To run or not to run and if so how long? or endurance it's your butt so take care of it.
Endurance training is one of the top three major categories of body conditioning.
Flexibility and strength being the brother and sister categories that complement and intertwine as necessities in maintaining and enhancing what our bodies can do.
Endurance training is often associated with weight loss, because sustained activity burns a higher amount of calories. Performed regularly it can help to create a caloric deficit and a body composition change; less fat, more muscle and or possible loss of body weight.
Endurance and ultra endurance activities have become increasingly popular in the form of marathons, ultra marathons, triathlons and enduro-obstacle courses derived from specialized military training courses modified for the general public.
Though endurance is important for strengthening the cardio vascular system and increasing our ability to do tasks (muscular endurance) over a sustained period. The body does have limits and too much or too little may lead to problems.
Too much activity can cause the breakdown of articular surfaces like knee, hip and shoulder cartilage or exacerbate pre-existing conditions that have not been detected. In many cases in order to “finish” a participant will ignore the feedback signals (pain) that they get in order to complete an activity that has fixed boundaries like a marathon. Instead of making training adjustments based on personal observation many choose to soldier on and may even ignore known conditions and injury to cross the line that finishes them literally.
Caution should be used when engaging in extreme activities particularly over a long period of time. Too much may “age” the body prematurely and cause damage from wear and tear that may require “surgical intervention” or cause permanent disability.
People are different so the responsibility falls on you the individual to assess the risks versus rewards and to pay attention to the signals that you get from your own body. Don’t compare yourself to the masses when making decisions on the type, duration and intensity of physical activity that you undertake or consider.
It is important to realize that you are the one who will lose or gain and that your body is yours for the duration and though surgery may replace parts. In my opinion in most cases they are not superior to what we are born with.
Try to look within and clarify the real reasons, why you are making the choices on the types of challenges you “feel” the need to do. Rest and recovery are an integral part of training.
Seek balance, whenever possible.
Em
www.emtechniques.com
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