Running is a form of aerobic exercise that has a myriad of health benefits – relieving signs of depression, reducing stress and improving heart functions. Past studies confirm that the human body is structured to run and human beings are evolved to run miles after miles. However, when you run for a long time, you may suffer certain sets of problems that may be bothersome for your health.
Health Benefits of Running
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Running or jogging is a fundamental step for making yourself physically active and it is also a popular healthy practice across the globe. As per the survey in 2016, 64 million people went for a run and weight concern is one of the common motivations for the Americans to run. The perks of jogging are undeniably great for every person and there are few of them mentioned.
No Hanging Belly
The battle against the hanging belly has become more crucial than ever and jogging is beneficial for people with obesity or overweight. From losing ten pounds within days to keeping up the same weight for a long time, weight management through running is highly important.
Being one of the best activities for burning fat, jogging can burn a huge amount of calories more than any other cardiovascular exercise.
Disease Prevention
Going for a long run daily can minimize the risk of breast cancer and stroke. People who are at high risk of developing osteoporosis need to go out for jogging immediately. Additionally, form alleviating symptoms of hypertension to diabetes, going for runs is proven to be effective.
The exercise improves blood pressure level and strengthens the heart. Maintaining the elastic power of the arteries, your health remains at its optimum level. Jogging is beneficial for your health because it can improve the function of the immune system while regulating the concentration of white blood cells.
Stress Buster
At the running of going out for long runs, you can block the worries for a certain period, you can become stress-free. Relieving from stress, long distance runners can help you find a solution that has been stressing you out for ages. Speeding up can help you let go of your anger and aggression.
If you pay all your attention to sprinting, you are bound to feel better in no time.
Improves Confidence Level
Jogging is associated with building self-esteem and boosting confidence level. When you set a training goal, you work relentlessly to achieve it and the achievement raises your confidence along with lowering stress. In addition to the context, your psychological self-does not face the pangs of depression and undertakes challenges readily.
What to Expect When You Start Running Again
If you have undergone a leg injury or taken days off for holiday from your workout routine, coming back to running is difficult. Yes, it is always good to take a break from monotonous daily routine and pursue other interests.
Prepare your mind to have the worst first week beforehand and hopping over the small hurdle will appear as the most difficult task. The beginners can drink vitamin drinks which will revitalize them for running. Your body will be sore and more physical activity can only relieve you from the physical pain.
The hiatus lasting only a few weeks may only leave a small dent in your cardio workout. However, when you are away from the track for a year, you are likely to lose 15% of cardio fitness and half of your strength. If you are not going out for daily runs for several years, you have to start everything from scratch for gaining enough strength.
Things to Do for Starting to Run again
As you have prepared yourself mentally that it is finally the time to get back on your feet, there are multiple steps to gain back your pace. Battling lack of motivation, the weariness of a busy schedule or plan of injury, you can follow the effective steps to become a runner in a full-fledged manner.
Therefore, you may not feel the same fitness and strength in your body and keeping up your mental strength, you should remember certain things.
- You should always evaluate your loss.
- You should go easy on yourself.
- You should take time and appreciate your effort.
- You should follow a plan.
- You should focus on executing the plan methodically.
If you are careful enough to avoid injuries, you can fall back into your previous routine and get stronger and faster real quick.
Enrol Yourself in a Running Group
If you have always run fast in the past and wish to increase your motivation level, you should get in touch with a running group. There must be various jogging groups in your locality where you can run with others for feeling motivated. In addition to the context, there are charity organizations that offer people to run for a cause and feel good by making a contribution.
Do not be Hard on Yourself
As your body does not permit you to run at a long stretch, you can get a little bit frustrated. But when you end up doing much and go against your body’s will, getting injured is inevitable. If you have undergone a hip injury or shoulder injury in the past, you should only drag yourself in the court when the doctor has given a green signal.
After getting clearance from your doctor, it is better to inquire him/her how often and how much you can run as of now. In order to avoid doing too much, you need to keep a track of your mileage and limit all the possibilities of injuring yourself.
- Do not run 2 consecutive days in the first few weeks.
- Take rest in between runs.
- Do not lengthen weekly mileage more than 10% in every week.
- Maintain easy runs with conventional pace for 6 weeks to 8 weeks.
- Do not run fast until you have established an efficient jogging base.
