How to start running?

At the start of every year, many of us would set one fitness related resolution. "I want to exercise more this year", "I want to start running", "I want to get into the habit of running frequently".

Often, we would be lazy and give excuses on why we should be doing other things instead of running. I mean, after running, we would be busy catching our breath and drenched in sweat. We perfectly understand how you feel! Therefore, we have this few simple steps in place to help you overcome that mind/physical barrier.

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#1 Get motivated

Talk is cheap. Getting motivated is not easy. The most important thing is that its not about setting high unachievable goals, its about the intermittent goals in between. Breaking down our goals into smaller mini goals would make the process easier. Rome wasn't built in a day, likewise for our fitness. We can't expect ourselves to be able to run a marathon by the next day. The build up must be gradual and achievable.

How we can motivate ourselves is to understand the innate reason WHY we want to achieve those goals. We must find the purpose of WHY we want to do it. Some of the reasons could be to be a healthier/fitter version of ourselves. As long as you have your "WHY", with the purpose in place, you would be naturally motivated to achieve your goal. Whenever you feel like giving up, just look back to your "WHY".

#2 Start planning

Once you settled your goals and purpose, time to plan. It is always good to set our goals ahead and decide on the timeline. It is good to plan at least 1 month in advance. Aim to have a monthly goal and a weekly goal. The weekly goal should be leading up to help you achieve your monthly goal.

For example, a monthly goal could be to be able to run 5km comfortably. So this goal is essentially about building up the endurance up to being able to run 5km and its not about the timing/speed. So for the weekly goals, it would look something like this:

Week 1: Run 1.5km

Week 2: Run 2.5km

Week 3: Run 3.5km

Week 4: Run 5km

#3 Warm up & Stretch

Before you begin every run, you should start by warming up and stretching first. Make sure your body is fully stretched before you begin. By stretching, we are getting our muscles ready. Also, when we stretch, we would be able to reach our maximum capacity and capability in a safer manner as compared to not warming up. We don't want to get injured in the process and give up on our goals. Warming up and stretching is also an important factor in preventing injuries when we run.

#4 Run "comfortably"

During your exercise, what we want is to make it enjoyable yet reach near your limits. By pushing ourselves harder, we would be able to surpass our past limits and seek greater heights. While keeping the pace comfortable, we don't want to be too comfortable as well. If we are too comfortable with it, we won't be able to progress as fast.

Generally, do your best in every run, try to make it a good run. Even if you are feeling tired or what not, just do your best!

#5 Cool down properly

After every workout, do remember to stretch and cool down properly! By stretching, it helps our body to recover and return back to our pre-workout state. In doing so, it helps to prevent muscle aches the following day so please do your appropriate cool downs so that your muscles can recover at ease.