Get Rid of Your Running Questions Once and for All

After you have determined that you have adequate balance and flexibility you can start your running program.  Now the key to an injury free running program is to remember FIT.  “F” stands for frequency, “I” stands for intensity, “T” stands for time.  These are the 3 changes that the body recognizes when it comes to exercises.  My recommendation is that you always start training frequency first.  That means if you’re currently not running at all, start a running program at twice a week, if you fully recover (no soreness or fatigue) and have no difficulty with this you can move that up to 3 times a week then 4 times a week and 5 times a week.  I am a fan of a running program that has at least 2 days off for recovery, when beginning, for the first year, 3 days a week would probably be safer.  During the recovery days you would still be able to continue to work on flexibility and balance.  There are also some strength exercises that can be done.  Noticed that I did not mention how long or intense each of the sessions should be, that is because it is somewhat variable but I would recommend very brief and very low intensity running sessions, something like 10 minutes or so per session.  If this does not seem to be tough enough then time (how long each exercising session lasts) would be the next aspect of the running program that you could start working on.  The rule of thumb is do not increase the overall weekly time more than 10% in order to reduce injury.  What is the longest time we should be trying to strive towards?  That is fully dependent upon your goals.  If it is for fitness, then I recommend going for about 1 hour per exercise session.  That would be if there are 3 exercise session per week, which would be about 180 minutes per week.  If it is for racing or some other reason I would recommend discussing that with a coach.  You can also look up more training programs online.  Remember:  There is a rule of thumb when exercising and doing a new program. That rule of thumb is to never increase the amount you are exercising by more than 10% per week.   Once you have gotten to the 180 minutes of exercise per week now intensity can be introduced.  Up to this point the intensity should be fairly low so that you can actually sing a long with your music as you are exercising (very good breath control).  When introducing more intensity, brief moments of that 60 minutes would be used to increase that intensity rate where it would be very difficult to maintain breath control well enough to sing but you are still able to talk.  Again, similar to time, do not increase any more than 10% per week and be patient as the body develops improved fitness.

I have found that when using these principles as stated above running can be a very enjoyable, relatively inexpensive, and injury free activity.

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