How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

PardeMD — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:07:41 GMT

This article made me cry! I had been an avid runner in my teens, and twenties. At age 30 I ran my first marathon in Alaska. I suffered and injury then, which I battled for the next several years. I was unable to run more than 2 miles without suffering pain, especially for a week or so after my attempts. I don't even know how many different physical therapists I went to, all with no avail. Last year I was diagnosed with some type of inflammatory arthritis ( I say "some type" because my labs are all stone cold normal), but my horrible fatigue, headaches, joint swelling, and fevers did respond to meds used to treat RA. My symptoms had been going on for a year prior to diagnosis, and strenuous exercise for me became getting out of bed and getting through my day.

A couple of months ago I consulted a colleague who does acupuncture. I found an amazing physical therapist at the hospital that I work at. And I started to run again. Just a mile the first week, and now I am up to 1.5 miles 2 to 3 times a week, and rollerblading for 5 miles another 2 days. I'm not quite ready to commit to a 5K, but this is the first time in 2 years that I have had any hope!!! Maybe I can return to Alaska for my 40th birthday and run that marathon again!!!!! ( I got a little over a year!!)

So don't give up hope!!!! Where there's a will there's a way. And definitely listen to your body when it says "enough", but make sure it's your body and not your mind!!!

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

CrowSnake — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:31:16 GMT

I have been loosing weight 27 lbs since march. The biggest help was learning that I was not getting enough protein and that was why I was always starving. I also learned to use Whey Protein from Dr Mercola and Drink 52 grams a day split into two times a day. I also learned how to eat from Dr Mercola, I eat a lot of salmon and chicken breast, and veggies now. I take supplements but I have done that since my Weight loss surgery in 2003. I have a little twinge in my knees from carrying all that excess weight all those years so I do not think running is a good idea for me. I want to ride Bicycle but My little Dogs are so insistent that I walk with them that I usually end up being pulled my the waist for about an hour 3 or 4 times a week. finding time for my Bicycle is nearly impossible. I push mow the yard and they do not usually get a walk those days. Anyway. the thing between running and pulse training, is you have to do what works for you. If you want to run and your joints can take it , do it. If you think pulse training will work for you try it. If walking is your thing do it. Everyone is so different, If your joints can not take running maybe they can take pulse, or maybe they can take biking, or just walking. No one is wrong, no one is right, there are just right and wrong for YOU.. We are all so different. Do not complain if Dr Mercola thinks their might be more than one way for us to get and stay fit. Because it is different for all of us.

And you have to remember he has this site to make money. To do that he must promote and sell things. If he thinks something might work for some of us, and that it is a good idea, and he does not see anything wrong in it, then he will promote it, if he thinks it can help some of us and not hurt us then he puts it on his sell list. I have never seen him promote anything that is bad yet.

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

chrissd — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:21:39 GMT

Dr. what do you or you're readers think about running on a "rebounder"? Much less ware and tear on the joints knees and ankles!

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

berry lee — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:11:47 GMT

Why try to sell running? I think it's accepted that fast walking for 30 min/day is best and especially for us older folks???

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

webwitch6 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:52:51 GMT

I am just not a runner. I would rather do something that doesnt rearrange my intestines and wreak havoc on my joints..

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

whimsley — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:51:21 GMT

The only reason I ever ran was to get away from something scary. LOL

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

Bett137 — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:23:15 GMT

I find this article and Dr. Mercola‘s comments very odd because just a few months ago, he was heavily promoting and recommending the PACE program, which I purchased online. The PACE program promotes short bursts of sprints etc of only 1 minute with 1 minute rests in between sprints. The total workout in the beginning should be only 10 minutes up to 20 minutes MAX. It states that long distance running is actually not the healthiest exercise for the heart because it builds smaller, more compact heart muscles which pumps smaller amounts of blood--- instead of building the heart so that it can pump larger volumes. It is also supposed to be a better fat burner. I thought the book made sense and actually lost weight when I followed the program. Now, the above article seems to have the absolute opposite view.

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

paragonx — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:37:24 GMT

You should be doing PACE (Dr. Mercola once recommended it). Slow walks (recovery) for 2 minutes followed by 100% sprints for 30 seconds (I do mine uphill). It's great and the workout is only 15-20 minutes. It's harder than it sounds though so you might have to build up to it.

(You can also do on staionary bike, treadmill, stepper, etc...)

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

HilaryB — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:28:21 GMT

If you look up "Couch to 5k" online you'll find several other articles like this or if you look it up in itunes you'll find a couple of podcasts that will help you start the process of getting into running as this article describes. There are a couple that have changes in the music to prompt you to do the running and then back to walking. With different audio with more running as you go along (hope that makes sense.)

I made it to the first week of running and then had an allergy problem that sort of set me back to zero (my raw dairy went away at the time and I didn't realize how much it had been helping me.) Still getting out and walking for an hour 2-3 times a week which is still better than nothing. Got the raw dairy back and I think I now need some new tennis shoes because the ones I have I think have broken in too much are starting to hurt my feet even walking an hour.

