Starting Running Again

TooObvious

After about 17 years away from running I have decided to get back into it. Now during my away time I wasn't being completely sedentary having gotten into mountain biking and then road biking, but of late and with 3 kids, I have found that i need something which can give me a quick 30-45 mins of decent exercise.

The last time i ran was a corporate 5km August last year, I clocked in a decent time of 22 min something but I was in bits with the "DOMS" for the next week. So I have a bit of cardio but the muscles are not quite ready for it.

So, I've just bought a new pair of runners, they smell lovely, and am getting all excited about running again. Any suggestions as to how I can break myself slowly into running without the seven day doms?? I'd say i could commit to 3-4 runs a week.

RayCun

run every second day for 30 minutes at an easy pace. 5k in 30 minutes kind of pace.
After a few weeks of that, start doing parkruns, longer runs, and join a club to do faster sessions.

shotgunmcos

Walk and stretch on the other days to prevent DOMs at least until you are consistently running and recovering without them

TooObvious

Thanks, I'll still be doing about 200km a week on the bike as well so hopefully that will help with the DOMS along with some stretching.

Ceepo

TooObvious wrote: »

Thanks, I'll still be doing about 200km a week on the bike as well so hopefully that will help with the DOMS along with some stretching.

The bike will help to some degree as you will be elevating the heart rate, which in turn will bring fresh blood and nutrients to the muscles.
However it is a common misconception that stretching will have benefit.

content://com.sec.android.app.sbrowser/readinglist/0211115128.mhtml

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=stretching+for+injury+prevention+cochrane&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DBQaPEz4tnm8J

El CabaIIo

Ceepo wrote: »

The bike will help to some degree as you will be elevating the heart rate, which in turn will bring fresh blood and nutrients to the muscles.
However it is a common misconception that stretching will have benefit.

content://com.sec.android.app.sbrowser/readinglist/0211115128.mhtml

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=stretching+for+injury+prevention+cochrane&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DBQaPEz4tnm8J

That paper doesn't say there is no benefit or not from stretching though. It says there was not enough evidence to endorse or discourage stretching.

I've never seen any studies that have conclusively proved anything on it. I look at it through the same eyes as I do high mileage because no one has been scientifically been able to prove that high mileage works but everything in real life observation points to it working.

Say from a biomechanical standpoint for instance, someone has got a rounded back and a craned neck, they are more likely to get neck pain because the weight of their head is hanging out front unsupported. If that person stretches the romboids and their neck to het better posture, the weight is supported better meaning it is not strained hanging out there like a crane meaning longterm injuries or pain are less likely.

To go with posture again, good posture will also engage the muscles that are made to do that job instead of having overworked muscles picking up the work when your body is not biomechanically neutral.

On one hand, you have biomechanists with life long observational experience saying stretching does help and on the other, you have researchers saying there is no evidence that it prevents injury.

Take for example the scholar article you posted there, I googled the researchers heading that paper and none of them specialise in sports medicine or biomechanics. They are all working in disease control in the health services sector, every one of them.

walshb

I'd advise a few days off per week for the first while...

Lot of people have tendency to want to go at it every day. Like they are making up for lost time....and get all hung up about a day missed here and there.

Allow the body rest to deal with the new exercise it's doing.

Trying to cram too much in too early may not help...

Ceepo

El CabaIIo wrote: »

That paper doesn't say there is no benefit or not from stretching though. It says there was not enough evidence to endorse or discourage stretching.

I've never seen any studies that have conclusively proved anything on it. I look at it through the same eyes as I do high mileage because no one has been scientifically been able to prove that high mileage works but everything in real life observation points to it working.

Say from a biomechanical standpoint for instance, someone has got a rounded back and a craned neck, they are more likely to get neck pain because the weight of their head is hanging out front unsupported. If that person stretches the romboids and their neck to het better posture, the weight is supported better meaning it is not strained hanging out there like a crane meaning longterm injuries or pain are less likely.

To go with posture again, good posture will also engage the muscles that are made to do that job instead of having overworked muscles picking up the work when your body is not biomechanically neutral.

On one hand, you have biomechanists with life long observational experience saying stretching does help and on the other, you have researchers saying there is no evidence that it prevents injury.

Take for example the scholar article you posted there, I googled the researchers heading that paper and none of them specialise in sports medicine or biomechanics. They are all working in disease control in the health services sector, every one of them.

Oops, sorry I linked to the wrong study, this is the one i meant to post,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21735398

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS:
The evidence from randomised studies suggests that muscle stretching, whether conducted before, after, or before and after exercise, does not produce clinically important reductions in delayed-onset muscle soreness in healthy adults.

It was suggested to stretch to help prevent DOMS, but while it is often recommended there's no evidence that it has is any help,

I certainly don't disagree that having good posture will help with better bio-mechanic's, efficiency and will help to avoid injuries, as will having good bio-mechanics help with good posture.
I'm not sure if I would go along with stretching the Rhomboids the neck to help with a kyphosis, there is a lot of other muscles i'd would target first, but I take the point you were trying to make.
Mind you pain science guys would say posture or bio-mechanics don,t really matter.

Regarding the 1st study , it was a meta analysis. so i don't think the researchers chosen specialty would make a difference to there ability to review other study's.