Once you take a prolonged break from running, it can be difficult to get back into it. Your body may not be used to the activity, and it may take some time to readjust to a running regimen.
How to get back into running after a long break? If you haven’t been running at all lately or you haven’t run as much as you used to want to get back into it, there are a number of things you can do to ease yourself back into that world. It can require a lot of stamina and a high level of physical fitness to run competitively or to run frequently. We will share with you some of the best tips on how to get back into running.
Start Running Slower
You probably want to get back into running full bore to reach the level you were are before as quickly as possible, but that’s not a good idea. What will happen if you try to start running five or even seven days a week when you haven’t really run in a while is that you will quickly wear yourself out. You can make your body crash and make it very difficult to continue running if you overdo it at first. It’s best to start off easy and to get back into running gradually.
Instead of running five days a week, try running just two or three days a week. As you run, take walk breaks throughout your run. Give yourself time to slow down and take it easy as your body tries to work itself back up to where it was before. I also want to recommend regular rest days since your body probably will not be used to exercising every single day, if you’re just getting back into running. So, you may want to take off the weekend or take every other day and not do any running at all.
One of the most important things to know about how to get back into running after years of not running is that it’s going to take some time to get back to where you were before. If you used to run almost every day and you used to run for miles at a time, and then you just cut all that out, your body can’t get back to that level quickly. It needs time to build back up and to develop the muscles and endurance to where they were before.
Ramp It Up
Once you get started on your running regimen again to where you are you comfortable with the progress you’re making, you can start to increase your workouts and your running sessions. You want to make certain that your body is handling the increased pressure and increased work that you’re putting it through. Once that’s all okay, though, then you can start to increase how much time you spend running, how many days you spend running, and how strenuous your workouts are.
You can get back up to that level you were at before, but it’s not going to happen right away, and it shouldn’t happen right away. How to get back into running shape is going to start slowly, but over time you can increase everything that you are doing to get yourself back into running shape. Take your time ramping things up, but definitely look to keep increasing and increasing everything you’re doing and you will get back to where you want to be. If you find that you’re increasing things too quickly and your body is struggling to handle it, then just slow down a little bit.
Listen to your body as you work to get back into running shape. If you seem overly tired and overly sore, you need to ease up. But, if you’re handling the increased pressure and the increased workout just fine, it may be time to ramp things up. If you paid attention to your body and the signals that it is sending you, you’ll know when it is time to ease back or to increase efforts.
How to Get Back into Running after Injury
If you have suffered an injury that has taking you away from running, it can be very difficult to get back up to speed. How long does it take to get back into running shape after you’ve been injured? That’s going to depend on the injury and the efforts you take to fix your running.
Certain injuries are going to slow you down more than others, and you need to be realistic about your recovery rate. Talk to your doctor about how long it will take for you to recover from your injury. You should specifically discuss running and if it’s safe to start back up running again while you’re still recovering.
Your doctor can advise you on this, but some injuries will require that you take a break from running completely. If you have an ankle injury, for instance, you probably won’t be able to run until it is completely healed. Trying to run on that injured ankle can keep it from healing.
Other injuries may simply require that you take things slow and start back at a slower pace than where you’re at before. Instead of completely cutting outthe running as you recover, you may just need to take it slowly. Be sure to listen to your doctor about how soon you should get back into the running and how easy you should take it and also pay attention to your body. Look for signs that your injury may be giving you trouble.
It can be frustrating not knowing how to get back into running after an injury when running is something that’s very important to you. Each person and each injury is different. You can look at other people who have had similar injuries and got back into running quickly and then look at yourself and see a slower recovery and feel frustrated.
You can’t always compare yourself to other people, though, especially when it comes to recovery. Not everyone is going to recover at the same rate. There are a lot of factors that go into recovery from an injury that will affect your running. Your weight, your health, your age, the seriousness of the injury, and how fit you were when you were injured will all affect your recovery rate.
How to Get Back into Running after Gaining Weight
Weight gain is not as serious as suffering an injury, but it can definitely affect your running. Carrying around extra weight can make it difficult to run as far, as fast and as long as you used too. You may find that you’re out of breath more easily for that you tire faster.
That extra weight is going to put extra stress on you, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to stop running. Just slow things down and work on getting healthy again before you’re back up to full speed with your running.
How to get back into running shape after a long break when you have put on weight? The double whammy of added weight and taking a break from running will definitely take their toll. You may struggle to get back to where you were physically, but you will just have to give yourself some time.
As we said earlier, just keep on getting yourself back into the running activities and listen to your body. You may not immediately be able to run like you did before, and you will likely have to pace yourself at first. Start with short running sessions a few times a week, and consider other kinds of exercise to help build up your fitness and burn off that excess weight.
What a lot of runners do when they start to get back into running after a break is to cross exercise on their downtime from running. They aren’t able to run as much as they would like, so they compensate by doing other kinds of exercises that can help restore their physicality and build up their endurance over time.
