Lockdown has given us a lot of spare time, so what better opportunity to pick up a new hobby. Running is a great option for getting your fitness levels back up or keeping in shape during quarantine – provided you are adhering to social distancing measures. If you’re thinking of starting a running routine, there are some tips you should know beforehand.

Located in the heart of New York City, Perfect Stride is one of the leading physical therapy clinics in town, renowned for their research driven and
personalized services. If you’re looking to start your running journey during lockdown, here are 5 tips you should know.

1. Start slow and make sure your body is ready – novice runners should start out slow and have structure and consistency to build a base for their new running habit.
Don’t start off thinking you’ll be running like a pro – it’ll take time for your body to adjust. A good question to ask yourself is, “can your body stabilize the joints as they move and accept forces up to 3 times your body weight?”. Running is a series of single leg hops repeated over and over again very quickly. You need to consider this in your training, as a lack of stability can have you kissing the floor in a split second.

2. Have a plan and make adjustments where necessary – have a flexible plan and adjust it as necessary according to what your body is telling you. Don’t wait until something in your body has been hurting for weeks to make a change to your routine or get help.

3. Listen to your body – trust in the plans you, your coaches and other providers make. But, most of all, trust in your body. If it’s hurting or fatigued, it’s telling you something. Can your body move the way that running requires it to? If not, your body will compensate and find other ways to run. This can create load and stress in places that are not meant to be handling that load, leading to injury. Common areas that lack the mobility
needed to run are the hips, ankles and big toes.

4. Don’t just run – running training plans should include other types of exercise too. This will push your body to become more resilient and allow for the tissues to handle greater load, in turn you will run faster and longer.
With the large forces that your body has to negotiate rapidly, you need to train your tissues to be successful dealing with loads of similar magnitude. This is where heavy strength training comes in. Plyometric training, AKA jump training or plyos, are exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time, with the goal of increasing power (speed-strength) – all needed for optimal running performance.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – improving running performance while maintaining low injury risk can be tricky even for experienced runners and coaches. Don’t be afraid to seek advice – online or via telephone – when needed.