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Running (cont.)

Medical Editor:

Why run?

  • Newsman: Sir, why are you running?
  • 1st Reporter: Why are you running?
  • 2nd Reporter: Are you doing this for world peace?
  • 3rd Reporter: Are you doing this for women's rights?
  • Newsman: Or for the environment?
  • Reporter: Or for animals?
  • 3rd Reporter: Or for nuclear arms?
  • 2nd Reporter: Why are you doing this?
  • Forrest Gump: I just felt like running.

There's a bug about running that you catch. It could be the exhilaration of propelling your body through space, or the pounding on the ground that sends sensation up your bones all the way to the pleasure centers in your brain, or it could simply be the sheer satisfaction of having done something good for yourself. Whatever it is, running can be addictive. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi might describe the experience of running as "flow," the state of mind in which you are fully immersed in what you are doing. Or it could be what William Glasser calls, "positive addiction," where you perform a repetitive activity without self-criticism or judgment that has a beneficial effect on your mind and body.

What are the health benefits of running?


Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 5/14/2015

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