Learning to Run

Learning to runnnThe ability to jog is a great asset and allows you to effectively exercise any place you may be. When done correctly it increases the density of your bones and significantly improves your health and fitness. nnIt is a popular comment that running is bad for the joints. This is not the case if your body is working efficiently. However, if your muscles are not activating as they should or you perform to much running for the health of your body it can indeed be detrimental for your joints and body.nnTo avoid the negative effects of running you need to ensure you have addressed your posture and muscle strengths across the body so you can handle running. To this you should use very gradual increases within your training program. nnThe key though is listening to your body. Joggers are perhaps the most stubborn of all sportsmen, up there with racket sports players for ignoring all their aches and pains and causing more significant damage as a result.nnMany people want to run yet find this mode of exercise difficult to conquer. The key is to start off easy and slowly progress it:nne.g. to build to 3km jogging.nnWeek 1: 500m (Yes, just 500m) nWeek 2: 750m nWeek 3: 1000m nWeek 4: 1500m nWeek 5: 2000m nWeek 6: 2500m nWeek 7: 3000m nWeek 8: 3000m nnPlease note the distance increases are examples and you should tune into your body to tell you whether you can increase the distance and by how much from week to week if at all. If you have any undue pain e.g. shin, calf, foot etc you will need to halt the increases in distance until the pain has passednnAnother way to begin running is to introduce periods of slow jogging and walking. This method assumes you have the aerobic fitness to achieve your goal session time walking at a good speed and that your posture and muscles are in a state to support jogging injury free and without pain. If not focus on the other areas until your body can handle jogging.nnThe first goal is to set out a maximum time period or distance to cover you can realistically perform a few times per week, maybe in your lunch hour, before or after work etc. Then build towards itnne.g. to build to 30 minutes jogging.nWeek 1: 26 minutes walking 4 minutes joggingnWeek 2: 24 minutes walking 6 minutes joggingnWeek 3: 20 minutes walking 10 minutes jogging nWeek 4: 15 minutes walking 15 minutes joggingnWeek 5: 10 minutes walking 20 minutes joggingnWeek 6: 5 minutes walking 25 minutes joggingnWeek 7: 0 minutes walking 30 minutes joggingnWeek 8: 0 minutes walking 30 minutes joggingnnIf you do at least a couple of sessions a week these goals should be fairly attainable depending on current fitness. The key is to let your body give you what it wants, so progress may be quicker or slower. Please ensure you monitor for pains and injuries. There is no need to run with pain. Instead back off the training and examine what is going wrong. Remember when jogging the rate or perceived exertion should not go past 15 out of 20. (where 5/20 is easy, 10/20 is comforable, 15/20 is hard and 20/20 is collapse)nnnnBen WIlson BSc (Hons) CSCS NSCA-CPT CMTA DipnOne2one nutritionnRugby fitness training.com