It was watched by over 3.2 million people video on TikTok plastic surgeon Gerald Imber, talking about how running takes a toll in your body, especially the look of your face. In the video titled “What Exercise Accelerates Aging?” Dr. Imber describes running as his “annoyance”.
“Have you ever seen a long-distance runner who did not have a gaunt old face?” asks Dr. Imber.
Dr. Imber talks a few phenomenon referred to as “runner’s face,” the concept that running long distances could make you look a certain way, characterised by sunken cheeks and fewer skin elasticity.
“Runner’s face refers to accelerated aging in very athletic people,” he says Shasa Hu, medical doctor, dermatologist and skin cancer specialist on the skincare advisory board of Dr. BRAND.
There could also be a correlation between running and a face with these features, but there may be also an urban legend related to the “runner’s face”. There is not any evidence that the act of running (which involves bouncing up and down) actually causes the skin to sag. Instead, Dr. Hu and one other advisory board member, Dr. BRANDT, a dermatologist Dr. Evan Riederfor instance it comes all the way down to a mixture of low body fat and sun damage from spending loads of time outdoors.
“Because they’ve little or no fat, their features are very expressive,” says Dr. Rieder. “With less volume, the skin can begin to sag, making the face appear older than your actual biological age. Repeated and prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun also ages the skin through the event of sun spots, precancerous lesions, and collagen breakdown. Finally, oxidative damage from the stress of running and exposure to environmental toxins may contribute to dull, wrinkled, and sagging skin.
The effects are subsequently real, although they’ve little to do with running itself. But is it really something it is best to worry about?
In a way, the runner’s face is nearly the opposite side of the weight loss program industry’s coin in exercising to achieve your weight goal. It’s rooted in exercise, which sees movement as a option to control your appearance, not something you do to your health and even only for the love of it.
“I’m so uninterested in hearing about anti-aging, how can I just live?” says probably the greatest comments on Dr. Imber.
Jennifer Heimlich, Senior Fitness Editor of Well+Good, is a longtime runner and marathon runner. She considers aesthetics to be the alternative of running, something she enjoys and fulfills that she absolutely doesn’t do to look a certain way.
“What my face looks like is the very last thing on my mind when I would like to run,” says Heimlich.
There are, in fact, common sense things you’ll be able to do if you desire to prevent skin cancer or the physical effects of sun exposure. Namely: Use a moisturizer and sunscreen. (Dr. Hu recommends Dr. BRANDT’s iD-STRESS Icy Gel Moisturizer, which Dr. Rieder suggests layering with Dr. BRANDT’s Liquid Sun Shield and Eryfotona Actinica’s ISDIN). You may additionally wish to reapply sunscreen on long runs, so ensure you check how long your sunscreen is designed for and take a tube with you in your hike.
“Just starting by picking a greater time of day to run and reapplying sunscreen might help quite a bit,” says Dr. Hu.
But aside from wearing SPF and a hat, the way you look shouldn’t stop you from doing what you enjoy. And if you happen to’re anything like Heimlich, you will not be.
“Honestly, I feel like being outside and running within the sun has aged my face greater than if I wasn’t a runner, and at the very least now that I’m in my 30s, I do not have an issue with that,” says Heimlich. . “It’s just one other way running has affected my body, good or bad, and in a way, it is a badge of honor for all of the miles I’ve run and enjoyed.”
