Recently, I've seen a lot of clips about jogging. Perhaps jogging is about to become a national sport. However, there are many videos and articles about "running changes life" and "running brings success". This makes me wonder if running really changes my life?
With the experience of a sports lover who has practiced many sports such as climbing walls, going through back gates, stealing fruit, speed racing with ferocious dogs, chasing buses, I would like to share a few. Advantages of jogging:
- Easy to do, doesn't require too much technique. Jogging is very simple, you just need to put on your shoes and we can run, even barefoot if we can't afford to buy a pair of Thuong Dinh bata shoes for 50k.
- Improve physical health. Especially for people who are less active in sports and sit in an office environment a lot. This improvement in physical health includes many other "side" effects such as: Increased flexibility of muscles, bones, joints, and cardiovascular system. Reduce excess fat in the body, eliminate toxins when we sweat a lot, especially reduce the rate of hemorrhoids for those who put their butts on chairs more than relax...
- Improve mental health. Running will help us relieve stress. In addition to the amount of hormones secreted during sports activities, it is also tiring and sticking out the tongue so there is no time to think about stressful things in life. Running will also help us train our will and overcome ourselves every day.
As you know above, I am a sports enthusiast. Since I was a child, I have almost always played at least one sport such as soccer, badminton, table tennis, etc. There are also times when I wake up early in the morning and go jogging.
Currently, I go to the gym every day and after exercising, I will jog about 2.3 km at the end of the workout to train endurance, burn fat and sweat (I don't know why I sweat very little when I go to the gym. When I run, I sweat a lot - probably because the sweat is so thick that it can't escape. huhu). There will be one gym session during the week where I will do cardio, just jog and do the kayaking machine to rest my muscles and increase my endurance.
Every week I have another soccer game in the evening with the team.
I completely agree with all "four points" about the benefits of running, but I feel very allergic when I see information that "sanctifies" running, such as success through running, changing lives through running. jog, jog to be successful,... causing many people to mistakenly think that you have to jog to be successful, or that the longer you run, the more successful you will be...
This is like saying that tofu must have shrimp paste, but actually tofu eaten with oregano is still delicious. Many people cannot eat shrimp paste and eating tofu with fish sauce is still delicious. And shrimp paste not only has delicious dipping tofu but also dog meat, for example.
If running is change, success, and wealth, then perhaps Usain Bolt, or endurance and marathon runners, would be the most successful people in the world.
On the other hand, the benefits that running brings are almost all found in other sports. If we consider the depth and breadth of the benefits it brings, running is probably not as good as football - because football, in addition to running, is also about the dexterity of the feet, agility, hacking the opponent's brain, assertiveness when making decisions, tactical thinking, teamwork, antagonism, joy when creating and scoring goals,... almost train every part of the body.
If in table tennis, it is also about training skillful hands, quick reflexes,...
And many other sports such as tennis, swimming, zumba, aerobics,...
What I don't like about just jogging and running marathons (endurance and long running) is that it makes our bodies too fragile with flat breasts and hips. I always find my body more attractive with a fit body shape (if you run sprints, you will develop more muscle than if you run marathon-style).
Jogging is not only new in recent times, but has been around since before humans were born. But recently it has blossomed for the following reasons:
- The advent of smart devices such as smart watches and smart bracelets makes it easy for people to measure and "show off" their results and evidence of their distances and laps on networks. society. If one person sees results, the other will run more actively to show higher results. While other combat sports will find it difficult to show such results.
- Companies selling smart bracelets, smart watches, running shoes, and running gear pour more money into media to get more people to run and buy their equipment.
- Organizations and banks also follow the trend of including running tournaments, goals, and rewards for running in programs for employees, so they are expanding this movement even more strongly.
I think this is great, everyone's sports movement will be stronger and better for their health.
But people are also more alert when receiving information from "running fanatics" who exaggerate the benefits of running.
I once read an article on Medium of a female friend who started jogging to improve her health and figure, guided by a friend who specializes in jogging. After a long time of persistent jogging regardless of sun or rain, your health gradually deteriorates, your knees hurt and you are always tired.
The body is shriveled, the buttocks, breasts, and thighs are still tiny, only the calves are bigger, looking very lifeless and unattractive. So he decided to quit running and switch to weight training. Compared to the photo he took while jogging, it's much more attractive (I didn't bookmark it so I couldn't find this article again to send the link for everyone to refer to).
Running, like other sports, is for exercise and entertainment. Each person has a different ability and physical condition. I think we should not pursue crazy pursuits just to post the achievements of running 15-20 km or half marathon or marathon on social networks, then overexertion leads to problems. injury, health damage, the opposite effect of what we initially wanted.
I think we should diversify muscle groups so our bodies will develop evenly and have better health. For example, you jog to the park a few times and then do a few push-ups, swings, and abdominal crunches. Thus, all parts of the body develop more evenly and beautifully instead of just jogging long distances.
Even when jogging, having intervals where you sprint, rest, and sprint will also bring about better muscle development.
Jogging can change our health for the better, but daily jogging is just one of many good habits. Just running can't change your life, and not running doesn't mean you won't be successful, so hopefully you can choose the right sport for yourself and build many good habits for yourself. !