RW’s Sam Murphy took a six-month sabbatical. In direct and indirect ways, here are the 12 habit tweaks that have helped her run – and feel – better:
1. Chafing: How can runners prevent the rub
I spent part of my sabbatical living on a Scottish island with one small shop and no cafe, restaurant, pub or hotel. The weekly shop – a ferry ride and 45-minute drive to the nearest town – needed meticulous planning to ensure I did not run out of food. This shone a spotlight on what I was eating and made me think harder about my meal and snack choices. I increased my fruit and veg intake, ate far less processed food and had a stock of healthy snack options to hand instead of relying on toast and biscuits. I also planned meals according to my training – a habit that sports dietitian Renee McGregor says is essential for getting the most from your workouts. ‘Knowing in advance what your body will need ensures that you have all the ingredients to prepare suitable meals and snacks before and after training sessions,’ says McGregor. That meant carb-rich dinners, such as turkey chilli with rice or spaghetti arrabiata the evening before long morning runs, and plenty of healthy protein afterwards – feta and mushroom omelette or smoked mackerel with salad and cold potatoes. A particularly useful habit I acquired was planning lunches along with dinners. I’d double up when cooking wholegrains such as buckwheat or couscous to allow enough for a salad the next day, or stock up on feta to crumble over the cold leftovers of caponata or ratatouille for a tasty lunch.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Being more organised with food shopping puts paid to those occasions when you get home from a long day, starving, to find an empty fridge and so you eat out or call in a pizza; or stop on the way home for an unhealthy snack because you failed to fuel properly earlier on. A balanced diet also keeps your weight in check and reduces injury risk.
Related: Why you shouldn’t be ‘running off’ calories
2. Lie down on your back
We runners love social media for swapping tips, posting big achievements and sharing our experiences. And there’s always something to read or watch that just might help you find the perfect glute exercise/trail shoe/race. But an enforced break from all kinds of technology (no TV or laptop, let alone mobile phone signal or WiFi) on sabbatical left me feeling much more rested, despite an immense amount of daily physical activity. In a recent study, Canadian researchers found that just an hour a day on social media affected quality and quantity of sleep. It’s partly down to the blue light that these devices emit, which increases alertness, but there’s a psychological element, too: the constant stimuli that social media – and media in general – present means we never rest properly. ‘It’s a paradox of the modern world that we do less physically than ever before and yet we almost never “do nothing”,’ says Bowman. It took my return to ‘civilisation’ and overdosing on social media before I realised how much I’d benefited from a technology detox. I’ve now set limits on screen time and I sleep better and feel more rested when I wake up.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Sleep is essential for recovery and adaptation to training – this is when muscle repair takes place, glycogen stores are replenished, electrolyte balance restored and human growth hormone released. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be maximising the gains you could be making from your training. A study from Stanford University, US, found that reducing sleep ‘debt’ by getting athletes to sleep 10 hours a night for five to seven weeks improved performance. Taking sleep seriously also helps support your immune system: researchers from the Netherlands found that sleep deprivation affected levels of infection-fighting white blood cells called granulocytes.
Chop your food with a knife, not a food processor
3. life-tweaks that will help you to become a better runner in 2019
Too much sitting is now cited as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. It may also make your bum bigger. A Tel Aviv University study found the mechanical pressure placed on fat cells when sitting for too long triggers biochemical signalling that encourages them to produce more fat. Once you’re aware of the adverse effects of prolonged sitting (and if you’re reading this sitting down, you may be feeling a little restless), it’s remarkable how clearly you start to see opportunities to stand. I now eat my lunch standing up at the kitchen counter, I make phone calls standing or walking around. I read documents standing up. I don’t look for seats on trains. But, Bowman says, simply swapping sitting for standing isn’t the whole story. ‘What’s really important is to move through many different positions throughout the day.’
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Being on your feet reduces the amount of time you spend in what Bowman calls ‘chair-sitting geometry’, impacting less on your posture. And studies also show standing uses 20 per cent more calories than sitting.
