The human body – your human body – is capable of performing an incredible variety of impressive feats. The more we learn, though, the more it seems like our body is uniquely built to run. In fact, over long distances many experts consider humans to be the best endurance athletes on the planet. Numerous anatomical features, from our myriad sweat glands to our springy feet, all point toward one conclusion: You were born to run. Becoming an endurance athlete, then, is simply part of fulfilling your biological destiny. To get you started, here are three steps to becoming an endurance athlete.
- Pick Your Event – You may have already fallen into an endurance sport, like running, but having a particular event in mind is also important. This will help you tailor your training to the type of event, as well as the landscape and environment in which you’ll be competing. Having a specific deadline in mind will also help to motivate you and keep your training on track.
- Check Your Form – Proper form is a pretty common topic in discussions regarding strength training. Strangely, though, many people ignore it when talking about endurance sports. Maybe the assumption is that running is a natural activity that we should just all innately know how to do correctly. Whatever the reasoning is, it’s wrong. Even though running is a natural human activity, it’s also true that we aren’t all perfectly healthy and can pick up poor habits through our lives. Make sure your form is correct.You may even choose to spend some time with a qualified trainer to make sure you’re doing everything properly.
- Find and Start Your Program -There is an enormous amount of free running and cycling programs available on the internet designed to work you up to a specific distance. Use these with caution. Generally, these programs assume that you are healthy, already have a solid running base and have your form down. While we’d of course like to believe these things to be true, they might not be. And assuming otherwise could be counterproductive or even dangerous. Find a program that helps you build a solid base safely and gradually. Ideally, you will begin with walking and jogging intervals that steadily increase the amount of time that you spend jogging. Only after you have this base should you start worrying about things like speed and distance.
Of course, this information primarily assumes that your endurance sport is running, thought it might not be. Either way, the basic principles still apply. You should also make sure that your diet is in check, just as a general rule in life. Endurance training demands a lot out of your body, and, if you’re not properly fueled, both your performance and general health could suffer.
Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list of what it takes to be endurance athlete. Take some time to read up on Gnarly’s endurance athletes and learn from their training habits by going to https://gognarly.com/ambassadors/.
