Ellis, Joseph. Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent, Treat, and Recover from Runner's Knee, Shin Splints, Sore Feet, and Every Other Ache and Pain. Rodale, 2013.
Another thing I learned from reading the book, “Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent, Treat, and Recover from Runner's Knee, Shin Splints, Sore Feet, and Every Other Ache and Pain” by Dr. Joseph Ellis is to alternate “hard” and “easy” training.
According to the book,” This is why most experts recommend never performing hard workouts 2 days in a row. Give yourself at least 1 day of easy running or rest between hard workouts. This is known as the "hard-easy” method of training. If you run fast 1 day, train slowly the next. You’ll simply cancel out the gains of the long or fast workout, because your body is desperately trying to recover. You’re stressing weakened tissues that the body is trying to repair” (Ellis, 259).
I started the test by doing a “hard” workout by doing a half mile jog, then did a few sets of suicide sprints, then a few sets of full-on 40 yard sprints.
The next day I did an “easy” workout by just jogging 1 mile on a treadmill. Before knowing about this “hard-easy” method of training I always tried to do as many “hard” workouts in a row as possible because I thought that the more you train, the more you’ll improve. I did think that having these occasional days of “easy” workouts or breaks are important for your body to rest and recover but i wasn’t 100% until now. Now I know that doing too many “hard” workouts without breaks will actually cancel your progress.
Another thing I learned from reading the book, “Running Injury-Free: How to Prevent, Treat, and Recover from Runner's Knee, Shin Splints, Sore Feet, and Every Other Ache and Pain” by Dr. Joseph Ellis is to alternate “hard” and “easy” training.
According to the book,” This is why most experts recommend never performing hard workouts 2 days in a row. Give yourself at least 1 day of easy running or rest between hard workouts. This is known as the "hard-easy” method of training. If you run fast 1 day, train slowly the next. You’ll simply cancel out the gains of the long or fast workout, because your body is desperately trying to recover. You’re stressing weakened tissues that the body is trying to repair” (Ellis, 259).
I started the test by doing a “hard” workout by doing a half mile jog, then did a few sets of suicide sprints, then a few sets of full-on 40 yard sprints.
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"Hard workout"
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The next day I did an “easy” workout by just jogging 1 mile on a treadmill. Before knowing about this “hard-easy” method of training I always tried to do as many “hard” workouts in a row as possible because I thought that the more you train, the more you’ll improve. I did think that having these occasional days of “easy” workouts or breaks are important for your body to rest and recover but i wasn’t 100% until now. Now I know that doing too many “hard” workouts without breaks will actually cancel your progress.
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| 'Easy workout" |
After trying this method out, I felt like I gained more from doing this than doing multiple "hard workouts" in a row. I would highly recommend trying this method out, not just for running but for anything you do for example: weight-lifting, drawing, writing, this could apply to anything.
What kind of routines do you have? Do you think they are efficient?
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