Walk (or Sprint) Before You Run

OK the title is a little misleading, sorry if you feel baited, because I’m not trying to bash running. Running is still a good, fairly low barrier for people to get their movement in, a win in my book. I just prefer to work at either end of this continuum here when it comes to point of entry on this, for the people I work with at the least. I started thinking about this post when a few general population clients asked, apart from their conditioning they do during their sessions, what is something they can most days at home? My answer is usually to go for a walk for a couple days a week in pair with their workouts.

Walking is;

• Very low impact,
• Can still elevate your heart rate to the necessary level
• Can be done it in 10-20 minutes a day

 
Athletes on the other hand, NEED to sprint. I’m not saying run, I’m not saying jog, I’m saying sprint. This is not as easy as roll out of the car on to a field or track and go full bore, so it's not as low of a barrier to entry. Still, it’s something they need to do away from the gym, especially if they are a court or field athlete of any sort. If there are non-athletes or weekend warriors out there that also want to sprint, I say let’s do it.
 
Sprinting, for those that want heavy bang for buck ratio, will;

• Elevate the heart rate too (assuming you do more than one)
• Will develop power
• Assist in muscle development

 
If you truly enjoy running/jogging and your body isn’t fighting you back on it (constant aches in the knees, ankles, hips, back, etc...) then by all means go for it. Especially if you are someone that intends to run long distance races, you kind of need to run. My only point against it is not everyone is built to withstand the impacts of running. (Though strength training can help with that).
 
If you have another modality that works for you, that gets your heart rate up, by all means have right at it. My point today is that most people should start on one end, or the other, and then figure out whether or not long distance running is for them. Thanks for reading everyone. Hope this made sense to a few of you and I did not annoy too many out there. Have a great weekend and I appreciate your attention today.