The Lifelong Runner & Jogger: Tips for Your Future Miles

First things first: Congratulations!

You have chosen an activity that has benefits in quite literally every part of your body. The positive impact on your muscles, tendons, bones, heart, and brain are extensive. Don’t stop! In this brief article I will shed light on how you can ensure that you are able to enjoy this activity for the duration of your lifetime. 

Keep Your Cadence Up

Before you get overwhelmed by jargon, allow me to explain. Cadence is quite simply how many steps you take in a minute. Why do we care? Well, the more steps you take in a minute, the less time you spend on the ground. Spending less time on the ground is a good thing! This generally means less collapse into your hip, knee, and ankle joints which can cause extra strain. So, a higher cadence (or step rate) is an easy way to minimize superfluous strain on your body. The ideal step rate truly varies from person to person. Determining one’s ideal cadence is an integral component of the treatment plan for all of my running/jogging clients. For the rest of us who simply want to run in bliss, this is my advice: shorten your stride and take smaller quicker steps. It will certainly feel strange at first, but in the long term your hips, knees, and ankles will thank you.

Stay Strong

I cannot emphasize this enough: stronger muscles make a more resilient body. If you like to run (or jog), commit to doing strength training 2-3 times/week with a focus on your abdominals, back muscles, gluteals, hip flexors, and calves. Yoga, pilates, weight lifting, and home-based work outs are all appropriate avenues to accomplish this. It doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective! 

Be (or become) Confident on One Leg

Running and jogging are single limb activities. Quite simply, you are leaping from one leg to the other. So, you “should” be confident on one leg, right? More often than not I actually find that my 40+ runners are not! Don’t worry though, because you can absolutely improve this skill. Begin small by working on balancing on one leg. From there you can build infinitely…squatting on one leg, doing upper body exercises while on one leg, holding weights while squatting on one leg, and thousands of other variations. Build gradually and be patient with yourself because these things take time.  

Seems simple, right? Obviously implementing these tips is a commitment but if you are reading this then you clearly don’t shy away from investments in your health. These simple concepts will go a long way in ensuring that you are able to enjoy feeling your foot hit the pavement (or wood chips) for many years to come. Movement is medicine, my friend.