Jogging is a favorite sport of many millions of people because of its simplicity, ease of practice and no less effectiveness. Especially in recent times, when gyms are often closed and it is necessary to limit exercise in closed spaces, jogging has become increasingly popular.
Running brings many physical and mental benefits. However, people new to jogging easily make the following common mistakes. Let’s overcome them to make your journey to jogging easier and more successful.
Jog every day
When starting to conquer a new passion like running, it is understandable that you want to practice as much as possible. However, running is a high-intensity activity, experts recommend not running every day. With each step, our feet have to bear pressure from 1.5 to 3 times our body weight. The accumulation of this impact force continuously over a long period of time will create a burden on the lower limbs. Therefore, the body needs time to adapt and recover from injuries.
To be safe, we can practice according to the program of the Coach to 5K (C25K) application. It is not necessary to follow this program from the beginning if the practitioner has previous experience, but the rest days of the program have been calculated properly and when following the entire 9-week training schedule, it will bring benefits. Long-term benefits for runners.
Choosing the wrong shoes
As mentioned, running is a high-intensity activity. Running shoe manufacturers have spent many years researching and developing materials and manufacturing methods to improve running shoes better and better. However, a common mistake of new runners is not really paying attention to running shoes. Instead, they choose to buy fashionable-looking trainers or gym shoes online. These shoes look like running shoes but are not enough to protect the body from the impact of running.
Each person has different foot landing habits when running. Therefore, going to a store that specializes in selling running equipment is very important. Experts will invite buyers to step on the treadmill, analyze running form and advise on suitable shoes.
A pair of running shoes is usually not cheap. However, we can still save money by going to the store to try on suitable shoes and waiting until there are deals to buy them, or taking advantage of online shopping deals and choosing to buy designs. of the previous season for a discount.
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Continuously view reporting metrics as you run
Nowadays, runners often encourage each other to wear smart watches when running to record reports and analyze metrics for each run. Reported indicators that improve with each run will create a driving force for better running. However, don’t make the mistake of getting too caught up in them.
We may have read that a good running pace for the body is about 180 steps/minute or that the ideal heart rate is between 100 – 160 beats/minute. However, as new runners, we should not worry too much about these numbers. The important thing is that we love to exercise regularly and pay attention to exercising moderately. Once again, the C25K program proves to be suitable for beginners, because it focuses on gentle, regular and reasonable training to help runners reach the goal of a comprehensive jog. , no need for breaks during the run, instead of just focusing on beautiful reporting numbers.
Download every running app available
As a new runner, having an app that records and analyzes your workouts is very helpful. However, some people make the mistake of downloading all the famous running apps like Nike Run Club, Map My Run, Strava and Runkeeper… then checking the index of each app, comparing the accuracy. their details, and ask your friends on social networks to give detailed reviews of each app. This is not necessary because each application only provides relative accuracy. If we are new to running, we should use applications according to the C25K program to make training easier and more effective. Additionally, if you want to record information, free apps like Strava are good enough.
Comparative mentality or too concerned with evaluations
Connecting with a community of running enthusiasts is great because this helps strengthen passion, create motivation as well as be a source of exchanging practice experiences. However, some new runners make the mistake of constantly comparing running time, running speed, weekly kilometers or any other metric with their running friends. Running is a solitary sport in the mind, where our biggest opponent is ourselves. The main regular challenge is to complete the next running levels. Other than that, other worries or comparisons are just a waste of energy and time.
Besides, some runners have too many worries when running. “Am I running too slow?”, “Does my running form look funny?”, “I’m too fat to run!”… are some common concerns. Actually, other runners don’t care as much about any runner as they think. The running community is a very welcoming group of newcomers. Don’t waste time worrying about what others think, instead focus on the goal of running better every day to bring lasting benefits to your health and well-being.
Run to lose weight
Running is a great way to burn calories, which in turn can help with weight loss. However, if your goal is simply to lose weight, the “fight” should start in the kitchen first. The basic principle of weight loss is to create a calorie deficit, which means the amount of calories consumed is less than the amount of calories burned as the body burns energy throughout the day. As a simple example, jogging 1 kilometer usually consumes about 70 calories while 1 tablespoon of olive oil contains up to 120 calories. Obviously running 1 kilometer requires a lot of effort while consuming 1 tablespoon of oil is very easy. Therefore, if the goal is to lose weight, running is an important part of the plan, but we should not just focus on running and “forget” our diet.
In addition, don’t forget the other great long-term benefits that running brings to your health and spirit. Therefore, jogging should still be maintained even if the weight loss goal has been achieved.
Not setting clear goals
Having a specific goal to work towards will help runners stay motivated even as the challenges become more and more difficult. For people new to running, completing a 5K distance is a suitable goal. After that, we can start conquering higher goals such as 10K distance, Half-Marathon or even Marathon distance. When entering the running track, runners simply run, without worrying too much about time or distance. But having a long-term goal in mind that exceeds our current abilities and pushing ourselves past milestones will help us maintain running motivation over the long term.
Accept to give up
A situation that often happens to beginners is that they try continuously for the first 1-2 weeks and quickly become discouraged because they cannot run continuously, cannot reach the desired speed or distance or any other situation. any other reason. Some people will give up running, thinking that running is not the sport for them or that it is too difficult to practice.
In fact, running more doesn’t make running easier, it just helps us do it better and better. This is a sport that requires a lot of effort and patience. Instead of thinking too much about hurts or failures, focus on short-, mid-, and long-term goals to stay motivated, even when the start is rough. Looking at the statistics of 10K running races or even marathons, we can see that the majority of people who complete them are normal people with average physical fitness. So don’t give in and keep going because the only thing that stops us from succeeding is our mindset of giving up.
Not listening to the body
Have you ever worked in the garden and had pain all over your body the next day? That is completely normal. This phenomenon is called delayed onset myalgia (DOSM) or a common pain after performing some physical activity. For runners, these pains are quite familiar and do not affect much. When we first run, our bodies have to operate in ways they are not used to before, so it’s normal to experience aches and pains for a day or so. However, if we do not pay attention to the “signals” from the body, we can easily confuse a DOSM pain with a pain that is the beginning of an injury. And this confusion can lead to unfortunate consequences.
Of course, it will be difficult for an inexperienced runner to distinguish between DOSM pain and the pain that initiated the injury. But we can limit this by exercising moderately, following a scientific plan and having time for the body to rest and recover between training sessions. If you experience pain that doesn’t feel like normal muscle pain, see a therapist immediately to get it checked out. Some running injuries can take weeks to months to heal, or can get worse if we keep running and ignore them. So, always pay attention and listen to your body.
With the above notes, Prudential hopes to add more motivation to your running journey. Running is like life, always strive to move forward with each step. Good luck!