One key benefit a runner gets from running is the greater strengthening and conditioning he gets for his heart. The heart is a pump that squeezes blood throughout your entire body. Just like any other organ in the body, it needs its daily quote of exercise. Running is one of the top if not the very top conditioner for endurance sports.
Over time fatty deposits can start to clog the capillaries coming and going from the heart. A large factor for runners is the additional number of capillaries you acquire. The pumping action pulls and pushes the blood flow to your working muscles. The sustained pressure during many months of long runs forces small tongues of capillaries into your muscles cells.
Runners that run races want a heart that’s as strong as it can be. As you run faster you’ll notice a faster pumping action of your heart. This is good. When you run regularly, your body will increase the volume of blood to your cells. The result is more flow of oxygen to a greater number of cells all over your body. With less squeezes, the fit heart will accomplish more work and your resting pulse rate will go down. In turn helping them to work at full capacity, while you get a runner’s healthy heart out of it to boot!
In a race you will easily be able to tell the runners who have been conditioning their heart the longest. Some runners will be huffing and puffing, while the fittest runners will not have even broken a sweat yet!
All in all running is just a great conditioner for your runner’s healthy heart as well as all parts of your body. A well conditioned heart will bring many years of running and racing enjoyment.
