UNILEB

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Jogging improves your health and helps you stay in shape. It’s one of the secrets to longevity: it adds years to your life! As we may all know, it is an acquired habit, a science, a culture, a way of life.

“By exercising regularly -jogging in particular- you increase not only your health benefits but also vastly improve the quality of your emotional and mental life. Thus you, as an individual, will contribute to building a healthy society, physically and mentally,” says Zeina Mina, Director of the Institute of Physical Education and Sports.

In fact, Democritus of Abdera (460 BC, 370 BC) seconded this argument when he stated: “Men ask in their prayers for health from the Gods, but do not know that the power to attain this lies within them”. “However, today, this is not the case, especially with the people tending more to adopt a sedentary behavior rather than sticking to a daily working out activities,” adds Mina. It is worth noting that from a ratio of 30 per cent in 1850, the human energy spent at working environments, has dropped to 1 per cent in 1990. 

Human beings have fallen prey to idleness, slighting thus, their stamina, which was the characteristic of Homo sapiens’ survival and evolution that enabled them to run long distances and on a slow motion, and also to travel thousands of miles in search of food and water.

“Jogging at a slow or average pace delivers greatest benefits on our fitness, thus improves our lifestyle. Researches show that it can also add more than five years to our life expectancy,” stresses Mina. Finally, she advises to always remember that “what you do today can improve all your tomorrows”.