If you are thinking that now is the time to get up off the couch and get some exercise, then you’re right! But there are some important things you need to consider before heading out the door. Let’s start with two basic running tips for beginners: the Warm Up and the Cool Down

Warm Up

The main thing you want to accomplish is to get your body ready for the physical activity to follow. You are preparing it for action by getting your blood circulating. For those of you with poor circulation, taking a hot shower first will help the blood to get moving. Light walking or a few calisthenics will also be effective warm up actions.

I just saw an article that said you need less of a warm up for running shorter distances. This is only true up to a point. Thirty seconds of warm up is not sufficient for even a short workout. A minimum period of five minutes is required to warm up for any run. Later, when your workouts become longer or more intense, you will be warming up for 15 minutes or more. Even an hour is recommended before a really long race, but that is beyond the scope of what beginning runners will need for now.

Cool down

This is like a warm up in reverse, except that now you stretch to keep the muscles from tightening up. You want to allow your body to return to a resting heart rate very gradually. The longer you work out, the longer your cool down will take. Again, five minutes is the very minimum amount of time to allow for your cool down.

These tips are only two out of many that you should consider when starting a running program. You can find many more useful running tips at a website like Running Tips 4 All. The most challenging steps are the ones that get you off the couch and out the door. The rest is easier! Just remember to “always put one foot in front of the other”.