The Zen of Running, and 10 Ways to Make It Work for You

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

Running is my zazen. It’s my meditation, my peaceful routine, my inner sanctum.

In Zen Buddhism, zazen (which literally means “seated meditation”) is the central focus of the practice. Depending on the school of Zen, zazen is used to concentrate on koans or to just sit and be present, experiencing things in the moment.

Of course, I’m not a Zen Buddhist, and I don’t do much actual sitting meditation (sometimes, but not often), but I do use running as my form of meditation, of trying to be present.

7 Ways to Build the Exercise Habit

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

This is a guest post from Mehdi, author of StrongLifts.com. If you enjoy this post, check out his site.

Leo did a great job with his article How To Make Exercise a Daily Habit. I’ve been strength training for 10 years, and I thought: let’s give the people of Zen Habits my method for building the exercise habit.

You’ve probably tried it several times. You’re fed up with your skinny look or overweight body. You decide to finally do something about it. So you take a gym membership. Some friends decide to join you. After a few weeks however, your friends don’t show up anymore. Then you end up alone. And eventually you quit.

Yeah I know, this happens all the time. I’ve seen it over and over again. I know what you’re thinking. How come some people can stick with it and others not? What is their secret?

Top 42 Exercise Hacks

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

You’ve read and enjoyed the Top 20 Motivation Hacks and Top 10 Productivity Hacks and the Top 15 Diet Hacks… and now you’ve asked for exercise hacks. You want ‘em, you got ‘em.

These hacks will make you healthier, slimmer, and yes, sexier. Rrrowrr!

Just to note, I’m not a certified trainer. I’m just sharing stuff that’s worked for me. Also, some of this stuff is contradictory. That’s because you’re not supposed to implement all of them — just pick the ones you think will work for you, and give them a try. Good luck!

Beginner’s Guide to Running

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

Are you just starting out as a runner, or is it something you’d like to do? From experience, I know that a beginner runner has a million questions and never enough answers. I won’t be able to answer every question here, but this should be a good starting point for anyone who wants to hit the roads.

Disclaimer: I am not a certified trainer, coach or running expert. I consider myself an intermediate runner (on the lower levels of intermediate), having spent all last year running, doing a marathon, some half marathons, 20Ks, 10Ks and 5Ks. But what I have to share is what I’ve learned along the way. Also, see a doctor before starting a new running program — I don’t want to be responsible for any heart attacks!

Most Important Advice
Many people, when the begin running, shoot for the stars. I was one of those. Let me tell you right now: hold yourself back, and start out slowly. Progress gradually. It takes some patience, but this is the best advice I can give you, and I know that it’s important because of experience.

It’s best to start out very easy, at a slow jog, and focus not on intensity but on how long you’re on the road. Start out with a small amount of time — 10 minutes or 20 minutes, depending on where you are — and run or walk/run comfortably the entire time. Do this for the entire first week, and even two weeks if you can stand it. Gradually increase your time until you can run 30 minutes.

How to Make Exercise a Daily Habit (with a May Challenge)

Recently my friend and fellow blogger Scott Young did a great post entitled, “New to exercise? Make workouts daily“. It was an excellent post, and perfectly timed as it mirrors my own recent efforts at making exercise a daily habit.

The problem with trying to make exercise a habit, and it’s something that we’ve all faced, is that you usually try to exercise 3 or 4 times a week … and that makes creating a new exercise habit difficult. The reason is that the more consistent an action is, the more likely it is to be a habit.

Therefore, as Scott points out, and it’s something I fully agree with, exercising every day is more likely to result in a habit — something that becomes almost automatic, and much easier, instead of a constant struggle.

Want to gain weight? Focus on muscle-building, not calories

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

Reader stayfly wrote to ask about healthy eating and gaining weight:

I really want to eat as healthy as possible and also to gain some weight (I’m currently a bit underweight at 60 kilos and I’m wanting to put on about 10 kilos over the rest of the year). I’ve read a fair few health books but there is so much conflicting information that it’s difficult to know what to eat. With most other ares of my life I feel in control thanks to researching and finding great information that I believe in and trust (including from your blog) but with heath I’m struggling. I really feel as though as you are spot on with things like productivity, goals, habits, finances and I would love to hear more about your beliefs regarding health and hopefully you can possible recommend some excellent books on the subject of health as well.

How to Get Back on the Exercise Train

Every Friday is Health Tip Day at Zen Habits.

It’s a story most of us have lived through at some time or other: we begin an exercise program, and it’s going well, but after a week or two or a month or two or even a year or two, we fall off the program. Then we might get a little down about that, and because of the initial friction of entering any program, it’s hard to get back into it.

I recently fell off my triathlon training for a couple weeks due to illness and a death in the family, and I found it hard to get back into it. I reset my resolve (just press the reset button!) and re-focused myself, leaving off all other goals but my training for the month of March (see the Zen Habits March Challenge if you haven’t yet).

So, for those of you who’ve fallen off your exercise program, and want to get back in, here are my tips: