Running is one of the best exercises for improving your health, losing weight, and creating a great sense of well-being. No wonder so many people want to know how to start running. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? Surely you don’t need any instructions - just put one foot in front of the other, keep on doing it and success! What could be easier?
Unfortunately, life is never that simple. You can try this approach (I did it myself), but it really won’t give you the desired results. At best you won’t make the progress you hoped for. At worst you’ll get injured and have to overcome the injury before you can start properly some weeks (or even months) later. It’s not that it’s difficult. t’s just that you need to know a few things before you start, you must begin at a level appropriate to your level of fitness, and you need to know the golden rules to avoid causing setbacks along the way.
First you need to get checked out by a doctor, who will be able to advise you what you can and can’t do to start with, check to see if you have any medical conditions which need to be fixed before you embark on your new exercise regime, and make suggestions about how hard to push without overexerting yourself.
Next, the most important thing is to start at a level appropriate to where you are now. If you are clinically obese and have not walked more than 10 yards in the last 5 years you should not try to run until you’ve got a bit fitter. You need to start off walking. Short distances at first. Then build up to the stage of walking briskly for 30 minutes per day, at least 5 days per week. When I say briskly, I mean walking hard enough to get your pulse up from it’s resting level, breathing more heavily and making you feel noticeably warmer than when you started.
If you are already at this level, then you can start jogging gently instead of running BUT don’t try to do this without wearing a decent pair of trainers. This is the only investment that you need to make before starting running. However, it IS essential. Go and buy a proper pair of running trainers that are comfortable, and that you have walked around the shop in. In the UK you will need to spend at least £50 (in the US a list price of $60 – $70 minimum), and try to keep to proper running brands (ask the shop assistant which these are). Don’t buy your first pair from a supermarket, or by mail order. The supermarket won’t have the right types, and you can’t feel what they are like on your feet by mail order!
After that it does become simple. Just stick to the golden rules:
- Increase your running distance by a maximum of 10% per week. Any more and you’ll probably get injured.
- If anything hurts, STOP. Get it checked out and (if necessary) fixed before continuing. If you try to ‘run through the pain’ you’ll just make whatever it is much worse, and risk being off running for some time while it heals.
- Don’t try to run every day. You need at least one full day a week off to allow your body to recover from the exertion. The optimum amount of rest between runs is 36 – 48 hours. So the best combination to avoid over stress injuries is to run every second day. You can do other forms of exercise in between if you like, but always have one day a week where you do NO serious forms of exercise. Walking to the pub is OK. Playing football isn’t.
- If it gets boring, change things around a bit. Try running different routes. Try running at different speeds. Try joining a club. Try running alone. Just do something different to keep it interesting.
With these simple steps it’s easy to start running. With ‘the progressive overload’ principle (increase level by up to 10% per week) you will make the fastest possible progress as a runner. In less than a year you should be able to run almost any distance you like. If you were overweight before, you will almost certainly have lost weight, even if you haven’t changed your diet. The most important thing is that you will feel so much healthier. When you know how to start running, you also know how to improve your health dramatically, and how to feel great!