I like the idea of taking up jogging. Where do I start?
Probably the most common mistake people make is to do too much too soon so our first piece of advice would be to walk before you run. Start by walking briskly enough to work up a sweat and get your heart pumping - for about half an hour at a time. (If you’re using a treadmill, you can walk on an incline.) When you’re used to this, start to add in a few minutes of jogging.
At first, the time you spend walking will be greater than your jogging time. Your aim will be to reverse this position. First, work up to the point where your exercising time is split 50:50 between brisk walking and jogging/running and then increase your jogging until you can keep it up for the half hour session.
How long should this process take? That depends on your starting fitness level. Ideally, you should always be able to talk as you go so you should use this as a guide to pacing yourself. It’s the challenge to your body’s systems that increases your fitness so you do need to push yourself – though not to the point of pain or sickness. And in early days, it’s wise to increase your distance rather than your pace. So once you’re up and running for 30 minutes, try to increase it to 35 or 40.
Other FAQs in this category (Running) :
- What are the benefits of running?
- What’s the difference between running and jogging?
- I hear a lot about running injuries. Is it safe to run?
- Is it really necessary to pay a lot for running shoes?
- How do I know how far I’m running?
- I can’t think of anything worse! Why bother?
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