Work on the core!

If your running style is more sedentary, are you unable to put a strong active push off the road? How do you perform on the ground? Heel, midfoot or forefoot? Do your ankles and knees bend inward slightly? Is that why you might even have back or knee pain when you walk for a long time?

Usually the painful area is treated, but often the problem lies somewhere else. When problems with the back occur, the problem is usually too little body tension. In addition to running, you have probably forgotten to strengthen the muscles in your upper body. A strong trunk has many advantages, such as a reduced risk of injury and a nicer, more economical running style.

You should work on stability at least once a week. You don’t need a gym for this, and you don’t even need fancy sports equipment. Rubber bands, a sleeping mat and small dumbbells or medicine balls are sufficient. Your gym is the living room, you carry the weights with you all day long: your own body.

You can find countless “core complex exercises” on the Internet, and books on strengthening exercises with your own body weight are also easy to find in bookstores. Running is actually quite simple, you don’t have to invent it first. Put one foot in front of the other and do it as quickly as possible. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years.

Walking is our innate mode of locomotion, unfortunately over time we have forgotten that and have become a sedentary society. It’s even better when running is done economically. Running coordination to improve style would be a great option here. Outside help is often needed here, but self-control is unfortunately not enough. If you then put your feet in the right shoes, a lot has already been achieved and a competition can come. There’s really nothing wrong, as Emil Zatopek, the Czech engine, taught us: “Start here, finish there. In between, you have to run!” Let’s go, with small detours from the Voest motorway bridge to the main square in Linz, you can do it.

Gunther Weidlinger is a former top runner, Olympic participant and held the domestic marathon record for many years. Today he is the athletic director in the organization of the Linz marathon.