Disengage yourself. After several weeks of seclusion, you will not regain your normal physical shape overnight. It does not matter that you have been disciplined and have been hammering yourself at home. The pace has not been normal and it will take you some time to get back to where you left off and be the same runner as before. You must go step by step to achieve it and be patient.
Crys Dyaz , personal trainer for Blanca Suárez and Laura Escanes, among other celebrities, recommends going little by little: “Being at home for so long has a psychological, physiological and physical impact. We must assimilate it and adapt again to reality. I recommend resuming workouts progressively . We must set short, medium and long-term goals, trying not to do everything the first week. We are going to try to get out gradually, keep safe distances, try to demand from our body what we can give ourselves. We have to readjust little by little to the new situation, which will be to regain normalcy ”.
Follow Crys's recommendation and be patient. Also, write down the tips that we offer below. They are sure to serve as a guide when it comes to jogging again and getting going.
How to start running: infallible tips
1. Get mental
Many times it is more difficult to prepare mentally for a new challenge than to do it on a physical level, especially if you have not given yourself to laziness and have been moving something during confinement. Assume that during these weeks you have regressed and do not punish yourself for it. It is best to be aware that at first it will cost you a little more, but that you will improve and finally you will reach your personal goals.
You have to be psychologically source to start . The first sessions will not be easy and will require a lot of mental strength not to give up on the way.
2. Mark it on the agenda
Without a good training plan it is impossible for you to achieve your goals. Planning is essential in any facet of life, but in this more if possible. You must schedule your careers and not get carried away by improvisation. If you improvise, you may abandon your workouts or spend more time than necessary.
The ideal is to have the help of a professional trainer who can guide you and accompany you along the way, but if you decide to go back to running for free, you should schedule the sessions well and write down what you are achieving in a journal to raise your levels of motivation. “Always mark which days you are going to train in your agenda or schedule. Just as you write down your work meetings, the time you are going to pick up the children, the doctor's appointment or your next visit to the hairdresser, you should write down your workouts. If you do, you will have control of when you go out to run, how you are going to approach the race, how much time you are going to allocate … and you will avoid falling into the uncontrol of training too much or too little ”, specifies Crys Dyaz.
3. Take advantage of the time
How many times have you shielded yourself from "I don't have time" to escape from exercising? No more using this excuse. The important thing is not the quantity, but the quality. It is more effective to do short sessions every day than to beat yourself up for several hours on a Monday and not jog again until the following week. “Many times less is more. It is preferable to do a little well executed than a lot and badly ”, insists Crys Dyaz.
4. Set realistic goals
Do not demand more than the account. Sometimes we want to go too fast, and instead of getting better, we end up regressing. Listen to your body and do not be discouraged if one day your strength falters . We all have better days and worse days. In addition, in the case of women, we must take into account our hormonal cycle. Our levels of estrogens and progesterone vary throughout our menstrual cycle and make our evolution not follow a constant line.
5. No suffering
Go one step at a time. If you push yourself too hard at first, you can break down and ruin everything. The difficult thing is not to return, but to stay. Contrary to what many people think, it is not necessary to exert yourself to overcome yourself : “It is not about suffering a lot. If muscular and cardiovascular suffering is very important, your head will wear out and you will end up being carried away by laziness and laziness. Feel satisfied with the work that you are doing and try to control your body and that it is not your body that controls you. Little by little you will see how the objectives that you have set in the short term are met and you will see great progress in the medium term ”, explains the coach.
6. Reward yourself
Nothing better than positive reinforcement to motivate yourself. Since you are going to record all your progress … How about indulging yourself when you manage to achieve certain achievements? Rewards play a crucial role in motivation. You can choose to give yourself a garment or accessory related to the sporting activity you do, give yourself a small gastronomic tribute, have a glass of wine … You will relax and be excited to go to the next level.
7. Avoid monotony
Do not get bored! There are thousands of options to run, so look for different routes, look for routes that amuse you and keep your motivation level high. It is important to vary. If you always do the same routines you can fall into monotony and, what is worse, not get good results. If you repeat the same training every day, no matter how intense it is, your body will end up getting used to it and will demand more of you. A training has to be dynamic and varied to be effective.
8. Pay attention to food
If you are an athlete, you already know how important it is to have a complete, healthy diet according to the activity you are going to practice. A good diet is essential to be able to perform well and avoid weakening our strength and end up falling into the temptation of eating sweets and ultra-processed. During the confinement you may have abandoned healthy habits, even gained some weight. It is important that you return to control your diet and that you adapt your training to your new weight.
9. A good rest
Take it easy. There is no use training without rest. The days of rest are as important as the training itself. It is essential that the body recovers after physical activity to return to work at full capacity and not suffer any injury. In addition to getting the required eight hours of sleep, experts recommend stopping one or two days a week. It is also important that you listen to your body.
It's okay to skip a workout every now and then , so if you find yourself feeling exhausted, slow down. Better to stay short than to go overboard. If you overdo it, you can slip into overtraining, a process of chronic fatigue that causes performance to plummet and you need rest and professional advice to fully recover.
10. Look for allies
Having “fatigue buddies” can be most encouraging when it comes to getting in shape. You may like to train alone, but having someone to share your accomplishments with is a great source of motivation . As an idea, you can ally with a friend or coworker and pose challenges. It will be a lot of fun to see who manages to pass the tests to go to the next level! You can make a video call when you finish training, so you can catch up!
