How Running Uniquely Changes a Woman's Legs and Body

How Running Changes a Womans Legs

Running is an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise for women that also builds stronger legs. But pounding the pavement mile after mile can lead to some physiological changes that may seem a bit strange at first glance.

Lets explore some of the weird and wild ways that running transforms a womans legs over time with both positive and negative effects.

Bulking Leg Muscles

One of the most noticeable changes for women when they start a running program is increased muscle definition, particularly throughout the legs. Running requires your thigh, hamstring, glute, and calf muscles to power each stride while stabilizing joints.

Over time, this leads to muscle hypertrophy, or growth in size. Your individual genetics dictate just how much your leg muscles will bulk up. Sprinters tend to build bigger legs faster than endurance runners. But almost all female runners will get some degree of extra muscle tone and definition.

Powerful Buttocks

In tandem with your legs, a toned tush is inevitable for women who run regularly. Each running stride engages your gluteal muscles in the buttocks and hips to propel you forward.

Hill running provides even greater resistance to build super-strong glutes. Plus, fat burning from running helps reveal the sculpted muscles as they continually expand over weeks and months of training.

Increased Leg Strength

Bigger muscles also lead to greater overall leg strength for running women. Your thighs and calves become increasingly capable of generating speed and power to handle long distances without as much muscular fatigue. Improved muscle stamina prevents those painful knots or cramps sometimes associated with picking up a new running habit until your body adapts.

Your core, hips, knees and ankles also strengthen to meet runnings demands so your whole kinetic chain works synergistically stride after stride.

Higher Calorie Burn

That extra calorie burn may be one of your reasons for starting to run in the first place. But as your leg muscles get bigger and stronger, your metabolism revs up even further due to the larger energy requirements needed to fuel those hungry muscles.

This means you can eat more without gaining weight thanks to a ramped up resting metabolic rate from all that calorie-torching, leg-strengthening mileage.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

While your leg muscles rapidly adapt to the repeated stress of running, its normal to experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) at first. This commonly starts 12-24 hours after a hard run, getting worse over another 24 hours.

DOMS results from microscopic tears to muscle fibers caused by unfamiliar training levels. While annoying, its merely a sign your legs are getting stronger. Soreness fades over the next few days as muscles repair and recover.

Shin Splints

If leg soreness localizes along your shin bones, it could indicate shin splints. This common overuse injury strikes when supporting muscle tendons and fascia become overloaded and irritated before fully adjusting to mileage.

Resting for a few days usually helps shin splints subside. But persistent pain signals its time to evaluate your training load, footwear, and running form to prevent small cracks in shin bone tissue long-term.

Numbness or Tingling

Tight calf muscles often accompany newly minted runners. If those calves stay overly tense stride after stride, nerve compression issues can sometimes occur. Many women runner report numbness or tingling below the knee along the outside of the calf or ankle areas in these scenarios.

Taking more rest days, properly warming up and cooling down, self-massage, and gradual mileage buildup all help restore circulation and nerve function to prevent concerning limb numbness while running.

Blood Vessel Prominence

Increased blood and nutrient flow to working leg muscles is the catalyst that makes them bigger and stronger. But all that added circulation comes at a subtle visible cost: bulging veins.

As your vascular system adapts by increasing blood volume to feed hard working legs, veins often become more prominent visually beneath the skin. Its generally harmless but can signal potential circulatory strain if severe.

Swollen Feet and Ankles

Speaking of blood flow issues, pooled fluids in the feet, ankles, and lower legs arent uncommon among runners. Besides potential cardiovascular concerns, lugging around waterlogged limbs on a run simply feels uncomfortable and can alter form.

Ensuring proper hydration and electrolytes before, during, and after runs can prevent excess fluids from seeping into spaces between skin tissues. Compression socks also improve circulation and cut down on swelling for some women.

Skin Discoloration

Increased blood flow from running also shows up through skin redness, splotchiness, or bruise-like patches on the legs called exercise-induced purpura. Caused by leaking capillaries, these marks may look alarming but generally fade within a week.

However, regular appearance of exercise-induced purpura can indicate nutrient deficiencies or circulatory strain. Making dietary adjustments to get more bioavailable iron, vitamin C, flavonoids, and copper often helps.

Chafing and Blisters

All that skin-on-skin contact between your thighs or where shoes rub the feet can cause some uncomfortable friction. Chafing occurs when such irritated areas become red and raw. If friction bubbles get severe enough, liquid-filled blisters develop.

Moisture and salt from sweating make matters worse. But lubricating these zones well with anti-chafe balms and bandages or tape over hot spots protects your legs so you can log miles blister-free.

Ingrown Hairs and Pimples

When skin gets subjected to constant sweat, friction, and compression from form-fitting attire, you may start spotting annoyances like ingrown hairs or clogged pores more often on places like the bikini line, back of the knee, or lower legs.

Exfoliating regularly, wearing loose shorts over leggings, laundering athletic garments promptly, and applying benzoyl peroxide to problem areas keeps complexion woes away so you can focus on the run.

Long Term Injury Risks

Running undeniably puts substantial physical stresses on the lower extremities long-term. While your bones and connective tissues initially strengthen too, exceeding recovery capacity raise risks for overuse injuries like stress fractures or cartilage deterioration over time.

Joint pain in the hips, knees, ankles, or feet can progress to debilitating levels if you ramp up mileage too aggressively without taking preventative rest and full recovery days.

Impact-Related Knee Arthritis

Knee joints sustain approximately 5 times your body weight in impact force with each footstrike while running. Thats hundreds of tons of cumulative load even for a petite runner that adds up over years.

Studies show female long distance runners beyond middle age face up to 16 times greater risks for developing knee osteoarthritis requiring total joint replacement eventually.

Loss of Cartilage Cushioning

Relatedly, the gradual wearing down of slippery cartilage helping cushion joints brings unpleasant symptoms like bone-on-bone grinding, stiffness, and impaired mobility over decades of hard running.

Cross training more low impact activities into older runners routines helps stave off cumulative cartilage degeneration leading to discomfort and disability.

The Takeaway on Runnings Effects on Womens Legs

Clearly, subjecting your lower limbs to the repetitive forces of running mile after mile creates numerous bodily adaptations ranging from the slightly strange to potentially concerning long-term.

But dont let worries over muscling up, numbness, ingrown hairs, or joint wear deter you from reaping running rewards like strength, calorie burn, andcardiovascular improvements. Most changes are simply natural responses to increased exertion.

Just be sure to ramp up training sensibly, take enough recovery, wear proper equipment, maintain good form, address pain promptly, and cross train for fitness

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.