5 FREE tips for running, during COVID 19.

1-2 weeks into quarantine with some decent running miles under your belt and you’re starting to feel the effects of it… “backs a bit stiff, knees are a bit sore, hips sore and feet a bit sore.”

Just me?

This COVID 19 has been pretty impactful to say the least, but just from my immediate observations, it’s not only been a bad thing.

When I say “not bad” I do mean people are actually being very conscious about prioritising their daily exercise and health.

It doesn’t take much to notice the current rise in peoples activity, just take a look outside of your window. You're pretty much guaranteed to spot a jogger getting some miles in…

Whilst this is great and I really do applaud you for doing so. I just want to offer some free advice and some tips to sustain this running for the foreseeable and enjoy it pain free. I say this because newbies to running can often get injured down to lack of conditioning.

We’ve all been there, just got onto the road and see the bus fly past you, you look ahead at how far the bus stop is and think “If I really run for that, I reckon I can make it” but decide against it. Or… you actually run for it, make it try to make it look like you’re not dying when you get on the bus. Just me? Just me…

But now all of a sudden we’ve all become the Mo Farahs of the world and running most days. Again, it’s not a bad thing, we just need to make sure we’re doing it in a safer and more sustainable way.

So here’s my bit:

1.     WARM UP AND COOL DOWN PROPERLY

·      Warm up

-       Use the RAMP principal Raise heart rate, Activate muscles used and nervous system, Mobilise joints, Potentiate muscle and nervous system.

-       Practice basic running drills (e.g. youtube search: A Walks; B walks; A skips; B skips…)

2.     STRENGTH TRAINING (2x per week)

·      Get strong. By this I mean, start implementing some resistance training into your week as well. Practice some fundamental movements like a bodyweight squat, master a lunge, perfect the plank and get over a minute. And more.

·      I’d add some skipping into your strength workouts so that your calves become well-conditioned and your Achilles tendon doesn’t get too scared about whats going on. If you don’t have a skipping rope, just little pogo hops to start off with. Try 4 rounds of 30s of light hops on the balls of your feet, not your heels.

- I’ve added some images below of some strength exercises that you could get on with.

1. Bird Dog - 10 reps on each side.

2. Copenhagen - 10-20s on each leg

3. Single Leg Elevated Bridges - 10-20s on each leg

   Try 3 rounds every other day.

3.     PLANES OF MOVEMENT

·      We have 3 main planes of movement 1. Sagittal (think walking forward and back) 2. Frontal (think sideways walking) 3. Transverse (think rotation).

·      Running is repetitive in one plane pf movement, putting a lot of strain on the same muscles and joints all of the time.  In your warm up and strength training, practice different planes of movement

4.     BUILD UP DISTANCE SLOWLY

 ·      Gone from nothing to running every day is a bit much.

-       Try implementing a 5-10% increase each week – for example, week 1 you ran 5k, week 2 add 10% so that you will be running 5.5k and so on. Make sense?

·      Fartlek style -  yep, it’s a real term haha. Just means random intervals. Change between run, walk, light jog at random times. eg. do a normal 5k and you come across a hill, run harder up it. Around the corner is a downhill, walk down it…

·      Diarise your days for running – whether you’re running 1 or 7 times per week, put them in your diary so that you commit to it for one and two, you have a rough idea of how much distance/time you’re covering.

5.     LOTS OF LITTLE STEPS

·      Taking lots of little steps rather than big strides have been shown to reduce the risk of injury.

-       The smaller the step, the less amount of force going through the body with each step.

Hope this helps.

Look after yourself and wash your hands! 

Luke

:)