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Endurance training offers plenty of benefits for your mind and body. You’ll build up both muscular endurance and cardiovascular endurance, leading to better fitness and health overall. And you’ll feel a great sense of accomplishment too – because let’s face it, endurance training isn’t easy! It takes a lot of mental toughness to keep going when the going gets tough. But that’s exactly what you’ll learn from endurance training: how to push through the pain and reach your goals. This can be applied to other areas of your life, making you more successful in everything you do. Not to mention, you’ll also develop strong bonds with other people who are going through the same thing as you.

The Many Benefits of Endurance Training:

Feeling of Accomplishment

When you make it through a tough training session or do something that not many other people can do, you feel an overwhelming sense of achievement. It’s tough, and at times you will want to give up, but this feeling will make you want to do it all over again. The sense of achievement you feel is unlike any other, and it’s what keeps you going when the going gets tough.

Improves Mental Strength

Your mind will tell you to quit a thousand times before your body ever does. It’s character building to be able to say I want to quit, but I won’t. Pushing through the pain can make you a very hard person to beat in all other areas of your life, too. You’ll develop an incredible will to succeed, whether that’s winning or simply finishing.

Great For Your Health

Your health should always be your number one priority, and endurance training is a great way to stay healthy. By completing endurance training, you will be putting yourself very high on the health charts. This means that you will have a lower chance of developing illnesses and a longer life expectancy. Your cardiovascular system will be in excellent shape, which will have a positive impact on your day-to-day life. Exercise improves the overall physical performance of your body in sports, everyday work, normal routines, as well as offering the advantage of aesthetics. As you continue to train, your muscle mass will increase, and you will notice significant improvement in your balance and coordination. Not to mention, you will feel the obvious anti-aging effects of endurance training.

You Won’t Be Taking It Easy

If you’re competing in endurance events, you’ll have fewer people to beat than other sports because the process weeds out the weak. The commitment to training for such an event will discourage many others from even attempting it. But that’s what makes you special – your dedication and willingness to go the extra mile!

Change For The Better 

Other people may be able to juggle going out on the weekends and hitting the gym the next day or playing some sport after work when they haven’t eaten a lot all day.  But if you’re performing an endurance sport, you’ll not be able to do those things half-hearted.  Being dehydrated from not drinking enough, or being under-fueled nutritionally from not eating enough will have a dramatic effect on your training and competition, and so it will force you to be prepared, plan ahead, and sacrifice.  It will make you a much more dedicated person.

You Will Build Muscle

Endurance sports require the use of both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers. According to recent studies, your body will first recruit slow-twitch fibers and, once they are fatigued, it will recruit your fast twitch fibers to help. This is why soccer players build huge calf muscles and cyclists have quads big enough to rival some bodybuilders. So if you’re thinking that endurance sport will take all of your gains away, then you need not worry. You will not only gain muscle, but you will also get much stronger by building your muscular endurance by expanding on its ability to work hard for longer.

Growth In Bone Density

If you’re looking for a way to stay young and healthy, why not try following in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s footsteps? As many people know, Arnold had a bone deficiency when he was younger. So, he decided to bulk up his muscles to help support his bones. By choosing diet and exercise to improve your health, you’re giving your bones the extra support they need to grow and develop properly. This can help prevent osteoporosis, especially if it runs in your family.

As you train, your body releases growth hormone into your bloodstream, which helps build up better density in your bones. This is especially important as you age and your bone density naturally starts to decrease. A solid training routine can help keep fractures at bay, so you can feel young and look young for years to come!

Enhanced Immune System

No matter how strong you are, viruses can always find a way to attack your immune system. But don’t worry! Regular endurance training can help boost your immunity by creating additional proteins needed for white blood cell and antibody production. Not to mention, endurance training also has anti-inflammatory effects which can be helpful for people with chronic inflammatory diseases. And over time, your body will get used to the training and experience less muscle soreness after workouts.

Diabetic Benefits

Preventing and controlling diabetes is possible with regular exercise because it can improve the body’s insulin sensitivity. By increasing your muscle mass, you also gain extra glucose storage, which can help keep your blood sugar levels at a safe count.

Enhanced Metabolism

As we age, our metabolisms slow down and we tend to put on weight. But there’s no need to despair! Regular exercise can help offset this by building muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just by doing its daily activities. So for every pound of muscle you gain, you’ll burn an extra 70 calories each day.

Lifestyle Benefits

Exercise is a great way to get your blood pumping and oxygen flowing to your brain. This can help keep your mind sharp and your body functioning properly. It also helps release stress, improve thinking skills, and increase reaction times. Cortisol, the “stress hormone,” is reduced during exercise, which can have a positive effect on our mental state. Regular exercise also leads to better sleep habits, including falling asleep faster, staying asleep throughout the night, and feeling more rested in the morning. Plus, looking good and feeling confident about yourself can boost your self-esteem.

Challenging

Endurance events can be a great way to challenge yourself and stay motivated. They provide an opportunity to push yourself physically and see what you’re capable of. If you find a passion for endurance racing, you can really commit to it and see some amazing results.

Embrace the Elements and Level Up: Discover the Advantages of Winter Running

It’s tough to run in the dark, in bad weather, and in cold temperatures. But, as the saying goes, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” Let’s explore some of the advantages of winter running.

Winter running is the time to develop your mental toughness and up your game. Finishing a run under miserable weather conditions is an incredible confidence booster, and it will help get you out there next time.

Sure, it’s freezing outside. But before you retreat to the treadmill for your run, consider this:

Advantages of Winter Running

• Chilly temperatures may change unwanted fat into a different kind of fat that actually burns calories.  The fat in your body isn’t equal.  There’s white, brown, and shades in between.  White fat is what we commonly think of when we think of unwanted body fat.  Brown fat is metabolic tissue that actually burns calories.  There’s a growing body of scientific literature that suggests exposing our bodies to cold temperatures turns our white fat to brown.  That means heading outside for a winter run could not only help you burn calories, it could change your body composition.
  
  
• Cold is actually the ideal weather for running.  You aren’t likely to overheat.  Because of this, winter running is actually somewhat easier.
  
  
• Running is a great tool for preventing winter weight gain.  We tend to move less and eat more in the colder months.  Running burns significant calories and is therefore a powerful tool in maintaining and even losing weight during winter.
  
  
• Running will keep your metabolism going strong.  Our bodies are programmed to preserve our fat stores in the winter, slowing down our metabolisms in direct response to our decreased exercise levels.  Running in the cold serves to ‘trick’ the body, preventing this seasonal slowdown of metabolism and helping to maintain a healthy weight.
  
  
• You’ll burn more calories.  When it’s cold, you start shivering because muscle movement helps heat up the body.  When you’re running in the cold, your body works harder and burns more calories to keep you alive.  Ergo, when you run outside in subzero temperatures, you’re dieting without realizing it.
  
  
• You’ll strengthen your heart.  Cold weather also makes the heart work harder to distribute blood throughout the body.
  
  
• You’ll feel happier and more energized.  Cold-weather exercise also has the ability to boost one’s mood, thanks to the lack of humidity (which creates that heavy air feeling in the summer months) and the stimulating aspect of the chill.  As the body works harder to stay warm, the amount of endorphins produced also increases, leaving you with a stronger sense of happiness and lightness following a workout in the cold.

Running in the winter is pretty hard core and pretty awesome.  When you layer up with your running friends, there’s something special and bonding about bundling up and braving the harsh winter air. And living to talk about it the next day.