Are you thinking about your body fitness? What do you think is ideal in this regard? The gymnasts or players surely have admirable fitness and health.What? Want to have physical fitness by doing less? We have a great plan for you in this regard. You can have physical fitness like gymnasts. How? Let’s start with Running. Yes, it is so simple. Include a very feasible running practice in your daily routine to achieve your desired physical health and fitness. You will be surprised to know that Running is the simplest way to be physically active and smart. But the question is, how to start running? Yes, good question. Let’s go on a journey to acknowledge the tips and techniques about Running safely.
Essential Gear for Beginner Runners
Before starting running in your daily routine, the first thing is to consult your doctor. Yes, your doctor will guide you after examining your body weight, your daily working hours, your workload, diet plans and then suggest the duration and distance for running safely. After this you have to consider some more things which are essential gear for you as a beginner runner.
Choosing the Right Running Shoes: You will surely ask the question, why do we need the best pair of running shoes? You need them, because the running shoes make your running safe and comfortable. Don’t ignore the right selection of shoes because proper running shoes save you from joint pains in ankles and hip, help to stabilize your feet while you hit the ground and limit the Achilles tendinitis.
Selecting Comfortable Running Apparel: While selecting proper apparel for running, must keep in mind that your clothing must be lightweight and easy to carry. Do have sunscreen and a hat to be protected from sunshine. During night or early morning ,wear reflective clothing for safety purpose from traffic on roadside
Importance of Supportive Sports Bras:
The best support for breast is a comfortable bra which helps to low consumption of oxygen and increased range of motion. Wear a sports bra to control the breast pain and breast sag. According to a survey, an average woman has 1 kg more weight in the form of two breasts, which have no strong muscles and are attached only with weak ligaments. Therefore, a sports bra is essential to support the breast. Women without a sports bra while running face quicker and shallower breaths which are injurious to breast shape and their health.
Preparing for Your First Run
Are you ready for your first run? Wait! check some important things to run safely.
First of all, bring comfortable running shoes and then break into, run for sometime to a distance to make it compatible for your feet.
Setting Realistic Goals:“If you are bored with life activities and don’t get up actively every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.” -Lou Holtz
Before starting running, choose boosting, realistic, measurable, attainable and time saving goals to motivate yourself for safe running. For instance, you can select a goal like, I want to cover 5k miles within 3 weeks to train myself for a marathon OR I have decided to lose 10kg weight through running to get a glamorous physique. Reason to have a realistic goal only is to make you an enthusiastic and regular runner.
Creating A Running Schedule: Then plan a schedule of running. At the beginning, you would run for 10 minutes daily for a week. In the second week, you should increase the time 10%. As your first run, select the nearest distance from your home to avoid any problem during running.
Dynamic Warm-up Exercises: It is recommended by the doctor that before starting running, stretch your body long muscles,by having some light exercises, by jumping from hindrances in the way and avoid static stretching.
Proper Running Form and Technique
Running is often thought of as a cheap and easy way of getting in shape, but if your technique is wrong this is far from the truth. “With the wrong techniques you will have a physio bill as long as your arm, and each training run will feel like a chore” Ed.Kerry, a run doctor. This saying illuminates the importance of running techniques and form in your mind. Regularity makes a runner’s performance better. So, take it as the first technique to run daily. Moreover, some salient features for running techniques are here;
Posture and Body Alignment:
- Keep your posture aligned while running.
- Keep your head and chest straight, and upright as you can.
- Maintain your body balance and stabilize yourself but don’t make your posture stressed.
- Lean your upper body slightly to help you in propelling.
Stride Length and Cadence: It is recommended that using a short stride can give you best results. It is observed that over striding is a leading cause of feet and ankle injury because over striding puts a pressure on your knee and ankle joints while landing. Approximately 150 spm is the best stride length for beginners but you can increase it with the passage of time. Increase in cadence will reduce over striding and limit the chances of injury.
Breathing Techniques for Runners: Coordinated breathing with running will be helpful for better performance. Number of steps while inhaling and exhaling during running must be in rhythm. You should match your cadence with your breathing rate. Moreover, you should use both your mouth and nose for breathing. It will make your running easier and expel carbon dioxide more quickly and help you to avoid side stitches, warm up your diaphragm before running.
Injury Prevention Strategies
Strong evidence is present to prove running as the best exercise to improve your lungs health, keep heart rate stable, strengthen your arm and leg muscles. It is also the most efficient way to get fitness but there are some points to be taken in carefully. During running sometimes some severe injuries are caused by ignoring safety rules.
Common Running Injuries and How to Avoid Them: You will experience injuries during running, but if you will read this article carefully, you can handle these problems easily. Some common running injuries;
- Achilles Tendinitis is the restriction in motion in toes and pain in lower leg due to injury
- IT band Syndrome is the burning pain in your knee and it extends towards hipbone
- Stress fracture may be caused by running injury and is the aching in shin and feet while moving
How to avoid injuries?
- Don’t run too much, keep your body stress free.
- Heal your old injury before running
- Keep in mind the cadence.
- Select a short stride.
- Always warm up your body before running by doing dynamic exercises.
- Keep your body hydrated.
- Spend a rest day after a swim or race
Don’t take any injury lightly. In case of any injury, immediately consult your physician.
The Importance of Stretching: Heart rate increases due to rapid supply of oxygen to muscles during running. Often, it causes accumulation of lactic acid in muscles, which may be harmful for muscles. So, it is essential to stretch your body muscles by doing light exercises but those must be dynamic. So that your body muscles warm up for running.
