Every hour of running may add 7 hours to your life

We’ve all experienced that awkward moment when you’re wearing Nike’s and you just can’t do it.

The internal dialogue goes something like this: 'I hate my life, my legs hurt, I can’t breathe, I have 3km to go and this song sucks'.

Yep, for some of us, running is only fun when it’s over.

Sure, you may have a love/hate relationship with this type of exercise, but here’s something to add to the reasons to love list.

Running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy, according to a new review and analysis of past research about exercise and premature death.

The new study found that, compared to non-runners, runners tended to live about three additional years, even if they run slowly or sporadically and smoke, drink or are overweight. No other form of exercise that researchers looked at showed comparable impacts on life span. True story.

The research from Iowa State University is a follow up to a study by from 2014 published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Co-authored by Duck-chul Lee, a professor of kinesiology at Iowa State, Lee and his team found their data indicated that going for a run dropped a person's risk of 'premature death' by 40 per cent – regardless of pace or distance.

The main finding, which had also been seen in the first 2014 study, was how running returns more time to a person than the length of the run took up. Seven hours per hour to be exact – based on these two things: 1. Two hours of training per week (based on the averaged reported to the Cooper Institute) would translate into less than six months of your an active life of 40 years. 2. This would produce greater life expectancy of 3.2 years, and a net gain of 2.8. Yes, the pain is temporary for longevity gains.

More the power walking type? Researchers found other exercise, like walking and cycling, also benefited life expectancy, but not to the same degree as running, typically dropping the risk of premature death by about 12 percent.

Lee was quick to point out that running does not make your immortal. You might feel it though after ticking off that Saturday morning 6km.

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fitness | body+soul