Go through a Training Phase
When you started to run, you might have gone through a beginner’s training practice. The training helped you to stay motivated and reach personal goals every day. Now after coming back to tracks, you need to undertake the re-training phase and it is important to remember that everyone responds in a different way during the training session.
Following are the schedules that you may give a try,
- Run 1 mile for 4 weeks
- Run 30 minutes for 3 weeks
- Run 2 miles for 4 weeks
At the beginning, you should go for short and easy run and also take walk break. Starting with 3-4 runs every week for 10 minutes should be a productive beginning.
During the off-days, you can take proper rest or only walk. It is mandatory to run 30 minutes per day; you should only focus on it when you are starting to make progress. Give your body enough time to adapt the stress and follow the advice carefully.
Setting up challenges can be a way to remove the possibilities of weak links from your body. Additionally, vertical gain or climbing, speed and run steak or consistency are other vital aspects to keep in mind.
Choose Cross Training
In between the break days, you can choose to go with cross training which a brilliant way to enhanced strength and endurance is. In this session, you cannot risk injury by jogging way too much. Following are the instances of cross-training activities that you may opt,
- Walking
- Aqua jogging
- Pilates
- Strength training
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Yoga
You can consult an instructor who can guide you to follow the cross-training routine with ease. Joining yoga classes can help you to have a better immune system and contribute to recovering muscles quickly. The addition of full-body in your regular physical activity session can improve the chances of going for more mileage in the upcoming days.
Track Your Progress
When you are set to follow the routine and goals, only keeping a track of the daily run results can aid in improving yourself. Reinforcing the habit, you can evaluate the result to know whether it is better to speed up things.
One can utilize the “1†and “0†method for marking down the progress. Here, “0†will signify the days when you do not run and “1†will refer to the jogging days. For intensifying the jogging session, it is essential to write down every detail of the physical activity.
Different Types of Runners
The runners have a habit of fixing their own plans because they know the best what can work out for them. Being comfortable with the jogging is one of the important factors that the runners always keep in their mind. There is no reason to deprive yourself of the various types of jogging sessions and stick only to your trainer’s schedule.
Before blindly following a sprinting schedule, ask yourself these questions,
- Do I generally like to run on loads? Take a full week to find out whether you are comfortable jogging on a trail.
- Is it only marathon a good idea for me? Try out 10K speedy training to understand whether you like it.
- Is your body ready for an ultra marathon? As the training session nears to end, this is the time to get the answer.
- Can you perform well on tracks? Train yourself for track mile or fast 400m to know more about your capability.
Do not Ignore the Problems
After going through the conditions of plantar fasciitis, runner’s knee or shin splints in the past, you should not leave the problems behind. The health issues may surface again, the cross-training will be widely helpful. Moreover, if you have not changed shoes for a long time, the problems cannot go away.
Make Jogging a Habit
Many people have confessed that they do not start running again after leaving the training group. In order to get the daily groove of sprinting on a daily basis, you should at least keep walking. You can schedule your regular runs on a calendar and treat yourself generously on reaching desired goals every day.
A trainer can always help you with making an effective routine for establishing jogging a regular habit.
Do not Breakdown
As you do not have the same strength to go on like past days, frustration is common among the runner. Accepting to start from a scratch is difficult for every jogger with a good record and this feeling should not let you down. Moreover, burdening yourself with additional pressure cannot help you either.
Only the following short goals can help you reach the milestone the day after tomorrow.
When will You Go back to Your Previous Condition?
If your break only lasted for the holiday week, you only need few sessions for getting back to shape. It is not possible to follow your previous personal bests after few weeks. Within two weeks, you are likely to do cardio and strength exercises at a normal pace.
The intensity of workout session including an endurance sport like jogging needs to be reduced. Start with walking and then jogging can keep give you boost to maintain your old speed.
However, it is not mandatory to run the same distance as before. Instead of obsessing over mileage, you need to be patient and making progress slowly.
In case, you do not get back your form after two months, tweak up your workout session. Keep doing what you were doing but remember to increase the goal. Also, a trainer can help you in reaching the program challenges and make new records.
Even if you take a vow not to take a break ever again; life happens, you cannot dodge the possibility of traveling or getting injured. However, the golden rule for not facing the problems again is not to stop jogging completely. You can purchase treadmills or stationary bikes when you are unable to go out or there is a bad weather condition.