Running is one of the most accessible and beneficial exercises offering tremendous health benefits. Often people consider that running only helps to strengthen legs and build stamina. Actually, running has positive effects on all parts of the body, and your arms are not an exception. So, how does running tone your arms?
The most important effect of running is that it helps burn body fat. Running requires burning a lot of energy that mostly comes from torching fat. Running with the proper form, along with adopting a clean diet, builds muscles, toning your body, including your arms, legs, and waistline.
Read on to find out all the positive effects that running brings to your overall body and how to get started on your running journey. You might also enjoy reading: 12 Best Tips To Love Running And Stick to It.
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Benefits of Regular Running
Running is one of the easiest and cheapest forms of exercise that has many health benefits. Here are some benefits of regular running.
1- Regularly Running Helps Build Body Endurance
One of the most important things that regular running adds to the body is stamina. As you know, running burns body calories which means it’s a tough workout. Most people start running to build their stamina by building body endurance.
You can build your body’s stamina and endurance through regular running. Studies showed that no matter if you run slow or fast, it will be beneficial for your whole body.
In addition to helping you torch calories, running enhances your cardiorespiratory function by developing your capacity to complete your workouts, helps you build muscular endurance, and increases your performance.
See also: 17 Health Benefits of Running In The Morning Based On Science.
2- Regularly Running Can Help Lower Your Risk of Disease
Adding running to your lifestyle can be a very beneficial thing to you as it will help to regulate your blood pressure. In turn, you will lower the chances of many diseases like those related to cardiac issues.
You don’t need to run regularly to reap the benefits of running. According to a meta-analysis issued in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, even casually running can help lower the risk of mortality by 27%.
The researchers discovered that running as little as once a week, or 50 minutes per week, significantly lowered runners’ risk of death.
3- Running Can Help Build Bones Strength
When you run, your bones are those parts of your body that will have to work the most, imparting great pressure on them and building their stiffness.
Also, running is a weight-bearing exercise that will add to the health of your bones as you’ll get healthier bones with running. In addition, running doesn’t let aging affect your bones and joints, which is great news for athletes.
Running, brisk walking, jumping, strength training, and other weight-bearing workouts stimulate your bones and make them stronger, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
4- Running Helps With Weight Loss
Those who are worried about their increasing weight can reduce their weight by running. When you run, you burn calories in your body, which will help you reduce the extra body fat. Your body and skin texture will become very sleek and slim. Moreover, one can enhance his hunger by running.
Running is an excellent and the cheapest form of physical activity for weight loss. It burns many calories and may help you continue to burn calories even long after you complete your run.
In addition, running may help suppress appetite; adopt a healthy diet, which will help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight.
When you run, your body will need some extra calories to do this, needing extra food to complete the running exercise.
See also: Benefits of Running 5km Everyday (It isn’t what most people expect!)
5- Running Keeps Your legs Stronger
As we discussed earlier, running imparts great pressure on the bones of your body. When you are having a tough time, your bones and muscles become rigid, which adds to their stiffness. If you run on a variety of surfaces, it will be more beneficial for your legs than running on a plain surface.
Running is an excellent way to build leg strength. But, your legs become habituated to the motion and ultimately hit a plateau over time, which could also limit your performance. Here are a few tips to improve your leg strength, leading to longer and more productive sessions, according to Duke University.
6- Running Regularly Improves Sleep Cycle
Running impulses fatigue in the body, which is very beneficial for those who suffer from sleeping disorders. One will sleep well when he’s tired of working out. This is another benefit of regular running.
According to several studies and sleep experts from Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep, exercise, including running, can help you fall asleep faster and improve sleep quality.
Combining running with yoga, including Yoga Nidra, will help you stay in shape and improve the quality of your sleep.
7- Tones Your Arms and Shoulders
If you’re worried about the slimness of your arms and shoulders, running can resolve this issue. When you work out, you burn fat from your body. Swinging of arms during running will help reduce the extra fat from them. So, you will get slim arms.
Including cardio in your workout routine is essential to help you lose arm fat. Both light and moderate aerobics help improve body composition in obese/overweight women found a study.
Examples of effective activities that can help you tone your arms and shoulders include:
8- Running Improves Mental Health and Mood
Try to run outside where you’re in connection with natural beauty. This will improve your mental health. When your mental health is okay, your overall mood will also be okay. This will make you look impressive and appealing.
