How to Start Running Without Getting Hurt

A lot of people take up running the same way. They head out at the pace that feels like proper running, which for a beginner is close to flat out, and because the first few outings go fine, they go a little further each time. A few weeks in, a knee or a shin starts to complain and the new habit stalls.

The alternative is less exciting. Run slower than seems worth bothering with, take walk breaks without apologising for them, and add time in small steps. You give up very little by going easy, because the health benefits linked with running seem to start at amounts well within a beginner’s reach.

New Runners Get Hurt More Often

A 2015 meta-analysis pooled injury data by type of runner and counted injuries per 1,000 hours of running, which lets you compare people who train very different amounts. Novice runners had about 17.8 injuries per 1,000 hours. Recreational runners had about 7.7, so beginners were getting hurt at more than twice the rate.

Videbæk, S., Bueno, A.M., Nielsen, R.O. & Rasmussen, S. (2015). “Incidence of Running-Related Injuries Per 1000 h of running in Different Types of Runners: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Sports Medicine, 45(7), 1017-1026.

The usual explanation is that your heart and lungs adapt faster than your bones and tendons. Within a few weeks the breathing gets easier, so doing more feels reasonable, while the parts that take the impact are still catching up.

How quickly you add distance matters too. A Danish study followed 873 novice runners and found that those who increased their weekly distance by more than 30% over a two-week period were more prone to some of the injuries linked to distance. The familiar “10% rule” isn’t strongly supported as an exact limit, but sudden jumps do look like a risk.

Nielsen, R.O. et al. (2014). “Excessive progression in weekly running distance and risk of running-related injuries: an association which varies according to type of injury.” Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 44(10), 739-747.

How Little Running It Takes

The amount of running linked with health benefits is also small. A 2020 meta-analysis of 14 studies, covering about 232,000 people, found that any amount of running was associated with a 27% lower risk of death from all causes, 30% lower cardiovascular mortality and 23% lower cancer mortality. That included people who ran as little as 50 minutes, once a week, and running more did not clearly add more benefit.

Pedisic, Ž. et al. (2020). “Is running associated with a lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, and is the more the better? A systematic review and meta-analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(15), 898-905.

An earlier study of about 55,000 adults, published in 2014, pointed the same way: running five to ten minutes a day, even at slow speeds, was associated with a markedly lower risk of death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease. These are observational studies. People who run differ from people who don’t in ways researchers can’t fully adjust for, so the percentages aren’t a promise. They do suggest that the slow, short runs of your first few months are already worth doing, and that there’s no reason to hurry past them.

The First Few Weeks

Plan three runs a week with a rest day between each, say Monday, Wednesday and Saturday rather than three days in a row. Start with five minutes of brisk walking. Then alternate one minute of easy running with two minutes of walking, six to eight times, and walk for a few minutes at the end. The whole thing takes about half an hour.

Easy means you could hold a conversation. The talk test is the simplest guide you’ll get: if you can speak in full sentences while you run, the pace is right, and if you can only manage a word or two, slow down or walk. On a hill that often means walking, which is fine. It will probably feel slower than you think running should look.

When a week feels comfortable, make the running intervals a little longer the next week, or the walks a little shorter, but not both at once. If a week felt hard, repeat it. Popular beginner programmes take around nine weeks to build up to 30 minutes of continuous running, and there’s no harm in taking longer.

Learn to tell soreness from pain. Achy calves or thighs a day or two after a run are normal. Sharp pain, pain in one spot on a bone, or pain that gets worse as you keep going is a reason to stop and rest, and to get it checked if it hasn’t settled after a few days. If you have a heart condition, or you get chest pain, dizziness or unusual breathlessness, speak to a doctor before you carry on.

Log each run in Lamplit’s workout tracker: the type, the minutes, and whether it felt light, moderate or intense. It’s free, and over a few weeks those entries become a record of your minutes per week, which is exactly what you need to keep the increases gradual. Three weeks from now you won’t remember if you went from 40 minutes to 70. If your watch saves its runs to Apple Health or Health Connect, Lamplit Pro can sync them in automatically on your phone.

Log your first run-walk in Lamplit. It’s free and takes less than a minute.