Many people consider running to be the best way to get fit – mainly because it activates so many muscles in the body. But it’s also a high-risk sport injuring countless practitioners every year.
Running itself, though, is rarely the issue. The main problem is the way some runners approach the sport.
In this post, we take a look at some common running mistakes and how to avoid them.
Skipping Weight Training To Do More Running
Running itself will improve your fitness. But, for best results, you also need to combine it with weight training. Without the proper weight training, you may open yourself up to all kinds of issues, such as postural problems, improper gait and wear tendons and ligaments.
If you can, do resistance training a couple of times per week. Don’t skip sessions as this might affect how your leg muscles interact with the ground.
Not Taking Rest Days
Learning how to tape a knee with KT tape is great. But, ideally, you’d prefer to avoid injuries in the first place. Runners, however, have a habit of pushing their bodies to the limit. They believe that they need to train every day to get results.
Many runners play mental games with themselves. “Rest days” become light days where they do a small amount of training. But even this modest stimulation can prevent the body from repairing itself and doing the work that it needs to do.
To resolve this issue, ensure that your rest days are actually rest days, and not something else. Deliberately allow yourself to relax as this will help you recover faster from grueling training sessions.
Overdoing HIIT Workouts
High intensity interval training is a wonderful invention – particularly for amateurs who want to get fit fast. But it isn’t something that you should be doing every day. In fact, it’s so intense, that once per week is usually enough. More than that and you often go into overtraining territory where your body can’t atapt to the stimulus you are providing.
Changing Your Routine For Race Day
Race day might tempt you to try a different approach in what you eat or drink, but that’s a bad idea. Try to keep everything the same, even if you are travelling. Give your body what it is used to. Don’t surprise it with anything that it doesn’t expect.
Improper Pacing
How you pace yourself on a longer run matters a great deal. Most runners start the first few miles fast and then they fade away as their muscles tire. If you can, try to avoid this urge. During miles 1 to 5 you may feel like you have much more energy to give. But if you use it up in the early stages of the run, you’ll have much less left over later on when you might need it.
If you notice that you burst out of the gates, try to relax at a slower pace. You don’t have to push yourself to the maximum all the way around the course.
Staying healthy and active is wonderful. Getting injured and hurt in the process is not. The pointers highlighted on this post are the most common mistakes and can easily be avoided if kept in mind. Hope it helps!
If you have other common mistakes to share that I did not get to mention here, feel free to share them in the comments too. I would especially want to know so I can avoid it myself as well.
What do you think?