August 12, 2020, 7:00 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
FITBOOK regularly addresses community questions and directs them to experts. At the FITBOOK Move Jam, Germany’s largest online training festival, the focus was on a healthy start to running training. An expert in this field is Dr. Paul Schmidt-Hellinger, a sports physician and former long-distance runner. In the video, you can see his detailed answers. We’ve summarized the key points for you.
“We couldn’t have wished for a better expert today,” says FITBOOK Move Jam moderator Anna Kraft. Rightly so: If anyone can give tips for a healthy start to running training, it’s Dr. Paul Schmidt-Hellinger, long-distance runner and sports physician at Charité Berlin. He set the German record in the 50-kilometer road race, which was also the world best performance in 2016.
Do such success stories motivate you? Then lace up your running shoes! However, with the prospect of your own trophies, you should take your time.
“Don’t Set Goals Too High”
At least, the expert believes that beginners shouldn’t set their goals too high. In fact, the very first run should be as short as possible–just 500 meters is “completely sufficient for the absolute beginning,” says Schmidt-Hellinger. In the following two or three days, it’s important to listen to your body and observe what’s happening in your muscles.
Paul Schmidt-Hellinger knows from personal experience that overexerting yourself is pointless. An injury followed by surgery sidelined him for more than six months. Afterward, he attempted a seemingly “relaxed start” back into running training–with a supposedly manageable distance of four kilometers–and immediately paid the price: “I had calf muscle soreness for over a week and an Achilles tendon irritation.”
Also interesting: How long does muscle soreness last, and does it mean the muscle is growing?
What Is Plyometric Training and Who Is It Suitable For?
Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Training – What Are the Benefits and Can You Feel the Difference?
Beginner Tip: Weekly Net Training Times
Running beginners can do better by following expert advice and “weekly net training times.” Dr. Paul Schmidt-Hellinger and his colleagues in sports medicine prescribe this guideline almost like a recipe for running beginners. “In stage one, it’s 30 minutes of net training time per week,” he explains, which can be divided into three sessions of eight to ten minutes each.
Training bites, one might say. And even those don’t have to be pushed through. “One option would be to warm up for two minutes and then jog for one minute four times,” says the expert, “with walking breaks in between.”
There’s also a clear guideline for increasing these weekly net training times. “You increase according to the ten percent rule,” Schmidt-Hellinger explains. “That means you increase by ten percent per week.” So in week two, it would be about 33 minutes, in week three 36 to 37 minutes, and so on.
The Other Expert Talks of the FITBOOK MOVE JAM 2020
- Regeneration After Training – Fitness Professor Dr. Stephan Geisler
- Performance Enhancement with Neurocentric Training – Luise Walther
- Recognizing Overtraining Correctly – Fitness Professor Dr. Stephan Geisler
How to Avoid “Shin Splints”
FITBOOK user René (“a passionate runner himself,” as he reports) wants to know how to avoid “shin splints”–a term for the unpleasant shin splint syndrome, a feared injury among runners. FITBOOK editor Anna Kessler, who is currently training to run 10 kilometers in under 45 minutes, also struggled with it initially.
Dr. Paul Schmidt-Hellinger explains it as “the middle of a muscular chain that arises due to shortening.” More specifically, in most people, the hip flexor muscle is shortened. The reason for this: the common practice of sitting a lot in our society. As a result, the abductor muscles in the thighs are often shortened, which pulls the legs slightly inward. This is accompanied by a tendency toward a hollow back.
When you run longer, and especially on harder surfaces, the arch of the foot lowers. “When the arch of the foot lowers, it pulls the attachment of the shin splint muscles downward.” If this pull always occurs in the same three-dimensional vector–for example, because you always run on the treadmill or on straight paths–it can cause the sharp pain of shin splint syndrome. Orthopedists refer to this as an overload of the periosteum.
So what helps against it? “Stretching the hip flexor,” says the expert. Schmidt-Hellinger demonstrates how to do this in the video–and it’s not only apparently beneficial for good posture but also amusing to watch…
That and several more tips for a healthy start to running training–in the video above!