Recently, I heard about a 37-year-old man, Brother Wang, who started a weight loss plan due to his obesity. With a good family background and a successful career, he had been working hard outside, resulting in a beer belly over time.
During a routine check-up, he was diagnosed with “three highs,” and his family advised him to lose weight and encouraged him to keep running. After running consistently for over a year, although he had visibly lost weight, he appeared older than his peers, which surprised his family.
Normally, regular exercise should make people younger and more energetic, so why did he appear older than others? What was the reason behind this?
Why did Brother Wang, age 37, appear older despite running regularly for a year?
Even though Brother Wang ran every day, he found himself aging faster primarily due to his persisting bad habits. Despite controlling his diet, he still stayed up late every day, sometimes for work overtime and sometimes for gatherings.
Regularly staying up late severely impacts the detoxification and metabolism of internal organs, disrupts blood circulation, affects sleep quality, and accelerates the aging process. Therefore, even if you run every day, you cannot resist the footsteps of aging.
In addition to accelerating aging by staying up late, several other situations can make you appear more haggard. It’s important to take note:
Excessive exercise:
While regular exercise is beneficial for health, individual constitutions vary, and exercise should be moderate and tailored to one’s physical condition. Excessive exercise can have extremely adverse effects on health, increase physical burden, and hasten the aging process. It’s essential to pay attention to this aspect.
Dieting for weight loss:
Many people resort to dieting for weight loss. While it may lead to rapid weight loss, it is an unhealthy method that can cause nutritional deficiencies and rebound weight gain. Combining running with dieting can result in dizziness, inadequate nutrition, and accelerated aging.
Irregular eating habits:
For maintaining health, it’s crucial to adhere to regular eating habits, consuming three meals a day on time to ensure adequate nutrient intake, normal functioning of internal organs, and hormonal balance. Prolonged irregular eating not only damages gastrointestinal function but also deprives the body of essential nutrients. Even if you love exercising, irregular eating affects your overall health. Therefore, ensuring a regular diet is vital for health and can help slow down aging.
When engaging in running exercises, it’s necessary to pay attention to certain techniques, especially common mistakes made by middle-aged and elderly runners, correcting them in a timely manner to enhance the effectiveness of running:
Overstriding: When starting running workouts, many tend to increase their stride length to boost exercise effects. However, extensive running can lead to longer airtime, significant changes in center of gravity, and excessive landing force, increasing the risk of accidents.
Swinging from side to side: Some individuals like to perform unique movements while running, thinking it makes them more dynamic.
This not only consumes unnecessary energy but also compromises the effectiveness of running, potentially causing ankle injuries.
Landing flat-footed: Many people habitually land flat-footed while running, which is an incorrect landing method. This direct landing without cushioning is likely to harm the ankles and potentially strain the cervical spine. Running on the road with this technique increases the risk of injury, so it’s advisable to adjust your running style.
