5 days a week is what I consider running frequently. I have read a study recently that argues that only 8% of the population manages to reach those 5 days a week.
In this article I intend to share a series of tips for practicing running that, although they may seem very obvious, will help you identify those barriers that prevent you from going out for a run frequently.
The benefits of sport are well known to all. People who play sports are healthier, sleep better, think more clearly, and exude optimism and good humor. In addition, sport helps you to increase your energy levels. Contrary to what it may seem, the days when I am most productive at work are the days when I have gone for a run in the morning.
Exercising right after waking up is a quick and effective way to activate my body for the rest of the day. Many people do not understand this. They think that if you run 10 km. or do 1 hour of gym at 7 in the morning, then you'll be busted to go to work.
Quite the opposite. Running in the morning activates you both physically and psychologically. Physically because, as I have explained before, your body fills with energy and your metabolism accelerates from first thing in the morning. Psychologically because you feel that you have already fulfilled. You will face the day having passed what is perhaps the most exhausting test of the day.
To increase your motivation it is important that you find a good running store where you can buy all the material you need.
On days that I have not been able to run in the morning, I notice that my energy is a little lower than normal. Those days I look forward to the afternoon to do sports and to be able to reach my optimal state of energy. Some will call it addiction. Others will call it obsession. I call it choice. I choose that running be the rudder that sets the course and the coordinates of my days. Analyzing my trajectory a bit, this has not always been the case.
Before running, I saw it as something necessary but I was lazy to do it. However one day I had a very clear turning point. One day I was down and tired and unconsciously I associated that physical state with the fact of not having practiced sports. That day I turned what could have been an excuse for not going out for a run (being tired) into the reason for doing it. That was my turning point. From that day on, it was as if they "changed the chip" of my attitude towards sport.. You must find your own turning point.
In the following list I will try to give you tips that guide you on the way to find it.
In some article I have maintained the position of doing sports regardless of the day of the week you are. The days of the week are a social convention and as such it is fictitious. Your body obtains the same result if you do sports on Sunday as on Monday. However, reaching that level requires a little more time and a more advanced "chip change"..
If you have not yet reached this state, you should use Monday as the most important day to go for a run. From a psychological point of view, Mondays mark a starting pattern for the rest of the week. If you propose to do sports 5 days a week and Monday is one of them, there is a good chance that Sunday will arrive and you have completed those 5 days. On the contrary, if you fail on Monday, you run the risk of not taking the week seriously at a sporting level and as a consequence, missing more days.
I have already discussed the benefits of doing sports in the morning. In addition, the excuses for not doing sports in the afternoon are increasing as the day goes by. Go for a morning run and delete it from your list.
You can skip one day but never two. Skipping two days in a row is the beginning to get away from regularity.
No matter how little you want to go to the gym or go for a run, don't think twice and put on your sneakers or pack your backpack. Explain to yourself that you are only going to try it for 10 minutes. If after that time you still don't feel like it, you will stop. However, you will see that 99% of the time you manage to finish the training.
The context in which you exercise is very important. Sometimes you may think that you don't feel like doing sports and what really happens is that you don't want to enter the context in which you do sports. This context can be a stifling and claustrophobic gym or even boring and monotonous running routes. Identify where the problem is and try to find a solution.
If you can convince someone to train with you, the probability of failure decreases exponentially. When you look for excuses, you are not only failing yourself but you are also failing someone else..
You can join a gym with a wide variety of classes taught by instructors. You can also buy better sports equipment. A couple of days ago I bought a special bracelet to hold the iPhone on my arm. Thanks to this I have downloaded an application called Endomondo, which works as a GPS and during training it informs me of the distance and times traveled.
Best of all, when you finish the training you can see the entire route you have done on the computer on a real map. The bracelet cost me € 19 and the Endomondo app is free. There are also a multitude of stores both physical and online in which to buy good cheap running shoes.
The iPhone already had it, but any smart phone also works with the program. By all this I mean that a small investment in sports equipment It is something that, as the ad says, is priceless. A small outlay can make your desire to play sports greater and as a result you miss fewer days.
According to Voltaire, perfection is the enemy of good. Do not think that sports are only worth doing if you have time to run 10 km. or spend a whole hour in the gym, it is much better to run 5 km. or spend 40 minutes in the gym, instead of doing nothing. Thinking that it is not worth training so little is a psychological strategy that serves as an excuse not to lift our ass off the couch.
Just because you're in a gym doesn't mean you're going to a gym. In the same way that not all workouts are the same. If you spend 35 minutes talking to people out of 1 hour in the gym, you are wasting time and money. Do not fool yourself. Just because you were in good physical shape when you were 20 years old does not mean that you continue to maintain that same shape today. The years go by for everyone and even more so when you don't do sports.
I have left the one that is the most important to me last. Signing up for sports competitions is by far the best way to get involved in sports frequently. Popular races or local tournaments of any sport variety are a great way to get started. You don't have to be a professional to compete. Personally, I have run several half marathons and the weeks before the competition is when I am least lazy and I want to go running..
Can you think of any more tips to get running frequently??
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