Running Trails For Fitness

Today we’re going to dig deeper into what it means to get active on the trails. There are more ways to use trails than just hiking or walking. Whether you love it or hate it, trail running is one of the best ways to incorporate diversity into your running regime. Trail running encourages the body to work in ways that street running can’t. Running up hill and down hill utilizes muscles in ways running on flat ground doesn’t thereby converting a regular runner into a full-body runner. If you’ve never done it, you might not understand why. So, let’s talk about what makes trail running so great.

Why Trail Running?

Obviously, running is a great way to stay fit. Running increases lung capacity, strengthens the heart, allows regular and adequate blood flow to effortlessly move throughout your body, increases your bone density, and torches calories while also igniting your metabolism. When you get started with trail running there are even more benefits. Trail running requires stability which builds a powerful core, constructive foot placements, improved balance, and great reflexes are just a few of the benefits you get trail running. Trail running takes practice and gradual build-up like all forms of exercise, but if you get it right, the health benefits of trail running are huge. Not only will you build more muscle while trail running, but the diverse range of terrain available across the wilderness will also make you stronger inadvertently improving your stamina and endurance.You’re also going to find a greater sense of agility, having a dynamic surface to run on. On another level, switching up your surroundings and getting out on the trails dodging rocks and roots, hopping over obstacles, and navigating the trail is really a great way to reinvigorate your running while forcing your body to work in ways it’s not used to. You are kind of exploring ups and downs, lefts and rights, which is a great way to look at your running from a totally different angle. It’s more of a full-body workout, but there are tons of other reasons to start trail running. With trail running, physical actions are not repetitive or unchanging. Unlike road running – trail running can be stimulating when you need to watch out for the different surfaces, the uphill, downhill, and scenery. Trail running adds to an experience that is both physically and mentally challenging.

Why Trail running is better than road running

Trail running is an activity of choice for many reasons. Those who run often grow tired of stopping for cars when running across the streets, paths get congested with pedestrians walking at a leisurely pace, bicycle riders ride along running paths, fumes are inhaled from vehicles on the road, there is a desire for a change of scenery, and the challenge running up and down hills while navigating obstacles brings are just a few of those reasons. We live in such a beautiful part of the world. Those who live in New Mexico will inevitably gravitate to hiking the Sandia Mountains and possibly running the trails that lead to the top. The big reasons for anyone to run trails is for the immense freedom getting outdoors brings, to feel a closer connection to nature and its landscape, which you can’t do quite in the same way when you’re out there on the city streets. Trail running is not just about fitness. It’s more about the experience. It’s about feeling a connection to an untouched landscape in its most natural state. That connection with nature fades away when running the roads inside the city.

You want to try and explore long tracks of terrain on those trail running shoes and experience what trail running is all about in your next running routine.