Disclaimer 1: This article is not medical advice. Always check in with your health team to make sure physical exercise/changes are right for you!
Disclaimer 2: This article contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure, here, to find out what that means!
So you’ve decided to get into running and it seems simple enough. Just…run. Right?
That’s what I thought in the beginning, too. But after a few injuries, I learned that it was a little more complicated than that. Being in pain for a few weeks at a time really taught me to go looking for answers. I wanted to know what was causing the problem, and what I could do to prevent it. So if I could go back in time, these are 5 things that I would work on BEFORE I started running.
P.S. – this article is plus-friendly. But remember to always modify a move if something doesn’t feel right for you, or skip it!
1 – Strengthen the feet
In my experience, a lot of problems stem from weak feet. Even if we’re getting a lot of steps every day, it doesn’t guarantee that our feet are getting stronger. Our bodies can adapt to almost everything, including bad postures and movements that keep certain muscles weak!
This can quickly become a recipe for disaster (or injury), and be time consuming to reverse.
But aside from that, having stronger feet allows one to wear inexpensive shoes that don’t have a lot of padding. If you’ve got a serious case of the, “I’ll start when I can buy those 150$ shoes,” then strengthening your feet might be a great option to help you safely use less expensive footwear (like the zero drop aqua shoes below).
Another reason I’m obsessed with foot strength is because of the book/TedTalk lecture, “Born to Run.” If you read this book, be prepared to never look at shoes the same way ever again.
More Info/Easy Feet Exercises: ZHealthPerformance’s “Foot Strengthening Exercises”
Advanced Feet exercises: Squat University’s “5 Best Exercises for STRONG feet! “
2 – Pick Shoes that Fit your Feet
I’m back up at a plus size again currently (it’s a long, LONG, story), which means that my feet are packing some extra width. That’s just what they do when I’m above a certain size – yay. So if this is your story, too, or if you just naturally have wider feet, then I’ve got some bad news:
MOST shoes in MOST stores are not going to fit our wide feet.
Most stores order only a handful of wide width shoes (with maybe one that’s extra wide). Basically: bye-bye to having any colour/style/other feature preference. Finding the right shoe is…well, difficult.
And it means that the run-of-the-mill advice to “get fitted for shoes” can be…very frustrating and time consuming.
But making sure that a shoe truly fits your feet is extremely important.
Check for these things:
- No pinching/too-snug feeling at any place when you first put it on
- At least one thumb width (sideways) space between your toe and the front of the shoe
- When laces are tied, the shoe stays mostly in place and doesn’t rub your heels with each step
- There’s no pain or pinching that starts when stepping
- And make sure you’ve tested the above after a full day of activities as feet tend to swell in the afternoon
Some issues you might run into with regular shoes will be listed in tip #5!
3 – Practice Breathing Deeply
Discovering this was one of my favourite things back when I first started. Because of injuries, I became obsessed with form and watched as many how-to videos as I could. And one day, I stumbled upon one that had stationary breathing exercises.
That video kind of changed everything for me. I did these deep breathing exercises DAILY. It felt good, and it was conditioning the muscles that helped me breath. Aka…breathing became easier.
So since this is something you can work on at home and with just a few minutes a day, it’s a great way to help get your body ready!
My absolute favourite video to follow for these exercises is this one – “5 Shaolin Qi Gong Breath Exercises to Strengthen the Lungs” from KUNGFU.LIFE.
But this one is great for both breathing, and also point #5!
4 – Strengthen your glutes and psoas
When you start running consistently, you’ll notice which muscles are getting stronger (aka – sore in a “good” way). But these two, the glutes and psoas, usually manifest as pain or poor posture (which later leads to pain) when they’re too weak. And if you’re coming from a mostly sedentary lifestyle, then there’s a high chance that you need to work on both.
I’ve been there – it wasn’t fun. So try to strengthen these before you get into running. Below are a few of the videos that I would try.
Psoas: The Charlotte Athlete’s “TRUE Iliopsoas Strengthening”, Precision Movement’s “Your Psoas Isn’t Just Tight, it’s WEAK” (the last exercise can probably be modified for beginners by not using bands, or just leaning upright against a wall)
Glutes: James Dunne’s “The Big Problem with Glute Exercises for Runners”, James Dunne’s “Top 7 Glute Exercises for Runners” (the reverse lunge – if you cannot lunge as low as he is, modify it to what you can do)
5 – Practice running form while standing/walking
If you’ve worked on some or all of the above, then you might find that your posture is already starting to improve. Maybe your anterior pelvic tilt is starting to go away, or the balanced hips have helped you slouch less. That’s what I found when I started focusing on strengthening things in the past.
But some dedicated posture exercises can also help a lot. And so can practicing running form while walking. The form that I prefer to use is called Chi Running, and…I’ll let the experts explain how it works.
A word of caution, though: the cushioning in standard running shoes tends to force your heel forward. It will feel difficult to fight against this, but it’s not impossible.
In terms of posture, this simple exercise from Bob and Brad is truly easy to do. And this compilation of posture exercises from Hybrid Calisthenics may be helpful, too.
This Chi Running Tutorial is a great place to start learning about the chi running/walking form, and these short tutorials from the creator of the form explain some of the finer details.
Conclusions?
If you want to get into running, that’s great! But if you’re a complete beginner, the 5 tips above might help you get started the right way. I wish I would have known these because it would have saved me a lot of injuries. Hopefully you won’t have to learn the hard way now that you know!
And remember: always check in with your health team when you’re making changes to your physical routines. I’m not a medical professional, so this post is only for the purpose of spreading awareness of information that exists out there.
Happy running!