They say that a brisk walk a few times a week
can do wonders for your body. Maybe you’ve tried to boost the cardio factor
by turning your walks into runs. With some work, you’d be able to build up
some serious endurance. But what if you ran for an entire day?? Let’s do it! • Hour 1
Your body will immediately start using the molecules we get from food for energy. Within the first 30 minutes, you’ll start
burning any “bad” fat, since your body uses this and glucose from food for additional
energy. While glucose is getting absorbed by your
body, you’ll really start to “feel the burn” in your muscles. Your heart will be pumping hard to send blood
to your muscles in an attempt to ease that burn. By the end of the hour, you’ll have boosted
your metabolism so much that it’ll be higher for a day or so, and you’ll have burned
some fat! Some of the immediate effects would be: bursts
of energy as the body continues to convert calories into energy, elevated mood as the
brain releases “happy” chemicals, and improved attention span. • Hour 3
The amount of exercise recommended for the average person is two and a half hours a week. So, if you’re running for 3 hours, you’re
probably training for a marathon. An extremely fit person could complete a marathon
in 3 hours (which is about 26 miles.) If you run for 3 hours a day, you could be
risking a sports injury; but your heart will be much healthier, you’ll lose weight, your
skin will look improved, and you’ll have much more stamina throughout the day. • Hour 5
It’s possible…but at this point, you would encounter some detrimental effects after running
this long without experience. Your joints, especially your knees, will be
in pain. But if you’re training for a marathon, running
5 hours a day is a reasonable goal! A “fitness runner” could definitely finish
a marathon in 5 hours. You’ll see muscle tone and weight loss if
you’re running 5 hours a day on a regular basis, and you’ll feel happier and less
stressed. Just make sure you’re maintaining a diet
that’s sufficient for this intense type of exercise! • Hour 8
This might be nearly impossible to do if you’re not an experienced runner. Let’s assume that you’re not. If you ran or worked out for 8 hours a day,
you would so-to-speak “hit the wall” if you aren’t getting enough calories and protein
from your diet. You would probably stop feeling those “happy
chemicals,” resulting in burnout, and experience severe muscle cramps. Even in marathon runners, recent research
has shown damage to the right ventricle of the heart, due to heart enlargement. Here’s the kicker, though: doctors found
that the heart was healing itself from this damage just a week later. • Hour 10
Unless you’ve been an experienced marathon runner for years, running 10 hours at a time
is definitely excessive. If a non-runner just took off willy-nilly,
we probably wouldn’t have enough endurance or muscle mass built up—we’d be very prone
to injury. At this point, anyone would really need to
stop to replenish calories, or risk the body breaking down. Now, if you’re a cross- county runner and
you run a long distance while purposely keeping a slow pace, that’s different. It gives an experienced runner a chance to
fine-tune their form and work on their controlled breathing. • Hour 12
Hopefully you’re carrying a piece of fruit or a granola bar with you to replenish some
calories and glucose! At this point, your lactic acid might be out
of whack too; your muscles produce this when you’re doing an intense workout. Abnormal lactic acid amounts in your body
can cause an imbalance in your pH levels, which tell you how acidic your blood is. Too much acid in the blood can cause serious
problems, including cardiovascular issues. Too much lactic acid can give you really painful,
sore muscles, or even cramps. • Hour 15
Only experienced runners in tip-top shape should attempt to run for 15 hours. Let’s start looking at some negative effects
that excessive running can have on the body. A 15 hour run can seriously damage the cardiovascular
and skeletal systems. Plus, the body has to “burn” sugar, calories,
and fat for energy, right? When we burn all of our energy too quickly,
it can cause plaque buildup in our arteries, and something called oxidative stress; this
is essentially damage to your body’s cells. • Hour 20
Your feet, pro-runner or not, would be in some serious pain right now. There are both a mental and emotional aspect
to this kind of endurance. After a long race, experienced runners often
feel a wide range of emotions: pure exhaustion down to the soul, tears, happiness, a break
in the iron-clad willpower, or a tangled-up mix of emotions. There are so many chemicals firing in the
brain while running, that the emotional end result isn’t surprising. You might also be crying because it feels
like your legs, calves, and feet are on fire! • Hour 24
There’s actually a special run held in Austria that lasts 24 hours, known as the “ultra
marathon.” Participants see how far they can run in a
24-hour period. So humans are able to run for 24 hours, but
the damage may outweigh the reward. If you run for 24 hours, all the benefits
of a normal running session—increased bone density, muscle tone, increased lung capacity
and endurance, elevated mood—will likely disappear. Not to mention the recovery time you’d need
for your muscles, joints, and cell damage. You would need a lot of sleep and time to
replenish calories. Now, between you and me, and 30 million other
subscribers, what’s the longest you’ve ever run? Humans were built to run from an evolutionary
standpoint (think of our ancestors chasing after their food), but that doesn’t mean
that excessive running is healthy. There’s no doubt that it’s a good form
of exercise, but MODERATION is the key! A good diet is important to support your body
for exercise, and everyone’s fitness picture will look different. Your age, fitness level, weight, and pre-existing
conditions should be taken into consideration when coming up with a workout routine. Considering all that, we humans have made
some major achievements in running. There’s one recorded incident of a man outrunning
horses. In another instance, a 61-year-old potato
farmer ran for 5 days straight. That’s what we call a Spud Stud! French runner Serge Girard set a Guinness
World Record in 2010 by running 16,784 miles in 365 days. In 2015, Camille Herron set a world record
by running 50 miles in about 5 and a half hours. Xu Zhenjun ran the Beijing International Marathon
in 3 hours and 43 minutes—backwards! Keep in mind, only very experienced runners
that are in optimum shape can run in extreme intervals of time like these (such as an Olympian
or marathon runner). Running requires a lot of practice, in that
it has a proper form and breathing technique. Never set a fitness goal or start a workout
routine without consulting your doctor. As long as we train carefully and safely,
there’s really no limit to what humans can achieve in the running world! As they say “If you really want to know
someone, run 24 hours in their shoes”. Then when you’re done, you’re 24 hours
away, and you can keep his shoes…. Okay I’m kidding. Hey, if you learned something new today, give
this video a like and share it with a friend! And here are some other videos I think you’ll
enjoy; just click to the left or right and stay on the Bright Side of life!
