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There are a thousand and one ways to exercise and get fit. Some people believe running is the ideal fitness solution for everybody. Even if you don’t subscribe to this idea, you should keep the many potential benefits of running in mind. As you’ll see below, running can be an excellent contributor to a larger overall plan for fitness.

The Benefits Of Running Regularly

Running is a terrific form of exercise, and a lot of people find that it meets all of their fitness needs. Running provides plenty of high-intensity aerobic activity, and this is ideal for burning fat and building stamina. Regular running also improves cardiovascular health and the overall strength of a person’s immune system. Of course, given the focus of this article, running should be considered as a part of a more wide-reaching exercise program. It’s the stamina improvements that make running truly attractive to people who are already exercising in other ways.

How Running Synergizes With Other Exercise

By running regularly, you improve the bodies capacity to endure rigorous activity over sustained periods. This makes you better equipped to cope with the most challenging physical exertions, and it can be extremely valuable in a whole host of sports and exercises. If you’re focused primarily on primarily on bodybuilding, for example, running will give you the stamina to handle longer, harder weightlifting sessions. It will also improve the definition of your leg muscles, one sore point that gives a lot of bodybuilders trouble! For people who want to concentrate on maintaining a healthy weight and an attractive appearance, running is a great baseline process that burns up energy and prevents the appearance of unsightly flab.

How To Start Running Productively

Incorporating running into your existing workout routine is very easy. Clearing a few hours to run at regular points in your schedule might be the most challenging part of the process! As you might imagine, you need a pair of reliable running shoes. Don’t feel compelled to spend a lot of money on exotic shock-absorbing padding or weird specialty shoes like barefoot split-toed runners. For basic running, the most important things are comfort, support, and a great fit. Remember that your feet will expand as you run, so you want to avoid shoes that are too tight. Dedicated runners prefer to exercise on a track, since it makes it easy for them to monitor pace and distance. If running is only part of your fitness strategy, you’ll probably find it more interesting and fun to run in public, though. With a good pair of shoes between you and the street, you’re more than ready to start exploring the benefits running can deliver!

Get inspired, start adding some running to your fitness routine and watch your mental and physical wellbeing improve together.

The Western world in particular is full of celebrity fascination and envy, something which I don’t think is particularly  healthy. Especially when it filters down to those lowest level magazines and newspapers that thrive on dirt and gossip.

However, it can be a very healthy thing when we choose good role models for the right reasons. I’m not talking about idolising celebrities but simple positive role models that make us all aspire to be better people. It can also help to actively look for a role model when we want to achieve a particular thing. Want to lose weight in a healthy manner? Why pay any attention to celebrities known for selling fad diets or with weight problems of their own yet to conquer. Seek out those who have achieved what you want to achieve in the way you want to achieve it.

One celebrity I personally admire is Michael Jai White. A lot of you won’t know his name. But he has been in various movies and TV shows including The Dark Knight, Blood and Bone, Spawn and Arrow. That’s not why I admire him though – I admire Michael Jai White for his fitness, workout routines, dedication and martial arts skills (7 different black belts!). Those are just some of the things I personally identify with, admire him for, and aspire to.

It clearly therefore makes sense for me to take an interest in his career, to read what he writes, to watch interviews with him and understand how he achieved what he has so far. It wouldn’t make much sense for me to go out and buy an ‘Ab Circle Pro’, or whatever the latest crazy infomercial fitness device is, just because the person paid to appear in the advert says that it’s the best solution. No, if I want to achieve certain health or workout goals, I’ll find someone who has genuinely achieved those goals who I can trust – then find out how they got to where they are.

Encourage your kids to question the values of the celebrities they look up to (far more effective than telling them who not to like!), and to use exercise in their own lives to feel good – it’s a powerful tool.

Role models are powerful tools – use them for good.

One of the best ways to heal your mind naturally is through exercise. There’s a reason some people become almost addicted to running or going to the gym – it’s simply because it makes you feel good.

There’s a few of reasons for that – firstly, there’s that feeling of doing something, taking action. That alone instantly makes you feel better. Then there’s the action of actually doing it, because your body produces endorphins when you exercise – that’s the natural ‘happy drug’ – so you genuinely do feel good when you exercise. Finally, there’s the results you see and feel as you exercise regularly. You may notice that you lose some weight you didn’t like having, or that you feel more energy or just fitter.

Put all those things together and it’s not surprising that your mental health can benefit greatly from exercise.

It doesn’t have to be running, it doesn’t have to be boring. It can be whatever you want, from simple walking in the countryside (nature boosts those happy feelings even further) right through to building muscle at the gym. There are fun ways to get your cardio as well as boring ones – it’s just up to you to choose what works for you.

Personally I do actually like going to the gym. I find lifting weights gives me much greater beneficial feelings, both physically and mentally, than cardio-vascular exercise. I do both however for general health. I’m one of those people though that needs a program, a system to follow, and a friend of mine recommended the Adonis Golden Ratio training system as being comprehensive but still easy to follow (see Twitter too). They were right, it dispells a lot of the myths around gym workouts, nutrition and muscle/strength improvements. This is one area of where there are a lot of opinions from passionate gym enthusiasts so it’s nice to get a clear training program so I can ignore all the ‘noise’.

Next time you are feeling a little blue, sluggish or just being down on yourself, get out of the house and go for a run (or walk) or hit the gym. You won’t feel like it to start with, but you will feel a thousand times better by the end of it. Knowing that can be half the battle won of getting out of the door to start with.

It’s a victory every time you manage to resist… that’s me anyway.

Celebrate every little daily victory in  life.

Much of that which troubles us emanates from the past. Our past. Others impact on that past, but ultimately it is our past to own and our own past to heal.

You can heal your past too. It takes work, it isn’t easy, and you do often need to go deep within yourself to start achieving that healing process. But the benefits for your health – both mental and physical – and for those around you as you start to become an even better version of you, can be quite astounding.

Everybody is of course different however. The time it takes to begin the healing process varies enormously. The time is takes to complete it is, well, open ended. It’s a job that is never truly complete. Just as were ourselves are never truly complete. Each day we live we learn and develop. We have a choice to remain the same, or become a better version of ourselves. But for the health of ourselves, our loved ones and that of the planet I strongly recommend you choose the latter option too.

Love and light,

Marcel.