Natural weight loss at home with diet, nutrition, fitness, and training tips from theory to practice

I want to start running – where do I begin?

Running is a great exercise to get into shape, but you need to be careful not to put too much stress on your heart, especially if you're currently out of shape and haven't exercised for a long time. Learn how you can help your body and heart get to a running stage.

Running is a very strenuous exercise not only for your heart, but for all of the muscles of your lower body, your spine, your abdominals, your hips, and your joints.

Running is also an excellent exercise to burn calories to lose weight. It burns more calories than walking or even weight training if done for an extended period of time at the right intensity.

If you have not been exercising at all for a long period of time or have never exercised, so are completely out of shape, I would recommend trying to break into a running program as gently as you can. "Breaking in" meaning doing something else that is less intense and strenuous, but will prepare you to start running.

There are several ways to do this, all having to do with slowly increasing the amount of stress you put on your heart over time. And while you increase the stress, you should have a way to monitor your progress. A heart rate monitor is a good instrument to use for doing this.

Walking as a way to ease into running

Walking is a terrific low-impact exercise that you can use to break into running.

The key to effectively using walking to break into a running program is to gradually increase the length of your walks as well as your pace.

Again, monitor your heart rate when you’re doing this, and let your heart be your coach: It will tell you when you’re going too fast and thus need to slow down, and it will tell you when you’re going too slow and thus need to speed up the pace.

It will probably take a couple of months before you start to run, so be patient. As long as you see your heart rate dropping week after week, rest assured that you’re making progress.

Cycling as a way to ease into running

Cycling is another great low-impact exercise you can use to prepare yourself to start running.

Unlike walking, cycling increases the endurance in your leg muscles, but the motion is very different to running. Walking looks and feels more like running than cycling does, so serves as a better preparation to start running.

Just like walking, you can use your heart rate as a measure for determining how intense you have to train and for whether you’re making progress.

If you’re very heavy and have difficulty walking, cycling might be the best option to break into a training routine.