Love it or hate it, running can be a great form of exercise. Running not only works your core and lower extremity muscles, but it provides an excellent workout for your heart and lungs. Running can offer a constructive outlet for mental, physical, and emotional stress. And running is free. Besides needing a good pair of running shoes, this is an activity that you can do without any equipment and most any place. Personally, I love running – not always while I’m doing it – but it helps me to keep my body moving, my mind focused, and increases my overall energy throughout the day.
As an avid runner pre-baby, it was hard for me to give up running in my later stages of pregnancy, but I could tell from the signals my body was giving me that it was necessary. Post-partum, I struggled to get back into my running routine with fear and pain being my greatest limitations. Running can be an intimidating activity to get back into after any injury, lapse in training, or major life event. But fear and pain should never stop you from doing an activity you love.
As a physical therapist, here are my recommendations for getting back into a running routine:
1) Warm Up. Yes, it takes extra time. Yes, it gives you another chance to talk yourself out of going on the run. But yes, it is key to getting back to running safely and pain-free. Your warm-up should be at least 5-10 minutes long and should include dynamic stretching and body weight exercises targeting all major muscles groups of the lower extremities. This will help prepare your muscles to safely move through the full range required for running and will increase the neuromuscular firing in the appropriate muscles. Omitting your warm-up may increase your risk for muscle strains, ligament sprains, or other injuries.
2) Take it slow. One of the hardest things about getting back into running (or any activity) can be having to start over and work your way back up. Your body does not care that you were running a 7 minute mile two years ago if you haven’t run a day since. You must be okay with starting where you’re at and working your way up from there. Intervals – alternating between walking and jogging – are a great way to work back into running. As you progress, increase the amount of jog time and decrease the amount of walk time. While progressing, always listen to your body to know when to push it and when to slow your rate of progression down. You should feel muscle burning, exertion, increased breathing and heart rate, fatigue, but you don’t need to push into pain. Always include rest days into your regimen. Overuse injuries are common when trying to progress back into running if you advance more quickly than your body can tolerate or you do not allow your body the appropriate recovery time.
3) Keep yourself accountable. There are many ways to hold yourself accountable to a running program. You can use an app like RunKeeper. You can join a running group. You can write down your runs and check them off on a calendar. Or you can use your physical therapist. Having an external source to help you stay accountable will improve your ability to progress, decrease the chances of you giving up on your goal, and will allow you to see your own progression. The most common reason why we don’t stay accountable to our exercise routine is we don’t feel like we have time. In order to maintain accountability, you must make your exercise routine a priority. Luckily, running is easy to fit into your daily schedule. You can run around your neighborhood or a nearby park cutting commute time. You can run with your dog or your child in a stroller eliminating the need for a sitter. The less of a hassle you can make it for yourself, the easier time you will have fitting it into your normal routine and making it a priority in your life. Finally, set a goal. Working toward a realistic goal will make you want to continue to run. This could be working toward participating in a local 5K, meeting a time goal, running a consecutive amount of miles, or running a number of miles within a month.
I hope this helps to give you a little insight on how to safely return to running if this is your activity of choice. It can be difficult returning to your recreational activities on your own whether that activity be running, biking, walking, hiking, swimming, boot camp, etc. Whether you are limited by pain, fear, other symptoms, or just simply don’t know where to start, Life Changes Physical Therapy is here to help. Contact us today and let us help you get back to the activities you love.