Top 10 Health Benefits of Triathlons

With 1.5 km of swimming, 40 km of biking and 10 km of running, completing a triathlon is no easy task. But if you’re a beginner, there are shorter “sprint” distances that can ease you into the sport. Either way, you’re sure to become healthy and fit, as triathletes are some of the most well-rounded athletes in the world.

Here are the Top 10 from Health Fitness Revolution and author of the book ReSYNC Your Life Samir Becic:

• Whole-body workout: Triathlons will strengthen all muscle groups in your body. Swimming strengthens your upper body while cycling and running helps you build lower body strength. You will develop lean muscles, build strength and tone your entire body.
• An ideal weight-loss program: The combination of swimming, cycling and running – known as cross training – will make you fitter than you’ve ever been in your life, as well as burning huge amounts of fat from every area of your body.
• Enjoy eating healthy and training: Training for this three-sport event will push you to eat a well-balanced diet, as well as fuel your body with things that will give you energy to reach that next milestone.
• Improved health: A regular combination of swimming, cycling and running will help you lower your blood pressure, prevent diabetes and obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and even lower the risk of osteoporosis or depression. Triathletes have larger hearts and a heart rate that is 17% below the average heart rate. Consequently, your heart doesn’t have to work as hard as the heart of a non-trained individual. These health benefits will automatically add more years to your life.
• More energy: A dramatic increase in your exercise and the change in your diet will help to heighten your energy levels and improve productivity. Although some training sessions will be grueling to get through, and you will obviously be tired afterwards, your overall energy levels will be much higher.
• Feel 10 years younger: As well as slimming down, your body will be given a new lease on life. No matter how wrinkly or rotund you feel, there is always a way to turn it around with a gently increasing training program that will take you from zero to hero, knocking 10 years off in a matter of months.
• Full body strengthening: Each aspect of a triathlon offers its own health benefits, helping to sculpt you into a god or goddess. Swimming creates definition in your upper body and improves flexibility, while running develops long and lean muscles, leaving cycling to tone the lower body while building strength.
• Reducing the risk of injury: When you stick to just one sport – running, for example – you continue to stress the same body parts, resulting in common injuries like shin splints. With triathlon training, you are pushing yourself in three different sports, which each focus on different parts of your body, taking the constant stress off of one particular area. So, with a more balanced method of fitness, you can enjoy being injury-free for longer, resulting in less pain and a stronger body.
• Mental health: When you begin to improve your health, you also start to improve your perspective on what you can achieve and how far you can push yourself. You will begin to notice an increased level of self-confidence and a difference in the way others perceive you.
• Improved confidence: Completing a triathlon is highly impressive, so you will have to try to reign in the bragging and name-dropping in every conversion you partake in. After completing the distance of a triathlon, you should feel good about your achievements!

To see more of our Top 10 lists, click here.