A recent newspaper article questioned the benefits of running. It’s important to note that the article quoted the opinion of one person, and there weren’t any scientific studies quoted to support the claims that were made.
At
Women’s Running magazine, we have experienced the many benefits of running personally – we know it’s one of the best methods of burning fat and losing weight. (Just ask our editor who has lost over 20lbs of body fat since she began training for two half marathons!)
However, we also appreciate that it’s important to support our claims with evidence from published studies and quotes from experts who have the knowledge and the experience to support their views. So we asked Dr Ian Rollo, the principle science advisor for Gatorade Sports Science Institute in the UK and the Netherlands, for his views on the benefits of running.
Dr Rollo earned his bachelors degree from Birmingham University in sport and exercise science and masters degree from Loughborough University in exercise physiology. In 2009 he received a Ph.D from Loughborough University where he worked with Professor Clyde Williams, recognised internationally as an authority in nutrition and exercise science.
In 2005 he worked at the world famous August Krough Institute, Denmark, assisting in studies on mechanisms of fatigue during high intensity exercise and optimising nutritional strategies in football.
Here’s how Dr Rollo has addressed the negative claims made about running:
The negative claim:
‘Running decreases the size of your heart’‘Small muscles use less energy and are more efficient. The heart is a muscle and if you force it to keep working for long periods of time it will naturally shrink to use less energy and become more efficient.’Dr Rollo says:
‘As a training adaptation, especially to endurance exercise, the heart will increase in size. This is known as “cardiac hypertrophy”. The heart increases in size as a result of an increase in the chamber volume of the left ventricle and thickening of the ventricular walls. This adaptation increases the heart’s ability to receive and pump oxygenated blood to the working muscles. The heart is therefore more efficient. This is why people who regularly participate in physical activity have a lower resting heart rate (beats / minute) than their sedentary counterparts.’ The negative claim:
‘Running causes injury through repetitive movement’.‘When you run, two and a half times your bodyweight is transmitted through your joints. If that force is repeated over and over, eventually your weakest joint will give out. Usually the ankles or the knees are the first to go.’Dr Rollo says:
‘It has been suggested that the human body has evolved over millions of years to be specifically suited to cover long distances by foot. In fact human anatomy, biochemistry and muscle function may all have been selected for endurance running. Of course, when embarking on a new exercise programme people should be encouraged to gradually increase the duration and intensities of their runs. The muscle and connective tissue around joints will adapt to the training stimulus. In addition, it is important to note that for obese or overweight individuals, regular physical exercise, in combination with a healthy, balanced diet will reduce body mass. Therefore, the overall load placed on the joints of the body will be reduced on a daily basis.’The negative claim:
‘Running can do the opposite to speeding up your metabolism. Long-distance running will often deplete your energy stores and then start breaking down your muscle tissue to use as energy.’Dr Rollo says:
‘The primary fuels used during running are carbohydrate and fat. The relative contribution of fat and carbohydrate to provide energy will depend upon the intensity and duration of the run as well as the training status of the individual. In fact, trained runners use more fat at the same exercise intensity in comparison to untrained individuals. Long distance running will deplete your body’s stores of carbohydrate and fat. Although it is important to note that these stores are plentiful. For example, the average person has enough carbohydrate to exercise at a moderate intensity for 90 minutes. When exercise is an hour or more then drink a well-formulated sports drink such as Gatorade. Ingesting a sports drink will help maintain blood glucose concentrations and supply carbohydrate to the working muscles.’ The negative claim:
‘Running can cause your body to gain fat.’‘Fat is one of the body’s favourite sources of energy. The more you run, the more your body prepares itself for your next run. You will actually start to hold onto more fat. The more time you spend running, the better you become at running and the more efficient you get, the less energy you use and the fewer calories you burn.’Dr Rollo says:
‘Endurance trained runners actually use more fat during running than untrained individuals. It is true the more you run the more efficient you will become. However, this simply allows the runner to exercise at higher exercise intensities or continue exercising for longer. Therefore overall energy expenditure or calories burned will increase.’ Gatorade Sport Science Institute helps athletes optimise their performance and safeguard their health through research and education in hydration and sports nutrition science. For more information, visit the Gatorade Sports Science Institute website www.gssiweb.org.
And here’s the research!
5 very good reasons to run
Heart HealthRegular running – 30 minutes, five times a week – can extend your life by up to three and a half years, shows an international research study for the American Medical Association. Professor James Fries of Stanford University, California, looked at runners’ heart health over a period of 20 years and found older runners were at less risk of heart disease than their peers. ‘If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise,’ he says. But you don’t have to be fit already to take up running – almost anyone can run, as long as you start slowly, build up gradually and do it regularly, advises the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Emotional wellbeingMIND, the mental health charity recommends running as a useful and cheap way to beat depression and a study in Psychosomatic Medicine showed regular exercise worked as well as medication in lifting depression.
Anti-ageingResearchers at King’s College London have found running may protect against the ageing process by preserving the length of telomeres (structures at the end of chromosomes that carry genes). Telomeres usually shorten, as you grow older, and are considered a biological indicator of ageing.
PreventionAn 11-year study of 32,000 women published in Breast Cancer Research found women who run produce a less potent form of oestrogen than their sedentary counterparts, reducing their risk of breast cancer by a third.
Lower cholesterolRunning increases the levels of HDL cholesterol (the ‘good’ kind) in your body according to the National Runners’ Health Study.
