How to Avoid Injury to a Beginner Runner
Running can be one of the easiest fitness activities – you just need a pair of shoes and an open road – but it’s also hard on your body if you’re not used to it.
I spoke with Jason Fitzgerald , a running coach (and longtime Lifehacker friend) who specializes in helping runners avoid injury. Here are some tips, backed up by evidence and years of experience, on how to avoid injury at the start of a run.
Increase your speed slowly, even if you feel good
If you start running now (and stick to it), this time next year your body will be different in many ways. You will have stronger hearts and lungs. Your muscles will become stronger and more resilient. Your bones will get a little denser, and your tendons and connective tissue will also get stronger. You don’t have that right now.
Each of these body systems adapts to exercise at their own pace . Maybe your lungs felt good during yesterday’s run, but now your muscles are hurting . Muscles have to pull on the tendons with each step, and the tendons are some of the slowest to complete the program. They are the site of many common running injuries.
All of this means that you need to build up your speed slowly. If you did three short runs in the first week, you shouldn’t double them in the second week, even if you feel good. “Progress takes longer than you think,” Fitzgerald says, and most people need to hold back and do less than they think is necessary.
What a good daily routine looks like for beginners
There’s a reason the 5K couch is a popular training plan for beginner runners: it builds up slowly enough that many people can avoid injury. But everyone is different and it is definitely possible that for some this program is moving too fast.
The reverse is also true: if you are in good shape to start with, you may get bored with the beginner plan and find yourself running too much and still preparing for injury.
Ideally, when you start running, your workouts should include:
- Most or all of your runs at a pace that feels “comfortable, controlled, and outgoing.” (Beginners may need to walk a little to maintain this pace.)
- An exercise that is not jogging if you feel that the above is not enough for you. Cycling and other cross training can work your lungs and muscles without putting undue stress on your tendons and ligaments.
- Strength training to help everyone get stronger and adapt.
In an ideal world, you could start strength training before you start running, but Fitzgerald says you can start all at the same time. Just keep your overall training intensity under control – now is not the time for a lot of HIIT classes.
This is not your uniform or your shoes
It seems unfair that we could get hurt without doing anything wrong. So we’re looking for something to fix. But if you’ve started running (or increased your running) in the past few weeks or months, you probably have nothing to blame other than doing too much, too early.
Check out any forum where runners might overestimate their problems, and you will see newcomers with the classic too-too-early backstory posting videos of themselves, running on a treadmill and asking to “check their form.” Or will they want to talk about shoes: they have this pair, but will they stop getting hurt if they switch to this pair?
Your shape will improve on its own
“Most beginners don’t have good shape,” Fitzgerald says. This is normal and not really a problem. It takes a lot of time on your feet for poor form to cause injury, and as a beginner you just don’t run that much.
Even if your run looks a little wobbly, you won’t get far by deliberately trying to move your legs or feet a little differently. Experienced runners tend to have a smooth, fluid, perfect stride, but they didn’t get it by improving their form and then starting to run.
You have to let your body learn to be in good shape. (And your good form may be different from another runner because every body is different.) Fitzgerald notes that you become more efficient over time, and this is what we call “good form”: “If you run 10 miles a week , you are not giving your body enough practice. But if you run 10 miles a day, your body has to find good mechanics in order to survive. “
If you’re anxious to tweak something, count your cadence. If you are doing less than 160 steps per minute (or 170 if you are running faster than a 10-minute mile), you are probably jumping from foot to foot rather than keeping your feet under you as you run. Take smaller steps and your body will find its most efficient shape faster.
Don’t get hung up on your shoes
Shoes are another easy thing to blame, but again, your mileage is far more related to injury than the tiny ways that, say, arch support can differ from shoe to shoe.
All you need to know right from the start is that shoes that feel good while running are the right shoes . It doesn’t matter if it’s a top-of-the-line shoe recommended by the jogging store employee who removed your jogging uniform on the treadmill, or the old flats you found in the back of your closet.
“Any running form analysis that is done in a shoe store with just a working employee is not a real running form analysis and you won’t know anything,” Fitzgerald says. “There is no force plate, no time-lapse camera, you are not in a working laboratory filmed in three different directions and your shape analyzed on a fancy computer. The metrics you are trying to measure require so much detail and precision to measure, otherwise they won’t matter much. “
Even if you had that level of detail about running shaped, which, remember, will change as you get more experienced, research shows that it doesn’t really help you avoid injury .
What is the best shoe choice? Try on a bunch, and run for a minute or two in each. This is a real reason to shop at a jogging store: either they’ll have a store treadmill or they’ll let you run around the block.
Know when to stop
If you do end up getting sick, it is helpful to know which pain can be managed and which one needs to be watched.
Only a doctor can give you medical advice, but here’s a general idea of what runners run through:
- Muscle soreness , because this is normal and will go away in a few days, no matter what you do.
- Pain that is unpleasant but not very painful
- Discomfort that gets better while running is a sign that running isn’t making the situation worse.
Other injuries that Fitzgerald does not recommend overcoming include:
- Feel the sharp, stabbing pain
- Makes you limp or change gait
- It gets worse when you run
Seek advice from a trainer or trainer if you have one, or see a doctor who is familiar with running injuries if your injury seems serious. But if you’re lucky and manage to plan well, we hope you can avoid injury from newbies.