Resting heart rate: All a runner needs to know?4. And breathe…
Do you hold your stomach in? Many of us do to try to make our bellies look trim, but it stops you using your diaphragm – the primary breathing muscle – fully. ‘When you inhale, your diaphragm contracts and moves downward, which increases the volume in your chest cavity and draws air into your lungs,’ explains Budd Coates, author of Running on Air (Rodale). But if your tummy is sucked in, you create a battle for space the diaphragm wants to move downward to allow the chest to expand, but your organs and intestines are being squeezed by your abs and have nowhere to go. You’re forced to breathe higher up in the chest, reducing your breathing capacity, and increasing shoulder and neck tension.
Are you ‘belly breathing’?
Test to see if you’re using your diaphragm
1. Is ultra-running bad for the heart.
2. What is overpronation.
3. As you inhale, you should feel the hand on your belly rise, with only minimal movement in the upper chest and no increase in neck or shoulder tension.
4. Chafing: How can runners prevent the rub.
If you feel your chest moving first when you inhale, focus on your belly expanding and inflating beneath your hand. On exhale, breathe out as much air as possible through your nose and mouth to increase awareness of the action of your diaphragm muscle.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below -‘Working your diaphragm to its fullest potential allows your lungs to expand to their greatest volume and fill with the largest amount of air, which, of course, you need for your running,’ says Coates.
5. Get comfy
It’s obvious that pointy or stiff shoes and high heels constrict feet. But your running shoes probably also have features – tapered toebox, thick cushioning, elevated heel – that compromise natural foot movement. But there’s no need to become a barefoot runner to counter the effects. A recent study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that wearing minimal shoes for normal daily living strengthened the feet as effectively as a programme of foot-strength exercises. (Check out Vivobarefoot’s range of minimalist footwear). Shoes aren’t the only kit that can curtail natural movement. According to Tim Hutchful, a chiropractor and spokesperson for the British Chiropractic Association, restrictive clothing such as skinny jeans can prevent the body from moving freely. It can also quash the urge to move. With no dressing to impress on my sabbatical, I lived in running leggings, comfy tops and functional outdoor gear, which frequently turned a walk into an impromptu run, tree-climbing or blackberry-picking session.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Donning gear you can move freely in means you’re ready for action at any time – potentially upping your activity levels. Wearing minimalist shoes for daily life improves foot strength and reduces injury risk – a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found stronger foot muscles reduced arch collapse during running and the risk of plantar fasciitis.
6. Resting heart rate
A mound of pillows is comfy, but it’s not helping your posture. ‘The “forward head” position created by handheld and screened devices is frequently flagged up, but it’s less discussed how we practise it each night on the pillow,’ says Bowman. To boost mobility in your neck and upper back, she recommends slowly (a year to 18 months) reducing your pillow stack height.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below -‘For runners trying to work on breaking forward-torso and head-leaning habits, eight hours of nightly mobility work [while you sleep] can make all the difference,’ says Bowman.
7. Resting heart rate: All a runner needs to know
The average person spends six to eight hours a day in a chair, be it a car seat, sofa or office chair. Some sitting is unavoidable but there are plenty of times when we could plant our backsides on something altogether healthier. ‘Sitting on the floor encourages your body to cycle through many different positions, rather than the one or two that a sofa encourages,’ says Katy Bowman, a biomechanist and author of Move your DNA (Lotus). ‘Each position creates a unique load on the body.’ If you have a hard floor, start by sitting on a cushion. But don’t get too comfortable, or you’ll lose the urge to shift positions.
What is overpronation:
1. Crossed legs- Opens up the hips.
2. Kneeling - A good quad stretch that also prevents slumping.
3. Chafing: How can runners prevent the rub.
4. Are you belly breathing.
5. Caveman squat - Squat on your haunches, keeping your heels down. Great for calf, knee and hip mobility.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - The body adapts to what you do most often. ‘When we get out of the chair to run at the end of a long day, we retain a subtle chair shape, with flexed knees and hips, a rounded spine and a jutting chin,’ says Bowman. Over time, the tissues that are shortened – or lengthened – by chair-sitting affect your posture and range of motion, with a knock-on effect on your stride. For example, short, tight hip flexors limit hip extension, restrict stride length and reduce power; protracted (rounded) shoulders hamper breathing and compromise arm action.
8. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Just as detailed menu planning can brush up your eating habits, planning a weekly regime can better balance work, rest and play. ‘Schedule important tasks, but ensure you also schedule in breaks and rewards,’ says Midgie Thompson, mental-performance coach and author of The Winning Strategies Workbook . It’s also important to play to your strengths. Is there a time of day, or day of the week, when you generally feel most mentally alert or physically energetic? ‘Just as your goals should be realistic, so should your planning,’ says Robert Davis, author of Fitter Faster . ‘For example, if you tend to be too tired or busy at the end of the day, don’t schedule a workout then; find another time that’s better suited to you.’
