As the New Year starts, many people are looking to either get back into running or start a new running program. This can be difficult to do if it has been a long time since your last run or if you have never been a consistent runner at all. In this blog post, we will discuss ways that you can make your running journey more successful.
One of the simplest ways to start preparing yourself for running is to make sure that you are already walking enough. If you are only used to walking 2,000 - 3,000 steps per day then your body may have an especially difficult time adjusting to the intensity and amount of steps that occur with running. You can expect one mile of jogging or running to consist of approximately 2,000 steps. If you’re only consistently walking 2,000 steps per day, this will be a big jump in activity. Increasing your walking amount can be a good way to build up your body’s resilience and draw out some areas that you may need to work on before starting running. While there are no set numbers of what is best, you can try increasing your walking volume up to 5,000 steps per day to make sure your body is comfortable with that workload.
While it is tempting to try and use running as a way to build up your leg strength, this is usually not the best idea for two reasons. For one thing, running requires a significant amount of leg strength. Running is essentially a series of single leg bounds, so you are placing relatively large loads on your legs when you land with each step. Secondly, running is not a very efficient way to build your strength. You will likely see more meaningful strength gains by working on isolated strength training using bodyweight, machines, or free weights. Lacking the appropriate strength when you start running can increase your chance of pain or injury as you progress.
There are a few key muscle groups that you can work on that are important for running performance. These include your glutes, quads, and calves. To improve the strength of your glutes, you can perform squats, deadlifts, step ups, lunges, or leg presses on a machine. For your quads, exercises like wall squats, split squats, and leg extensions will be beneficial. Finally, for your calves you can progress from double leg heel raises to single leg heel raises. For all these exercises you can add weight if they don’t feel very challenging or tiring. Doing one exercise for each muscle group for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps, 2-3 times per week is a great place to start. You should give yourself two weeks to a month to get started with these exercises before hopping into running to give yourself time to build some muscle and get used to working them.
As stated previously, jogging and running require you to have both feet off the ground for a short period of time - this means you are essentially jumping from one leg to the other as you run. As a result, your body needs to be ready for the impact that occurs as you land with each step. Strength training helps with this, however, another important component is plyometric training which involves jumping, bounding, skipping and other tasks where your body moves at faster speeds.
The easiest way to start is with a “pogo” which entails jumping as you would if you were using a jump rope. You can start with two legs hopping in place and then transition to side-to-side movements or forward-back movements. You can also progress by jumping on just one leg rather than two. In addition to pogo hops, you can work on things like jumping onto a box or landing on the ground after jumping off of a box. You should start at a height that you feel comfortable - anywhere from 8 to 18 inches tends to be an appropriate height to try this on. If you are able to accomplish all of these jumping tasks without pain or discomfort, then you will likely have more success as you begin running.
Now that you have prepared your body to handle running, how should you go about actually starting to jog or run? One of the easiest ways to start is by doing intervals of jogging and walking. The simplest version of this would be to walk for 0.1 miles and then jog for 0.1 miles. You could repeat this for a total of about 0.6 - 1.0 miles for your first time depending on how you are feeling. You should monitor how you feel in terms of pain and discomfort, as well as cardiovascular and muscular fatigue. If you felt that it was easy on all accounts, then it may be time to increase your mileage on the next run by anywhere from 0.2 - 0.6 miles. Just be mindful that you don’t increase too quickly - you don’t want to find that you have gone from a half mile of running to running 3 miles in the span of a week. Once you gradually work up to a mileage goal that works for you, you can start to increase the ratio of jogging to walking. This would look like 0.2 miles of jogging then 0.1 miles of walking and so on. Once your ratio is about 5:1, you may want to transition to all jogging. If your goal is to run faster then you can repeat the process with a run-jog interval just as you did with the walk-jog intervals. This should ensure a comfortable progression and decrease your risk of overdoing it when you’re first starting out.
We understand that getting into running can be a frustrating experience especially without the proper guidance or preparation. Implementing the strategies above which include increasing your walking volume, performing strength training, and adding in some plyometric training should help put you in the best position to succeed. If you are struggling with returning to running or just want more support and individualized guidance, our experts at MAVEN are happy to assist you. We will utilize video analysis of your walking and running pattern to help guide our assessment an individualize your treatment.
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