Foto: iStock.com/Microgen

If you haven’t run (or been able to run) for more than three weeks, you should be careful when returning to training as your body will be less resilient. Here are our top tips.

Once a year, it is worth giving your body 3 to 4 weeks to rest, only putting on your running shoes for hiking at most. This break allows your hormones to come back into balance following the stress of training and competition, especially in combination with work and family life. However, a training break also means that you'll feel more motivated and mentally prepared when you return, and allows passive structures to recover. During the training process, tiny injuries to the musculoskeletal system occur again and again, which cannot heal completely due to the short breaks between each training session. A longer break ensures that these so-called microtraumas can fully heal and prevents a more severe injury that might result in a much longer break.

A planned training break of several weeks leads to a short-term drop in performance and also to an adjustment of the active structures. This is because structures that aren't being used will reduce or disappear altogether, and so these must be carefully and patiently rebuilt after the break. After all, who would press the accelerator pedal in a Ferrari if only bike tyres were mounted?

Top tips

• Gradual return: if your break was voluntary and not injury-related, the first sessions after the break should involve gentle runs. Deliberately hold yourself back for the first two weeks and don't run for more than 30 to 40 minutes. Finally, do three to five easy progression runs and some running exercises so that the movement process feels natural again and your musculoskeletal system gets used to the higher speeds. You should wait at least two weeks before doing your first intensive session, albeit with the handbrake applied.
• Listen to your body: even if you were used to running plenty of kilometres before the break, it may be that you are feeling little niggles now, even at significantly shorter distances. Slight discomfort can be normal, but severe pain should be taken seriously.
• Train holistically: complement your running training with strengthening exercises at least twice a week. You will see that this not only makes you less prone to injury, but also makes you more powerful. In the first few weeks after returning to training, do more stretching exercises to better regulate muscle tone.
• Increase with caution: avoid increasing your training intensity too rapidly. As already mentioned, after 3 to 4 weeks your body will have become accustomed to its new normal with a lot of recovery and little stress. It will also take a similar amount of time for all of your structures to readjust. As a rule of thumb: do not increase the amount of training by more than 10% per week.
• Plan your recovery: regular breaks and rest days are important, especially after a training break. Plan them consciously and above all: stick to them!

This might look a little different if you had to take a break due to an injury. In this case, you should first check with your doctor or physiotherapist as to when and how you can start again. This is important to ensure that the injury is completely healed and that there is no relapse. You should return to exercise even more carefully in this case to avoid overdoing things. For example, a combination of walking (3 minutes) and gentle jogging (1 minute) is a good starting point for testing your capacity. Once you're feeling good about things, you can gradually increase the ratio of running/walking (e.g. 3 min jogging, 1 min walking). Ideally, you should keep the intensity low. If that goes without any problems, you can switch to endurance runs, starting with short distances. Only then should you gradually increase the speed and distance.