Hello and welcome back to Musician’s Maintenance Weekly where it’s my job to find interesting exercises, progressions and ideas to help you get moving without getting injured. This week is all about aerobic exercise and specifically running.
Here’s what I’ve got this week 1) A beginners guide to running 2) The breathing gears 3) A program to get started running without getting hurt.
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Onwards!
1) A Beginners Guide to Running
Running can give you a whole host of physical and psychological benefits (especially if you do it outdoors). Plus it requires very little in terms of equipment, has no membership fees attached to it and also has a very low likelihood of overusing muscles in the fingers, arms, wrists, shoulders or neck, making it a perfect option for musicians. However, it you’re not careful, you can create a whole host of other issues. So starting out right is very important.
Below you’ll find a really good, 4-step guide to help you get started running. The steps are…
- Initial Conditioning
- Warm-up for Running
- Correct Running Technique
- Walk Before You Run
Read: A Beginners Guide to Running- 4 Steps to Learn How to Run | Nerd Fitness
Sponsor: Born to Run
When thinking about exercise, I often find myself wondering what the human animal has evolved to do. To me figuring that out holds the key to knowing how to maintain yourself. Born to Run makes a convincing argument that we have evolved to run and tells a great story along the way. I’m not sure you need to run the distances mentioned in the book, but if you need a little motivation to re-connect with your animal self and get out running, this book should do the trick.
Sponsor: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall | (Affiliate: If you buy the book through this link, I get a small portion of the sale at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting the Musician’s Maintenance mission!)
2) The Breathing Gears
One of the biggest mistakes in getting started running is going too fast too soon. The problem with this is that you are more likely to get injured and less likely to build that big aerobic base that will translate to so many other areas of life. The best way that I’ve found to control intensity is to limit your running by your breathing.
The Breathing Gears from Power Speed Endurance gives you a tool to do just this. As you start off limit your intensity to Gear 3. If you have to breathe in a Gear 4 pattern, then it’s time to walk. As you walk, make sure your breathing gets back to Gear 1 before you start running again. If you’ve been with the newsletter for a while, you know I’m a big fan of breathwork. Now running is also breathwork.
Read: The Breathing Gears | Power Speed Endurance
3) A Program to Get Started Running Without Getting Hurt
While I really like the Nerd Fitness running plan, there’s a piece that I think is missing in Step 4. Running is actually 750 single leg plyometric hops per side per mile. Running injuries happen when your joints, ligaments and tendons aren’t resilient enough to deal with all of that impact. But your joints, tendons and ligaments can be trained, just like anything else, it just takes a little longer.
So instead of doing a walk/run progression, I tend to recommend a walk –> plyometric (think hops and jumps) –> run progression. The progression I like best was developed by one of my colleagues in the Boston area for people who are trying to return to running after an injury. It takes you through a nice detailed progression from walking, to gradually increasing the number of jumps and hops, to more gradual and structured walk/run program. Click below, make a plan, lace up your shoes and get outside!
Read: Return to Running Protocol | Brigham and Women’s Hospital Physical Therapy