The weather is prime, your shoes are comfortable, and you've just had the perfect breakfast. Time for a run! Running, as you probably know, is both fantastic cardiovascular exercise and can boost your immune system. It's also an anti-stressor, a mood-lifter, and can help you sleep better at night. So, to celebrate running, here are 10 awesome facts about it.
10 Awesome Facts About Running & Injury Prevention
- Makes Your Heart More Efficient - Running conditions your heart to pump more strongly and efficiently, making better use of the oxygen in your blood with each heartbeat.1
- Marathon Running at an All-Time High - In this last year (2014), more than 1,100 marathons were run across the nation with a grand total of 541,000 finishers—an all-time high.2
- Air Resistance Burns More Energy - Running outdoors at the same pace as on the treadmill burns more energy, purely due to air resistance!3
- The Olympic Marathon Born - The modern Olympic marathon is inspired by the myth of the professional messenger Pheidippides who ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver a message of victory: Greeks over Persians. Alas, on delivery he dropped dead. Robert Browning retold this mythic tale in a poem inspiring today's competitive race.4
- Top Marathon Winners' Common Characteristic - As found on Runner's World, the dominant ethnic heritage of today's fastest marathon runners is Kenyan: 11 of the top 20 men and women racers are Kenyan. The fastest performance to date happened in Berlin in 2014 by Kenyan Dennis Kimetto.5
- Most Common Running Injuries - The most common injuries runner's experience are runner's knee, stress fractures, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, muscle pull, ankle sprains, and plantar fasciitis.
- Best Injury Prevention Strategies - The best prevention strategies for running injuries always include "a strong body, good form, and the right shoe."6
- How High Is Your Arch? - Your foot arch affects your running stride. High arches and flat arches can determine how your body absorbs the shock of impact from running. Consult with a shoe specialist or podiatrist to determine if you have the right shoes for your foot arch.
- Best Physical Therapy Treatment - Physical therapy treatment for running injuries includes massage, strengthening muscles, and giving yourself rest time—don't stint on the rest time!
- Running for the High! - The runner's high is not a myth! Runner's high describes the feeling of euphoria or release of anxiety you can experience while running.7
Whether you are good, bad, or middling at running, the benefits still apply. And even if marathons aren't quite your thing, 5K's are for everyone! So enjoy your ability to run. And if you have questions, our Runner's Clinic is here for you offering evaluations of running form, injury treatment, and workshops teaching techniques for healthy running.
Learn more about services in our Runner's Clinic and take your running form to the next level!
1Medicine.net http://www.medicinenet.com/running/page3.htm
2Running USA http://www.runningusa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&ArticleId=332
3Medicine.net http://www.medicinenet.com/running/page4.htm
4Association of International Marathons & Distance Races http://www.aimsworldrunning.org/marathon_history.htm
5Runner's World http://www.runnersworld.com/races/the-worlds-fastest-marathons-and-marathoners
6Runner's World http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/how-to-prevent-common-running-injuries
7WebMD http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/runners-high-is-it-for-real