Cross-Training for Balanced Fitness: You should have an active body to start running. To check your fitness, get yourself involved in cross training before running. Take light dynamic exercises under the supervision of an instructor, do swimming, yoga and body lifting exercises for getting balanced fitness required for running.
Staying Safe While Running
Your personal safety while running is a matter of consciousness and carefulness. Make your running safe by keeping the following tips.
Stay Alert: Keep a check on the road’s information, on which you decide to run. Don’t choose country side roads for running. Select well known and rushy roads.
Headphones: Get rid of this habit. Don’t use Headphones while running.
Traffic Direction: Run towards oncoming traffic and use reflecting clothing during night time to attract the attention of drivers.
Aware of Your Surroundings: Don’t choose dark and twisting roads for running. Choose areas near to your home and be aware of your surroundings.
Running in Well-Lit Areas: Run on a well lit road and use running lights to avoid visibility issues. In dark areas , others can’t see you properly and you also cannot identify the persons on the road. In the dark the people behind you may be a thief or robber.
Carrying Identification and Emergency Contact Information: Keep your phone and ID card with you to have an opportunity to contact with your dear ones in case of any emergency or injury. Keep the phone for your safety not for use during running and don’t make it visible for others. Keep in touch with your family or any friend by sharing your running location. Try to run in a company. May be a close friend will be your running partner and it’s a good thing.
Dealing with Weather and Environmental Factors: Before going for running , take a look at weather prediction of your chosen areas/roads. This practice will save you from harsh environmental and weather conditions. If you do not take notice, you will indulge yourself in a dangerous situation. For example, rain during running on your route can make it difficult to reach home safely.
Building Endurance and Progressing Safely
Whether you want to run for 5k or a marathon, only focusing on your speed is not the answer. Rather it needs to develop endurance. Improving your endurance is the way to ensure your running faster and for longer. First of all you need metabolic endurance. It is about your aerobic fitness i,e. Your lungs are healthy. You can make progress day by day. Sudden increase in run rate will be harmful.
Gradual Mileage Increase: Strength increasing practices make your muscles endure and then gradually you can increase your running stamina by adding 1-2 miles per week. It is called your running economy. Progress is a time taking phenomenon. Rapid increase in your running speed or distance covered can lead you to injuries.
Incorporating Walk-Run Intervals: New to running? Don’t know about run- walk intervals? Don’t worry, you are at the right place. Let’s know about your concern. Two minutes of running followed by one minute of walking is the best choice for beginners. With the passage of time, you can increase your stamina and run rate. But never forget to warm up your body before running every time.
Tracking Your Progress: As the time passes, you will increase your running stamina and take long routes for small intervals. It will improve your running progress and you will enjoy this triumph but before the race day it is essential to check your actual progress by taking some tests.
(RPE), Rate of perceived exertion, is the simplest way to track your running progress before a race. For this you don’t need any instrument. It’s Actually metaphorical kind. You have to notice a change in your stride duration and heart rate. Sometimes, maximum treadmill tests are also taken to track your progress.
Finding Motivation and Support
Motivation to do the best is the general formula for success. You also need motivation and support to achieve your goal.
Competition: Get yourself involved in a competition to enhance your desire to win. As you work hard to win ,you will make progress in running
Incentives: Follow old traditions of giving incentives and arrange some incentives for yourself.
Apps for Running: Engage yourself in this activity which reminds you to prepare yourself for your next goal.
Love Nature: Find pleasure in natural beauty. You will be attracted to nature and try to spend your time observing the beauty of nature.
Joining Running Groups or Clubs: It is observed that success alone will not make such a charm for you like a winning position in a cluster of people, who will see your success and appreciate you. You will enjoy it more. So, join some groups of runners and arrange a race to track your progress. The winning position will bring a spirit to be involved in running practice.
Setting Rewards and Milestone Celebrations: Appreciations lead you towards more progress. So, after achieving a running goal, celebrate your success. Your inner happiness and endorphin production will motivate you to be engaged in running activity to be praised by all.
Staying Accountable to Your Goals: Set running progress goals for yourself. Prove yourself by answering to you only. You can be judged only by you. So, increase your run rate by setting new distances and minimizing the coverage time.
Listening to Your Body
Excess of everything is bad. That’s true. Running is no doubt beneficial for health and fitness but what if it negatively affects your body? That’s dangerous. Always check the practices you perform for the betterment. If your body feels chronic fatigue, lack of sleep and lack of appetite, don’t waste your time and go to your physician.
Recognizing Signs of Over training:
Focus on your body. If it faces over training, it will surely tell you. You will feel tired and sluggish. Muscle pain will irritate you. Mood swings and depression will lead you towards low performance. All these are signs of over exercising or over training.
When to Rest and Recover: The best remedy for over training is Rest. The duration of rest will be decided after examining the condition of the body. If the issue is big you have to prolong your rest period up to several weeks.
Seeking Professional Guidance: As soon as possible consult a professional physician for the treatment of over training injuries. Although the treatment depends on the cause of injury, injury due to over training is mostly treated with physiotherapy techniques.
Conclusion
To fulfill your desire to start running safely without any injury or harm, pay attention to your running gears, running posture, running form and running stamina. Chalk out a planned schedule to enhance your running practice while keeping in view all factors affecting your endurance and progress. Take a proper guideline for your gait. Your gait matters much to avoid injury while running. A timely warm up and cool down practice before and after running will help you to avoid heart, lungs and muscle fatigue problems. Figure out your goals and take care of your physical and personal safety because at the end you’re the person who will benefit from all these techniques but somehow you feel any difficulty to start running safely read out this article once, you will feel easy.