You might have already experienced “runner’s high” if you are a runner, which is a relaxing feeling after a good run.
See also: Best Ways To Start Endurance Training For Beginners.
9- Running, Even 5 to 10 Minutes Daily at Slow Speeds, Can Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk.
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published a study that looked at more than 55,000 runners ages 18 to 100 years and discovered that running, even 5 to 10 minutes daily at slow speeds (less than 6 miles per hour (mph) showed a substantial reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.
How To Improve Your Leg Strength With Running?
Here are some excellent tips to help you improve your leg strength, which can lead to longer and more productive sessions, according to Duke University:
- Try running at different places: If you find yourself frequently running at the same track or trail, find a new place and go to an area with hills since they are a remarkable way to build leg strength and add extra intensity to your runs.
- Try To Cross Train: Cross-training is an excellent way to improve your run and overall fitness.
- Combining running with strength training and other forms of aerobic exercise, including swimming, biking, and martial arts can add variety to your workout and significantly improve your performance.
- Also, adding sports like soccer is great for improving leg power.
- Add Resistance Training To Your Routine: Free weights or weight machines are a great way to strengthen your leg.
- Squats workout works almost all of the muscles in your lower body and is an excellent way to build leg strength.
- Lunges are also a great way to improve strength and stability in your legs.
- Leg Curls work the back part of your legs, the hamstring muscle group, which is especially essential for runners because strengthening the hamstrings will restore balance to your leg musculature and aid in preventing running injuries.
What Parts Of The Body Do Running Tone?
Running has positive effects on almost all body parts. Here are some of the major parts of our body that such an exercise will tone.
- Legs
- Arms
- Shoulders
- Hips
- Glutes
- Helps Abs muscle building
- Calved
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Belly
Can Running Workout Your Arms?
Running tones our arms as these work out during such an exercise. Running needs constant swinging of arms. When your arms swing, deltoid muscles and triceps work constantly. In this way, your arms will also work out constantly.
Moreover, running burns more calories at the cost of arm’s calories which helps burn extra fat from the arms. This also turns them slimmer and smarter.
See also: Is Cycling or Walking Better For Toning Thighs?
Will Running 2 Miles a Day Tone My Body?
Running 2 miles a day will undoubtedly tone your body, but you will need some weight training and combine running with healthy eating.
- Don’t jump right into running every day if you’re a beginner runner. Instead, focusing on your nutrition will be the most critical factor, eating quality, nutritious food consistently and in the right amounts.
- In addition, take rest days for your body to recover and reduce the risk of injury. 2 miles is a fair distance to be covered by running. However, beginners can’t cover this distance in a single go. So, as a beginner, start from a short distance and try to build your stamina through constant running.
- When you think that you have built enough stamina to cover 2 miles, go for that. Regular running for 2 miles, accompanied by a proper diet, will tone your body by turning it smarter and slimmer.
How to Get Started
With the bare minimum, you can get started with running. All you need are the following:
- Good running shoes.
- Comfortable top.
- Water bottle.
- Running shorts.
- Comfortable pants.
- Wear reflective gear if you run late at night or during early hours.
- Wear a sports bra if you are female to reduce pain while running.
Here Are a Few Fundamentals You Need To Follow Before You Start Running:
- How often should you run? To begin, aim for 3 to 4 days of running weekly to allow yourself adequate recovery time between workouts.
- Warm up before every run; it is essential to warm up and stretch to prepare your body for the run.
- Begin by stretching
- Walk leisurely for about 5 minutes.
- Then, slowly progress to a brisk walk.
- Give time for your body to cool down: At the end of your run, make sure to cool down with 5 minutes of walking, gradually decreasing the speed as you go.
- Aim to run for about 30 minutes in total: Aim for around 30 minutes total, including 5 minutes for a warm-up, 5 minutes for a cool down, and 20 minutes alternating between running and walking.
See also: Best Tips For Becoming a Morning Runner (Including proven tips to create a habit that sticks).
Final Thoughts
Running is a very unique and beneficial exercise that tones almost all parts of our body. When we run, our arms work out by regularly swinging.
Moreover, swinging burns the extra fat from our arms and shoulders, which turns them smarter and more beautiful. Therefore, regular running can tone our arms if we start a proper diet with this kind of exercise.
