It’s a well-known fact that running is one of the best ways to easily get into shape. It’s something that you can do pretty much every day and at any time you please and it presents so many benefits for both your body and mind. As soon as you start getting into running, you’ll easily get addicted to it and you won’t be able to wait for your next session. With that being said, we all know that running is also your one-way ticket to weight loss and cutting fat. Does that mean that if you’re already underweight you should avoid it as much as possible? In other words, should skinny guys run?
As a skinny person, if your main goal is to gain weight and get bigger, you can in fact run. However, you need to make up for the calories you burn throughout the session by eating more than your body is burning to avoid getting even skinnier.
In this article, we’ll talk about if skinny guys should run, as well as the many benefits that come with running.
Table of Contents
Should Skinny Guys Run?
To answer this question, you need to look at your priorities first and what you enjoy the most because that’s the most important part. Is running considered one of your passions? Or are you more concerned about your weight and how you look or how you’ll look? By answering these two questions, you’ll know whether or not running is for you.
If your answer is somewhere in the middle, meaning that you enjoy running, but at the same time you still want to look great, then just go ahead and run because this type of exercise has a lot of benefits. In fact, running on a regular basis (don’t go overboard with it since you’re skinny, something between 2 to 3 times per week is more than enough) will make you more fit and healthier in general. It increases your stamina and your energy, improves your cardiovascular health and mood, reduces your stress, and makes you a lot happier overall. We’ll talk more in-depth about the benefits in the next section of this article.
However, because you’re skinny, you need to make sure that you’re eating more than your body is burning in order to avoid weight loss as much as possible. If you do that, it’ll actually make you more fit and build your muscles, especially your leg ones. Balance is key here! By maintaining a good diet, you’ll be able to enjoy running and its benefits while still looking the best.
Read more: Are Skinny Guys Attractive.
Benefits Of Running For Skinny Guys
As I mentioned earlier, running presents a lot of benefits for both your mind and your body. Here are the most important ones:
Running Improves Your Overall Health
This is the most obvious and important benefit. Running on a regular basis can actually improve your overall health, especially your cardiovascular one which can then result in an increase in longevity. In fact, according to the Department of Health & Human Services, when they compared runners to non-runners over a period of 15 years, runners had somewhere between 30% to 45% lower risks of cardiovascular mortality and a benefit of a 3-year life expectancy. The most interesting part is that you’ll have these same benefits even if you run for less than 100 minutes per week. This goes to show the power of running on a regular basis. Who doesn’t want to increase their longevity? And It doesn’t matter if you’re skinny or overweight.
Running Improves Your Mental Health
If physical health wasn’t enough to convince you, then you should know that running also improves your mental health. According to Psychiatria Danubina, they surveyed non-professional runners about the psychological effect of running, and the results they came up with are very interesting. Many beginners started running just because of the fact that it can improve their physical health, but what they noticed is that it also impacted their mental and emotional states including relief of tension, improved self-image, and better mood in general. In fact, some of the respondents were actually surprised because running came with a free cost and was better than most of the expensive therapies that they were going through.
Running Builds Strength
This is one of the best benefits for skinny guys. Despite the popular belief that running can actually make you lose a lot of weight, I rarely see people talk about the fact that it can improve and build your muscle strength and size, especially your leg muscles. I can’t remember a time seeing a professional runner that has skinny legs or small calves. All that matters is that you eat more than your body burns, consider it the most important rule for skinny guys. If you follow this rule, then running is gonna help you build muscles and gain weight instead of losing it.
Running Strengthens Bones
Despite the ongoing controversy of whether or not exercise can help or harm your bones, it has been proven multiple times that running can actually strengthen your bones. According to the Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, they did a study on 68 long-distance runners and concluded that long-distance running on a regular basis increases bone formation and does no harmful effects on bone properties. This means that running can actually help in strengthening your bones which is beneficial in the long term.
Conclusion:
No matter what your body shape is, whether you’re skinny or overweight, young or old, running has a lot of benefits for your body, your mind, and your spirit. For skinny guys, If you go on a quick run right at this moment after reading this conclusion, I can guarantee you that when you come back, you’ll feel a lot more energized, so much happier, and more determined to go through the rest of your day. And throughout the whole running session, you’ll feel free and liberated from all the stress in your life and you won’t be able to wait for your next session to have that same feeling again.
But don’t forget the most important rule for skinny guys, eat more than your body burns in order to avoid losing weight and consider adding some form of resistance training to it to gain ever more muscles.
