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Adding Variety to Your Running Routine
Kimberley

Once you have established a regular running routine, you may find that monotony sets in. The same distance and the seem form of exercise, are making it difficult for you to stay motivated and interested. Add on top of that, daily life stresses, time constraints and less than favorable weather, and going out for a run may not seem so pleasing. If this is not the case, that is, you are satisfied with your running routine and the many benefits it has to offer, it still may be worthwhile for you to add variety to your exercise program to prevent injury and increase your endurance without the impact of running.

We all have the potential to get caught up in the daily routine of life, fitting everything we can into the seemingly too few hours in the day. If or when this becomes reality, we perhaps lose track of our most important asset,our health. The key to breaking this cycle or preventing it from happening, at least from an exercise perspective, is to add variety to your running routine. This is not say that running will no longer be your primary form of exercise, but rather, simply a break in the monotony may spice things up a bit and to the point that there is new found enjoyment in your running. If, for example, you are running five days a week for 30 minutes, you may want to substitute two of those days with different forms of cross-training, such as cycling, swimming, water running, inline skating or cross country skiing. However, since these different sports may be new to your body, it is important to build mileage slowly as you have done already with your running routine.

Not only may your mind need some variety, but physiologically, your body may also need a bit of a break from running. Approximately two to seven times your body weight is imposed on your body while you are running and therefore, there is a risk of injury to those musculoskeletal structures supporting this high weight bearing activity. Also, running tends to neglect certain muscle groups, for example, the motion of running relies more on the back of the thighs (hamstrings) than the front of the thighs (quadriceps), thus creating an imbalance. By adding different forms of exercise, such as those mentioned above, the occurrence of injury can be decreased and even prevented, and perhaps surprisingly, endurance can be increased without increasing the impact that running mileage has on your body.

Also, if you are unfortunate enough to develop an injury, other forms of exercise other than running may help you work through the injury while maintaining fitness. Runners commonly water run and cycle while rehabilitating from an injury and subsequently, as an injury prevention method once the injury has healed. Now, this is not to say that running is not an overall beneficial form of exercise, as it is! A consistent running regime is a fabulous aerobic activity that can reduce body fat, increase energy and strengthen the cardiovascular system, as well as help regulate body processes that influence disease processes and mental health. A simple, reasonably inexpensive and effective form of exercise running is, but one has to always keep in mind, as with anything in life, that moderation and variety are keys to a healthy life.