Many people know the benefits of running, but not everyone can do it for various reasons. Today we will consider the main sports that can compete in benefits with running.
Roller or regular skates
Depending on the time of year, you can skate on either regular or roller skates. This sport is not inferior in intensity to running. It can also help you lose weight and strengthen your heart. At the same time, ice skating is much more interesting for many than just running. So as an alternative to running, ice skating is great. But like any type of physical activity, rollers have their disadvantages:
1. It is necessary to buy the skates themselves and most often special protection.
2. You can not ride everywhere, but only on a flat road. Accordingly, you can run on any surface.
3. High probability of falls and bruises. It is quite difficult to fall when running lightly. In ice skating, falls are considered a normal part of the training process. That is why roller skaters ride only with special protection, which is not the case for runners.
In general, if you have money and a well-kept park near your home, then feel free to buy inventory and go for a drive. At the same time, the cheapest skates cost around 2,000 rubles, which anyone can pull, so it remains to find a flat area or skating rink and go to train.
A bike
What could be better than a bike ride in the morning park or a tourist bike ride in the countryside. And besides that, the bike can be used as a transport with which you can get to work. That is, to combine business with pleasure. Cycling is also an aerobic exercise. So is running. Therefore, it helps to improve the functioning of the heart, lungs, strengthens the muscles of the legs, and also promotes fat burning. But it also has its drawbacks:
1. Buying a bike. After the start of the crisis, bicycles have jumped in price by one and a half times. Therefore, a bicycle of average quality for an adult is now difficult to find cheaper than 15 thousand rubles. And this is already an amount equal to the average salary in most regions of our country.
2. Low intensity. Unfortunately, if you want to lose weight with the help of a bicycle, you will have to pedal two or even three times longer than if you chose running for this.
3. The bike takes up space. For residents of private houses, this question is often not relevant. As most of them have a garage where you can store your bike. But for apartment residents, the problem becomes obvious when you have to look for a place to put your two-wheeled friend.
Conclusion: a bicycle can be safely used as an alternative to running, but one must not forget that the intensity of cycling, and therefore the benefits of it, is half that of running. Therefore, think for yourself, what is better for you, an hour to run or 2 hours to ride?
Swimming
The best sport for training all muscles of the body, for losing weight, strengthening the cardiovascular system, improving lung function. Swimming even surpasses running in intensity. But it also has a number of disadvantages:
1. It is necessary to visit the pool in winter or go to the river in summer. That is, if for running it is enough to leave the house and run, then for swimming it is necessary to take things for changing and go to the water.
2. It is difficult to describe this point in one phrase. The bottom line is that many are trying to lose weight with the help of swimming, but they do not succeed, due to the fact that they swim, albeit for a long time, but at such a rate at which the body does not spend a lot of energy. This is especially true for people who are overweight. They know how to float well and swim for a long time. But for the result, you also need to swim fast.
Conclusion: If it is not just to splash in the pool, but to really train, then swimming can easily replace running. Moreover, swimming will train the pectoral muscles and arms, which running, without additional exercises, cannot give.
Therefore, if you do not have the opportunity or desire to go jogging, but you want to find a sport that can combine all its positive qualities, then turn to skating, cycling or swimming and choose something for yourself that you like best.
Skiing is not included in this list, as it is a seasonal sport, and in summer few people ride roller skis.
