Jonathan recently asked a great question on my facebook page about how to start a running program. This tends to be a common question asked among people who want to get back into shape, as it's one of the easiest and cheapest forms of exercise, and a lot of fun once you get going! My first piece of advice is to hold the enthusiasm and start from square one, which would be getting a good pair of shoes. If you have never done a foot analysist, I highly recommend you start there. The nice thing is that if you live in a fairly large town, that has a specific running only store, they most often will do these for free by putting you on a treadmill and video taping your gait to determine how your feet pronate. If you don't have one of these stores available where you live, don't worry, you can do a rudimentary test on yourself called the Wet Test (Runner's World Wet Test).
Once you have bought yourself a proper pair of running shoes, the first goal is to build a proper base to build upon later. If you've ever known the type of person who has woken up one day and decided, "I'm going to go out and run 4-5 miles today", you'll probably be able to guess what happened the following day and understand that this is not a good idea. Most likely, this person will be spending the next week in bed, barely being able to walk around. Why? Because they did not build a base, and just jumped in too quickly. Instead, try going out and do a few long walks throughout the week. Maybe 2-3 walks the first week to start off, and then analyze how you feel. It's important to realize that everybody is going to adapt to exercise differently, so its important to start learning how to read your body and how it responds to exercise and nutrition. The following week, start by walking 10-15 minutes and throw in a few short jogging sessions, maybe 10-15 minutes long, and then finish with a 10-15 minute walk. Notice that the total time of exercise will put you between 20-30 minutes. This type of running buildup program should only be accomplished 2-3 times a week (with days of rest in between), for about the first few weeks, until your body has had time to properly repair itself and begin building that base I spoke about earlier. As you begin to feel less sore on each consecutive workout, then you can begin extending that jogging time to achieve your goals. I also highly recommend that you throw in atleast one to two high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions per week, once you have atleast a month of buildup under your belt. The benefits of short duration, high-intensity has an enormous positive effect on muscle growth, improving cardiovascular health, and fat burning. So what is an example of HIIT? Try going to a track, and after completing a 10-15 minute warm-up, do a few 400m sprints, with about 1-2 minutes walking rest in between each sprint. I will be doing a blog post later about the benefits of HIIT, but for now, don't get into the mindset that your cardio program has to be long and slow. On a final note, realive that these HIIT workouts will be very stressful to the body (in a good way), but know that you may find yourself much more sore than normal, so take the proper rest between workouts, and never do HIIT more than 2-3 times a week, unless you have a specific reason too.
I hope all this information helps! If you have any follow up questions, please leave them as a comment below this post. Have a wonderful week in training, and enjoy those runs!
Once you have bought yourself a proper pair of running shoes, the first goal is to build a proper base to build upon later. If you've ever known the type of person who has woken up one day and decided, "I'm going to go out and run 4-5 miles today", you'll probably be able to guess what happened the following day and understand that this is not a good idea. Most likely, this person will be spending the next week in bed, barely being able to walk around. Why? Because they did not build a base, and just jumped in too quickly. Instead, try going out and do a few long walks throughout the week. Maybe 2-3 walks the first week to start off, and then analyze how you feel. It's important to realize that everybody is going to adapt to exercise differently, so its important to start learning how to read your body and how it responds to exercise and nutrition. The following week, start by walking 10-15 minutes and throw in a few short jogging sessions, maybe 10-15 minutes long, and then finish with a 10-15 minute walk. Notice that the total time of exercise will put you between 20-30 minutes. This type of running buildup program should only be accomplished 2-3 times a week (with days of rest in between), for about the first few weeks, until your body has had time to properly repair itself and begin building that base I spoke about earlier. As you begin to feel less sore on each consecutive workout, then you can begin extending that jogging time to achieve your goals. I also highly recommend that you throw in atleast one to two high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions per week, once you have atleast a month of buildup under your belt. The benefits of short duration, high-intensity has an enormous positive effect on muscle growth, improving cardiovascular health, and fat burning. So what is an example of HIIT? Try going to a track, and after completing a 10-15 minute warm-up, do a few 400m sprints, with about 1-2 minutes walking rest in between each sprint. I will be doing a blog post later about the benefits of HIIT, but for now, don't get into the mindset that your cardio program has to be long and slow. On a final note, realive that these HIIT workouts will be very stressful to the body (in a good way), but know that you may find yourself much more sore than normal, so take the proper rest between workouts, and never do HIIT more than 2-3 times a week, unless you have a specific reason too.
I hope all this information helps! If you have any follow up questions, please leave them as a comment below this post. Have a wonderful week in training, and enjoy those runs!
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