BUILDING AND PRESERVING STRENGTH

A GLANCE AT THE ELITES on a marathon start line tells you running carves lean muscle. But its most significant impact isn’t aesthetic, but what it does internally, on a cellular level. As it does for arteries, running restores and rejuvenates mitochondria, the powerhouses of each cell; this means muscle fibres can generate energy more efficiently.

That’s key, because as you age, your mitochondria become less effective at generating energy. ‘ Essentially oxygen leaks across the inner membrane of the mitochondria, requiring your muscles to use more oxygen,’ says Dr Justus Ortega, director of the Biomechanics Lab at Humboldt State University in California. ‘ What’s really interesting is that running seems to stimulate the repair of mitochondria, and allows them to generate energy as efficiently as in younger adults.’ Ortega documented this in a recent study that found older runners have better mitochondrial health.

‘ Running lets your muscles behave like much more youthful muscles,’ says Ortega. ‘And if you’re able to keep your mitochondria more healthy by running, that allows you to be more active in all other aspects of your life, which can help stave off the things that we typically see with ageing: heart disease, diabetes, obesity.’

While running produces changes that make the body ‘ younger’, it’s this ripple effect that is its key quality. Having the strength and energy to do anything you want is what gives running such immense value. We’re desperate to find elixirs that will give us just that, but the sport you love has been providing it all along. ‘ Running is not just aboutmuscle efficiency or benefits to your bones or heart,’ saysortega, a runner for 25 years. ‘ What I found incredibly rewarding was the social and emotional benefits of meeting people, and the opportunity to see places that I probably would never have otherwise seen. You couldn’t put enough pills together tomake that happen.’