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Looking at your training in the context of the week ahead (which days are you likely to be most stressed, busy or tired?) helps you plan key sessions on the right days, minimising the risk of skipping them or performing poorly.
9. Lose the pillow
A break from your usual routine offers a great opportunity to learn new things – which is good for our mental health. It could be small things (cooking a new recipe, trying a different cafe, finding out the name of that flower you keep seeing) or big ones (learning a new sport, making a major life change). ‘Learning affects our wellbeing in lots of positive ways,’ says Vanessa King of Action for Happiness. ‘It exposes us to new ideas and helps us stay curious and engaged. It also gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps boost our self-confidence and resilience.’
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - With no ‘usual’ routes, weekly club sessions or training buddies on sabbatical, I found myself testing my navigational skills, attending different races and parkruns, and training with different clubs – from which I acquired new skills and ideas on training and coaching.There’s some science behind why this exposure to new things left me feeling energised about running: research from University College London shows that the release of the brain chemical dopamine in response to novel experiences is associated with motivation and reward.
10. Put music on when doing menial tasks to encourage you to move
In a classic 1980s study, a Dutch researcher, Professor Klaas Westerterp, discovered that people who did ‘structured exercise’ expended less energy over the remainder of the day compared with those who were active as part of their lifestyle. Westerterp speculated that having ‘ticked off’ exercise from their to-do list, exercisers felt they deserved to put their feet up and inadvertently did less activity overall. Does that sound familiar? During my recent sabbatical, I challenged myself to amass the widely recommended 10,000 steps per day outside of my running routine. I sat less, walked more and did a wider variety of activities. I lost weight without trying and my activity tracker adjusted my daily steps goal to 16,000, which I’ve managed to maintain by thinking more creatively about how to be more active in daily life.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Being active outside of running is like a form of cross training, building a more balanced, less injury-prone body. ‘Even if you are a great exerciser, only the muscles you’ve used for that specific exercise garner any benefits,’ says Bowman. ‘Over time, heavy use of your body in one particular pattern builds strong tissues next to weaker ones, creating an environment in which injury can develop.’
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1. Walk or cycle to work (or at least part of the way).
2. Move more at work (use a glass instead of a bottle for water, so you have to get up to refill it; try walking meetings; take calls standing up).
3. Carry your shopping home (or park in the far corner of the car park).
4. Six ways to boost daily activity.
5. Everything you need to know about fell running.
6. Put music on when doing menial tasks to encourage you to move.
11. Driving force
Miles behind the wheel can leave you as stiff as running a marathon. Two tweaks can make a big difference: first, break up travel with activity. Rather than slump in a chair at the services with an overpriced coffee, walk around or even do some stretches (you will never see these people again). Secondly, consider your driving position. Many car seats are designed with the rear lower than the front (so your hips are lower than your knees). This increases hip flexion, puts pressure on the lower back and also compresses the hamstring tendon against its attachment point on the ‘sitting bone’. Try to adjust the seat to horizontal but if you can’t, use a folded towel to raise your hips at least as high as your knees. Make sure your knee crease is in front of the seat edge but you don’t have to reach too far for the pedals (keep a slight bend in the knee). Finally, adjust the seatback to a slight recline (10-20 degrees) to reduce pressure on the lumbar discs. Once in the right position, adjust your rear-view mirror so you can see clearly. This now serves as a posture check – if you lose good rear-view visibility, you’ve lost good posture.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - Adjusting your driving position promotes good posture, which translates to better running form. Breaking up journey time helps you feel less ‘beaten up’ by long drives seat so you’re more likely to have the energy to run later.
12. What is overpronation
With no electric kettle or fridge while ‘off grid’, instant hot chocolate with skimmed milk powder became an evening ritual that set us up for sleep rather than revving us up with caffeine. Milk is high in tryptophan, which the body converts into the sleep hormone melatonin.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below - A milky drink at bedtime aids recovery. Casein, found in milk, is a slow-digesting protein that’s been found to increase overnight muscle-protein synthesis when ingested before sleep.
