The Brain: The Unsung Hero of Endurance

Your brain burns more calories than your leg muscles during a marathon. While runners focus

on training their legs, their brain is actually working overtime consuming about

20% of their total daily calories just to keep them going. During intense physical activity,

your brain has to coordinate millions of muscle contractions, process sensory information,

maintain balance, and regulate breathing and heart rate all at the same time. That mental workload

is so intense that chess grandmasters can burn up to 6000 calories during a tournament day

just from thinking. Meanwhile, marathon runners typically burn around 2600 calories for

the entire 26 mile race. So next time someone says running is all physical,