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

Sray — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:19:37 GMT

For many years, junior high to age 46, I was a distance runner. Healthy heart, low pulse, I could eat what I wanted. But, I had skeletal malalignment, a significant scoliosis. I did run marathons but could never finish the last 5 miles without walking - my neck hurt too much. My joints - as one ayurvedic book emphasized is true for many vata or vata-pitta body types - were not built for distance running. The paradox, is that such people (like me) are drawn to that type of exercise. We connect with the euphoria, the ability to draw in energy from long runs. But our structures are not strong enough, our joints not stable enough. Faster shorter runs are better for us. What can be good for many other folks was a form of self-abuse in my case. Malalignment needs correction before long distance work

Finally I paid to work with a very experienced personal trainer (weight lifting). Looking at my overdeveloped legs, my head forward posture, my cardio fittness but weak arms, etc, he told me that "all those years running you would have been lots better off if you had been doing weight lifting, with a good trainer, to balance your structure, bring your head over your center, and strengthen your upper body. From now on, he told me, work out 3-4 times a week at the gym, or at home, keep up a good pace, so you get cardio fittness from the workout, and after the strength training workout, if I want to run, that is the time to do it. But spend your first and best energy doing what is most important - strength training done aerobically (along with stretching built into the process).

Indeed, after just 6 week, of giving up running - and instead doing what he said, like he said - I got much more comfortable in my body. My head was no longer forward. I could type at a computer without neck pain. I had more endurance and strength in daily life.

I like his way of correcting head forward posture: use rowing type movements, while at the same keeping shoulders down and chest up.

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

Katharine — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:55:53 GMT

I'm sure you have heard of this and it is very basic but Sit and be Fit (on PBS) http://www.sitandbefit.org/ is certainly better than nothing and if you added some weights a few weeks in that could up the intensity. There are a few episodes archived on YouTube..

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

Jen47 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:54:35 GMT

In Miami it's HOT, sauna HOT (steam broil your lobster HOT) and since I have a treadmill I use it for 1-6 mile walks AND read a book. I forget how long I've been on it and just "sweat" (I keep a fan aimed at me and a box for a water bottle on the side taped on, I'm 60 after all) Now how much easier could it be. Usually I walk at 3.0mph but sometimes cut it to 2.5 for a break any faster and it cuts into my reading ha ha. I feel so much better when I do at least 2 miles. I do two sessions sometimes (the housework's gotta get done sometime) And I help my husband being the dispatcher for his coffee machine repair business. Even jumping rope (which is harder exercise than you'd think) is helpful if you don't have a machine. Pit Bull dogs are outlawed in this county but I don't go outside to walk because of the heat and stray dogs. You still hear of babies being attacked and people just walking and minding their own business.

If you can't "Dance to the music, walk to it." LOL

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

OnlyTruth — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:57:08 GMT

I could never run though my husband did. It was too hard on the joints and he finally had to give it up for the same reason. About 8 years ago we bought Rollerblades because there's a beautiful 14 mile wooded lakeside path here which our kids skated and we thought we should give it a try.

We've been hooked ever since! We skate the entire trail 3-4 times a week and we bike it on the weekends (too many little ones makes it dangerous to skate then). It doesn't bother my joints or my back. Of course, we've always stayed active so taking this on wasn't a major task for us. BTW we're grandparents 6 times over and we take our grandchildren skating!

Our generation has really changed the aging paradigm!

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

Timbear — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:56:15 GMT

The reason this is useful is because as I understand it, intense exercise is shown to overly strengthen one section of the heart relative to the others while cardio over time strengthens the entire heart structure. This imbalance causes problems. When I lift, I can feel the pressure hit the back of my eyes and can feel my ears sometimes pop and feel the cords stretching against the skin in my neck. I sometimes moved in excess of 60 tons in a 2 hour workout after which I did 30 minutes of walking. I have the workout journals to prove it, too. During this time I was consuming some 13,000 calories a day with a 30.5 inch waist and no drugs.

My grandaddy lived into his late 90s eating bacon and fried chicken and real butter, sometimes oleo as he called it? I suspect it is because he continued to cut his own wood and grow his own vegetables.

You need both and THIS is a workable gradual plan for folks who are starting from zero to not try to go too fast. Intensity is the last thing someone who is 40 or 50lbs overweight needs to engage in too quickly because they wind up with aching joints, stiff muscles, depression and lack of belief in their possibility for success. Gradually building up like this gives their spirits and minds time to grow into the effort, too.

Thanks for the article.

re: How to Go From Sedentary to Running in Just Five Steps

corgi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:32:36 GMT

When I was in the USAF, I ran almost everyday, it was part of training or physical conditioning. I jogged everyday at lunch time and ran three times a week after work. My health sure improved and I stopped smoking without any effort at all. Ya cant run and smoke too, not if you are serious about it.

After I retired and became active in my civilian job world, emphasis on work all day, every day 7/365, running became a time consuming burden that interfered with the job and a angry employer who considered it a waste of time. Now that i'm retired and had the stress induced heart attack, I'm slowly recovering and getting a little more active each day and starting to walk more and exercise. In the morning and evening when its cool in summer and midday in the winter when its warmer. I do feel better and it helps, but it took a long time to get active again. But if you can do it, do it. You WILL feel better.