Walking and then running: how to get your body used to training

Runners often think of walking as a “minor” activity, but that’s not the case. In fact, it can be an excellent starting point

Carlotta Montanera

@
Runningcharlott

I started running, then I had to walk. Running is not for me. How many times have you heard this speech and how many times have you thought these words? When we think about runin our mind the walk it becomes a failure, a lesser activity, of lesser value. Therefore, when we start we expect our body to run, not walk. The truth is that for many of us it is not a correct strategy to start running immediately. There can be many reasons: from overweight to the joint problems, down to very poor training. When we spend long periods of our lives in total sedentary lifestyleor by practicing sports occasionally, our body is in a state of advanced de-training. The muscles would not be able to correctly support the mass of our body – sometimes even a little heavier than necessary – and the respiratory and cardiovascular systems would be in serious crisis. Proposing a running session to the body, without any kind of “warning”, would be counterproductive.

start with running

Why might running not be suitable? We can all run, but everyone needs a personalized start to running, which can respect the basic conditions. When many people try to run for the first time, after a few meters their heart is in their throat and they are forced to stop. Even if you go very slowly, your heart seems to jump, out of control. How come? This happens in people who are not used to aerobic training, but also in those who do not know running mechanics well and therefore are unable to be efficient. It is mistakenly thought that by persevering in running you can “break your breath”, that is, to slowly bring the heart back into range. So we continue the race, until it becomes unsustainable and we have to stop. After such an impactful activity, the next day you are full of pain and remain in this painful condition for a while. After a few days, even four sometimes, we try to repeat the experiment and the improvement is not noticeable. Until you give up. This happens because training must be gradual and you can’t start directly with such a demanding effort. But if you’re already going slowly, how do you keep your heart under control?

start walking

To run… At the beginning, you need to walk actively for at least 40-50′. In this way the heart remains more controlled, but the system begins to train. Your muscles may not feel so tired, but your “engine” is getting used to the effort. The next step will be to alternate short stretches of running with walking, always monitoring your heart rate. We will slowly increase the running fractions to the detriment of the walking, until after a few weeks we complete long stretches of running.

more workouts

Walking also allows us to train more frequently, immediately. In fact, we can also walk every day, as this activity generates much less overload than running and has very fast recovery times. Being able to train more frequently has a beneficial effect on weight reductionas well as for general health.

If you want to increase the effort, you can alternate uphill stretches at times flat, thus raising the heart rate to an excellent interval training.





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