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Many people make jogging every day; this is a very healthy practice for our body, but many of us, maybe, don't consider or underrate that jogging should be practiced in proper conditions.
Just making it along the roads of the towns where we are obliged to live and work is not safe when these roads are full of traffic; the air we breath in such conditions is full of smog produced by vehicles and can cause serious problems to our lungs and respiratory tracts, from the fatal cases of cancer, to the very common bronchitis and asthma and the combustion particles can penetrate into our lungs as much as they are of small size.

The most dangerous are just the smallest, with a diameter less than 1 micron, invisible and very difficult to be retained even by most of air filters existing.
The amounts of inhaled particles is increased just by our physical activity that makes us inhale more air than in rest conditions.

For these reasons, it would be better to make jogging in the largest parks of our towns, if we want to make it everyday and we have no time to go in the country, the ideal environment to find really pure and healthy air.

Of, course, this problem doesn't exist if we already live in the country or in small towns, provided that we make jogging not along the main streets, but as far as possible from these, across woods and meadows.

Another danger for joggers along the roads are the passing cars that could knock us over, either in towns and outside.
We know that many drivers are too fast and imprudent and, especially in the evening or when there's the fog, they could see us too late to brake in time; others, instead, can easily drive under the effect of alcohol and/or various drugs and are a danger with every weather, light and road condition.
Of course, the fault is always of the driver, but this is not a great consolation when we are dead for an accident like this or obliged to live on a wheel-chair for the rest of our life.
Drivers are a danger also in conditions of full light when the road is narrow and full of curves, for the danger of seeing the jogger suddenly and too late, always driving imprudently.

Then, joggers can also have problems due to the hardness of roads asphalt that can stress feet and the ideal solution would be running on meadows or paths in the country, that absorb better foot pressure or, when possible, along a beach in all seasons, also barefoot, if we are used to do it; the sand is, in fact, a good trainer for our feet and legs.
In the region where I live, that is Liguria, in Italy, full of green mountains along the sea, this is very difficult, although the sea is everywhere, because most of beaches are rocky or made by round grey stones of 5-10 cm or more, very uncomfortable for feet.

So, to avoid making an adventurous and "toxic" jogging along the streets of the Riviera, frequently, very narrow, curved and full of traffic, it's better to go in the inland, among the hills and mountains of Liguria, luckily, very rich in woods and paths; in some cases, these are arranged as rather plain paths just for jogging but, in many others, these are rich of very severe ups and downs that can make jogging in Liguria harder than elsewhere, given that planes are very rare, over here.

Learn more about this author, Aldo Bonincontro.
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