Impact of a Culturally Grounded Running Program on Four Components of Wellness Among Indigenous Participants: A Pilot Study of the Running Medicine Program

Movement as medicine is the premise behind Running Medicine (RM), a community-based wellness program that began in 2016 in New Mexico. RM is centered in the Indigenous traditions of running and is oriented to improving the four dimensions of wellness-mind, body, spirit, and social. Using retroactive surveys of RM's Spring 2019 participants, we investigated the program's effectiveness in the realms of physical, mental, spiritual, and social wellness. Based on data from participant surveys, RM appears to be effective at improving the four realms of wellness. Indigenous participants improved to a greater degree in mental and social wellness than non-Indigenous participants, while the opposite was true for physical and spiritual wellness. For both groups, the largest effect size among the four domains was seen in social wellness. Among our participants, this culturally grounded approach to wellness appears to be effective at improving the four realms of physical, mental, spiritual, and social wellness.