Often runners who are trying to lose some weight or belly fat, complain that even though they are running on a regular basis they can’t manage to lose those few extra kilos.
Road running is a great exercise, but unless you perform some weekly speedwork or hill repeats, your heart rate stays pretty consistent. In order to burn more fat, we need to perform interval training to bring the heart rate up. Running at a steady and slower pace won’t bring up your heart rate enough to burn fat and speed up the metabolism.
Running on the trails or in the mountain is a complete different training than running on the road. Trail running is very similar to interval training. If you think about it, when you climb a mountain, your heart rate goes way up, your huffing and puffing, your legs are burning, you need to use your glutes, quads and calves and swing your arms to get up those steep hills; that is definitely some interval training.
Running on the trail, with rocks, roots, uneven terrains constantly engages all your muscles in every way compared to road running when your feet hit the pavement the same way over and over again. On the trail your pace will be a bit slower, then once you hit the concrete your pace will pick up, so once again your heart rate goes up and down, then you will come to another climb and your heart rate will peak one more time; all these intervals are so beneficial not only for weight loss, but for improving your overall fitness. Compare running 10km on the road versus 10km on the trail, how much more challenging is the trail run!
Other benefits of trail running:
1.Improves your overall performance- Trail running can improve your sense of balance and agility, which translates to improved sport performance.
2. Works your core- Trail running provides a greater challenge to your core than road running. Running downhill on the trail really activates your core to provide to balance and stability as well as running on uneven terrains. By improving your core, you will see a difference in your daily posture, making you look taller and slimmer.
3. Engages you brain- Trail running on technical terrains requires a lot more concentration than running on the road, your brain is fully engaged every second of the entire trail run, which also helps to increase your fitness level.
Try combining sessions of both trail and road running and you will see a great improvement in your fitness level and weight loss benefits.
Train Hard, Eat Right, Feel Great!
Katia
