Running Tips for Beginner Runners

Running starts out as a natural movement for human beings. Kids, after they learn to walk, run everywhere at top speed. Unfortunately, we tend to lose this as we get older and most of us, unlike kids, can’t just start running and let everything sort itself out. The body needs time to adapt to the demands of running after a long period without it, and this is doubly true if you’re carrying any extra weight.

Here are a few tips to ease into running so that you don’t get injured, make progress and maybe even have some fun.

Walk Before You Run

If you haven’t been going for daily walks, you need to do that first. Your bones, tendons and ligaments need to adjust before you can start stressing them with running. If you’ve been sedentary, spend at least a month walking at least five days a week, gradually adding distance, before you start running or jogging.

Stretch Often

One thing that tends to happen to us as we age and become more sedentary is that we lose flexibility. This happens to us even before we’re out of our teens. What this can lead to problems with your gait, which can lead to injury. Spend ten minutes or so three days a week stretching your whole body.

Lift Weights

Likewise, if you’ve been sedentary, you should do some resistance exercise before you start doing any running. This doesn’t need to be an Arnold Schwarzenegger style bodybuilding routine, but you do need to have stronger muscles to make sure you’re able to run well and avoid injury. At a minimum do a series of full body calisthenics, including pushups, squats and sit ups, two or three days a week.

Go for Time First

When you do start running, alternate running and walking and go for time rather than speed. For instance, aim for running and walking for thirty minutes, and then try to continually shift the balance to more running and less walking until you are doing a full thirty minutes running. Once you’ve worked up to that level you can start going for more distance or try to go further within your thirty minutes, depending on what you want to accomplish.

Don’t Rush It

More than anything else, the beginning runner needs to remember to not rush it. We are impatient, and we all have a tendency to want results right now. Unfortunately, the human body doesn’t work like that, and you can only push yourself so hard for so long without risking burnout.

A lot of people try to push them to do five or six miles or running on their first go and end up puking halfway there and then waking up the next morning barely able to get out of bed. Not surprisingly, quite a few of these people give up after that first run because they went too far, too fast.

You’re going to be running for a long time, so take a few weeks to get your body ready and build up to the real running. Your body will thank your for it and you will have a much better time getting in shape.