Perhaps one of the most difficult things that the average runner can put themselves through is a marathon. Many people cringe at the thought of putting their bodies through 26 miles of intense physical fitness, while there are others who look forward to these events for months and train their bodies to excel at the task laid in front of them.
If you’re thinking about running a marathon, you have to approach it in the right mindset in order to stave off injury. You can’t simply decide on a whim to run a marathon, as that’s a surefire way to get yourself hurt. Instead, getting ready for a marathon requires intensive preparation, often under the watchful eye of a trainer who has gotten people ready for such races before. To help yourself out, you might look to the advice provided in a new report from Men’s Fitness.
The first and perhaps most essential piece of advice is to train and to train hard. Getting ready for a marathon isn’t a light jog of a couple miles. It’s a grueling trek through varied terrain that will test your mettle. You need to train, but you need to be responsible with how you train. Train too little and you’re not ready for what’s to come. Train hard but improperly and you could be injured before the marathon even arrives.
One thing you’ll want to do is start taking part in some type of strength training with the help of a personal trainer. That means hours of running with strength workouts on top of it. The idea is that running will help you achieve endurance while the weight room will allow you to get stronger. A trainer should have you potentially doing shorter reps at greater weights; while this is the opposite as what most workouts would involve, it’s likely going to be what’s needed for a marathon.
You’re also going to need to achieve balance in your legs. Favoring one leg over the other isn’t that big of a deal when you’re running a couple miles; perhaps one leg is a little more sore than the other, but that’s all. At 26 miles, the imbalance will take the form of severe pain.
That’s why the report recommends an investment in things like squats and lunges, paying particular attention to balance while conducting the exercise. A trainer will be able to help you achieve this balance. You should give attention to every section of the leg. You can’t just work out your quadriceps. With marathons, every muscle is going to be tested, and you need to get each ready.
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