Learn to jog! - learn2dostuff.com

Learn to Jog

Posted April 15, 2006

People who start jogging with little or no previous training often find themselves barely able to last a hundred metres or a few seconds. When this occurs, it's easy to become very discouraged and to give up. Sound familiar?

The key to learning to jog is to persevere and start with walking first. Begin walking for 20-30 minutes every day or two. You may need to do this for several weeks to increase your general fitness level before feeling confident enough to break into a short jog.

Once you feel ready, break into a short jog (for 30 seconds say) and then revert to walking for a couple of minutes or more, but don’t stop. If you're able, break into another short jog followed by another longer period of walking. Try to continue this for the entire 20-30 minute period. Continue this for several days or weeks.

When you feel able to take on more jogging, try to either jog for longer periods or reduce the walking time between jogs, or do both. You might find you can now jog for bursts of 1 minute separated by 1 minute of walking in between. Continue this process of increasing the jogging time and decreasing the walking time until you are able to jog continuously for the whole 20-30 minutes. It could take several weeks or even months to reach this stage. Just remember to focus on how long you are jogging for rather than how fast or how far you have gone.

Warning: Before starting a jogging program, it is absolutely essential that you get the "all clear" from a medical practitioner, especially if you are over 35 years of age!

Here are some general tips to consider when embarking on a jogging program:

»	Seek medical advice before embarking on a jogging program.
»	Buy a pair of proper running shoes from a specialist shop. They will help you chose a shoe that matches your foot.
»	Do some muscle stretching exercises before you start.
»	Warm up by walking for a few minutes before you start jogging. (Tip: Choose a place to start jogging from that is at least 5 minutes walk away so that a warm up is built into your program.)
»	Resist the urge to jog for longer periods each time you go out. Train at the same level for several days or weeks before increasing the duration of your jogs.
»	Don't jog every day. Many experts agree it can take two days to recover from jogging. Try to keep it to 3 or 4 outings per week.
»	Many factors can affect how well you jog on a particular day. If on a particular day you feel tired or unable to achieve what you did previously, don't push yourself. Stop jogging, walk for the remainder of your outing and try again next time.
»	Never run to the point where you are so out of breath that you can't sustain a conversation.
»	Stop running if you feel any sort of chest pain, and seek medical attention immediately.
»	Warm down after running by doing a few minutes of walking. (Tip: Stop jogging 5 minutes walk from home/work so that a warm down is built into your program.)

Below are some links to various jogging plans/schedules:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

http://www.runningplanet.com/articles/article_detail.asp?article_id=340

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=815

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