By Neil O’Hanlon
Ladies and Gents, take note of the above infographic. If your plan is to start running at a later age without getting injured, maybe you’ve got a goal in mind, lets say a 5k or even a half marathon, then it’s so important to start really slowly. You have to take the ego out and get a few good weeks of brisk walking under your belt.
When you run, it’s a ground impact force of about 3 to 4 times you’re bodyweight. It’s only about 1 to 1.5 times when you walk. That’s why it’s logical to walk before you run, simply to give your body a chance to work up to the higher-stress exercise.
Shocking Impact Force
I’ve mentioned a couple of times now in other articles that I’ve suffered with the so-called runners knee, and I know it definitely occurs as a side-effect of running. So let’s use me as an example and the impact forces above. I weight just under 11 stones or 150 pounds. This means that each running stride I take loads my knee with about 4 times my bodyweight which is 600 pounds or 44 stones on each leg. Not great. I’m not convinced many runners actually know or even believe this figure. But it goes to shown why we get so many knee injuries.
For walking the figure is about 225 pounds or 17 stones which still seems a lot, but much, much less impact.
So, the key is to walk before you can run and follow a proven progressive program so your still doing it for many years to come.