9 Benefits of Running a Mile Every Day

Running can improve markers of cardiorespiratory fitness because it forces your cardiac muscles and lungs to work harder, strengthening your heart and increasing your lung capacity. Runners tend to have a lower resting heart rate and a higher level of oxygen intake. That makes it easier to climb up several flights of stairs or tackle a long hike. What’s more, running even five minutes per day as a workout can lower your risk of heart attack and stroke by 45 percent.

Too much stress can cause all kinds of physical and behavioral symptoms, from headache and fatigue to decreased motivation. Running as a workout helps reduce stress hormones so you can feel your best. And it simultaneously stimulates endorphin and endocannabinoid production, which promotes relaxation and a positive mood. Runners may find that the repetitive motion helps to clear the day’s worries from the mind.

Aerobic exercise such as running has a similar impact on the brain as antidepressant medication and some studies have found it can be as effective in treating depression. It allows new neural pathways to form and provides for hippocampus growth, which can improve symptoms of depression. If you’re suffering from depression, anxiety or other mental health issues, running a daily mile could help to provide the mood boost you need.

Even if you’re not experiencing depression, a mile run can leave you feeling happier and more relaxed. That’s thanks to the endocannabinoid production increase brought on by aerobic activity. Exercise increases levels of anandamide in your body — the same chemical responsible for the effects of marijuana use. So it’s not unusual to feel warm and fuzzy after a good run.

A regular moderate-intensity running routine increases the size of certain regions of your brain responsible for memory and thinking. And indirectly, the benefits of reduced stress and improved mood can help prevent cognitive impairment. What’s more, there are also immediate effects on learning. A study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory revealed that after a session of high-impact running, participants were able to learn new vocabulary faster. So going for a run before studying a new concept could help you acquire the new material with greater ease.

If you maintain your current eating habits and you only run one mile a day, you may burn enough calories to see weight loss at about the rate of one pound of weight per month. If you’re hoping to lose additional weight, you can include more aerobic activity and lower your calorie intake. But if running a daily mile as a workout is all you have time for right now, you may notice gradual weight loss due to the additional calories burned.

As you age, you can experience bone density loss, which can lead to osteoporosis. Strength training can be helpful in building strong bones, but high-impact exercise such as running has an even greater positive effect on bone mineral density. Strong bones also support strong muscles and decrease your risk of injury.

Exercise dilates your blood vessels, improving blood flow. It only takes about 10 minutes of brisk walking to notice the effects. And regular running helps decrease your resting blood pressure, which reduces risk of heart attack and stroke. Running can also increase high-density lipid protein cholesterol, the healthy cholesterol, while stimulating enzymes that help reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood.

Though researchers don’t know how exercise leads to a reduced risk of cancer, many possibilities have been proposed, including the ability for exercise to reduce inflammation and improve immune system function, preventing obesity and high levels of insulin, and lowering hormones and growth factors that play a role in cancer. Studies show that aerobic exercise such as running can reduce your risk of bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer and stomach cancer.