How to improve the way you run

Method 1: Getting better by doing strength training

Use dumbbells to do some squats. Pick out some bars that aren’t too heavy. Point your toes forward and spread your feet about shoulder-width apart. Keep the dumbbells in your hands and lean them against your side. Get into a squat position by putting your back straight out and keeping your knees under your toes. Several times through, do this practice.

• When you finish, pick a weight that you can do easily for 8 to 10 reps.

Do some push-ups. Put your back on the mat or the floor. Position your hands under your hips, shoulder-width apart. Make a straight line with your body by straightening your back and neck. Stay in this position for one minute before taking a break.

• Keep your back straight and don’t let your hips fall toward the mat. If you do, you could hurt your back.

Three times a week, go to the gym. At the gym, you can build muscle. If you don’t, you could hurt yourself running or reach a “performance plateau.” This means that no matter how hard you train, you don’t see any progress for a long time.

Method 2: Getting better with interval training

Get your body ready to work out and begin. Take five minutes to walk or jog slowly to warm up. To get ready for the interval exercise, this should help wake up your muscles and stretch out your legs. You can run faster and last longer if you do interval training. It teaches your body how to use oxygen more effectively.

Set a slow pace and run for fifteen minutes. Don’t go too fast, but keep your heart rate up by running at a moderate pace. Aim for between 70 and 80% of your best speed.

Do not work too hard. You shouldn’t get tired from this part of the workout. To get your body to receive oxygen better, you should instead try to get your heart rate up.

Start the short-term workouts. This is the part of the workout that makes you stronger and longer-lasting. Work hard to get your heart rate up and your muscles tired by running at your fastest speed for one minute. First, take a two-minute walk to cool down your legs.

• During the minute of running, work as hard as you can. If you don’t completely exhaust your muscles, interval exercise won’t work right. People who work out until they’re fighting for air are said to be “going into the anaerobic zone.”
• Record how long you run and how long you rest. Aim for one minute and two minutes. You might find it useful to get a clock or use a timer app on your phone.

Do this four times over. It should take about twelve minutes to do this. Even though it doesn’t seem like a long time, you should be completely worn out after twelve minutes. If not, then you weren’t running hard enough during the minutes.

Doing something over and over again makes your body better at absorbing air. Through time, this rises the most oxygen that can be in your blood. You will be able to run farther and faster if you have more air.

Take a break. For another five minutes, walk at a fast enough speed to work out your muscles but slow enough speed to cool down. You should be surprisingly tired for having done such a short workout by now. If not, you need to do more speed training to get your heart rate up.

Do your best. Work out with short breaks at least once a week. But be careful not to do this exercise more than twice in ten days, or you could hurt yourself. Once you have done interval training for a few weeks, make it harder by cutting the rest time from two minutes to one minute during interval training.

When you run for your daily workout, add five minutes to the time you run every week. This will slowly make you work out harder, which will help you get better over time. If you think five minutes is too long, add one minute to your workout every week to begin with.

Check how much you’ve improved. When you do your daily running workout, time yourself and write down your times in a journal so you have proof of your progress. Record the distance and time you run as fast as you can for as long as you can. This is another good way to see how much you’ve improved. It will take a few weeks of speed training to make you faster and able to run farther than before.
In order to prepare for a race like a 5k, you should skip a workout every couple of weeks and run the whole race. Write down how long you run in a journal. Once you do speed training for a few weeks, you will notice a big difference.

There are lots of helpful apps for phones that can help you keep track of time and distance. If you don’t want to run with your phone, you could buy a clock to keep track of your time and run on a track to get a more accurate reading of your distance.

Do some swings with your legs. Hold on to something solid, like a chair. While standing on one leg, move the other leg back and forth. Do all of your movements. For example, swing your leg up as high as you can comfortably go and then stretch it out behind your back as far as you can. Do it again with the other leg.

As you swing your leg around, be careful not to hurt yourself. Make sure you swing your leg in a smooth, steady way.

After running, stretch. It’s important to stretch after running, even though you’ll be tired. Frozen muscles are painful.

Stand up and do some quads. Put your legs together and stand up. Hold your legs together and bring your left foot behind your back to your left hand. Be careful not to stretch your leg too far when you press your foot with your hand.

Stand up and do two sets of calves. Put your hands up against a wall at chest level and face it. Put your left heel on the ground and press the ball of your left foot against the wall. Lean slowly toward the wall, being careful not to put your foot too far out. Stretch your right foot again.