fitness, and goals. These three can determine the distance you can handle. You must realize, however, that as a beginning runner, you are not expected to run a mile. In truth, you won’t do much running at first. Especially if you are inexperienced, running a distance could make you an easy target for injuries. Run/walk program, which includes alternate walking and also running for a particular time, is great for beginners. As you progress week by week, you can improve the time for running and decrease the time for walking.

4. Generate a running log. Explaining all the basic info on your run, a running log gives as a record of your progress. You can write the sort of workout throughout the day, time, and distance. As an example, Day 1, you did a tempo run for 20 minutes, 3 kilometers. Day 2, you had long run for 45 minutes, 8 kilometers. If you want your log to be more detailed, you may also record your weight along with pulse rate.

5. Check out your pace. This is probably the most essential among the running techniques for beginners. This is because many beginning runners harm themselves by breaking into fast running too early. As a beginning runner, your main goal is not speed, however increasing your running time. Maintain your running at a pace that permits you to keep a conversation; anything more than that is not advisable. When you go for slow, easy running, you’re truly building your stamina, that can eventually enable you to run faster and longer distances.