If banishing calories from your system is what inspires you, if exercise as a way to health and fitness, both mental and physical, just seems right to you, then jogging is your all-round panacea. The popularity of jogging as a fitness sport has burgeoned over the last 10 years. In a poll by Running USA, they find that over the last 13 years, the country has seen a fivefold increase in the number of women who participate in races and actually finish. When women take to jogging, benefits that they routinely expect include burning off fat, losing a bit of stress, and looking hot; and polls done on women women who run find that they do experience all of these. What makes people choose jogging or running over other forms of fitness exercise is that jogging is the ultimate in the fuss-free. You don't need to pay anyone anything for it, and you don't need training or pricey equipment. All you need is a pair of shoes (if that), and you can go as far as you want, and not have to think about doing well.
At any coed gym, if you care for it you'll notice often how guys keep checking out the area around the treadmills. If you are a woman who plans to take up jogging for general overall fitness, you couldn't go wrong. Picking your body up and propelling it forward is one of the most laborious and challenging tasks you can throw at your muscles. A good bout of jogging will easily burn calories like no other form of exercise can; if you are a woman of average weight and size, and you run 4 miles in an hour, you can expect to easily burn 500 calories during a session. Pilates in comparison will only burn about 400 calories, and swimming, about 50 calories less. Taking all those calories off will easily show up your muscles to good effect, and you end up looking pretty fit and trim. On my list of jogging benefits to aim for, this happens to be the most important one.
Jogging strengthens, cleans up and detoxifies just about every part of your body. If you are a regular jogger, you gain an extra 40% chance of living longer than anyone your age; it keeps diabetes away, strengthens your bones and protects you from osteoporosis; and the purified state your body is in helps prevent cancer. If you feel the jogging benefits only the body, here's more - if you want to stop contributing to the size of the country's Prozac-addicted population, consider how jogging helps your body release endorphins - hormones that get you feeling good about yourself. And jogging also counts as meditation - the way you are able to withdraw even as you're among people, the gentle,rhythmic and repetitive motions you make, all lull your mind into a deeper state.
But apart from all the jogging benefits there are, is there a downside? There's so many reports around that warn you against how the repetitive and relentless pounding your knees take will end up giving you arthritis one day, and even chronic backache. What running in fact does is, it strengthens the muscles around your thighs, calves and knees, and it strengthens your back muscles. This actually lightens the load on your bones; experts in sports medicine find that a regular jogging routine, all said, can only add to your health over the long run. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.