Skipping good for health and running
Week 82: Skipping good for health and running
Unedited Run&Bee column in Hindustan Times on 1st February 2020
Three decades back there was hardly any talk of exercise and fitness. While doing my masters in Sports and Exercise Medicine, the amount of research on these subjects that was coming out annually was less than what comes probably comes on a weekly basis now. What is ironical though is that a lot more folks were leading an active lifestyle, no matter what age group. Parents use to struggle to keep their children at home, whether vacations or not, as they would be jumping around in the parks nearby or streets outside, where as now parents struggle to get their kids off the phones, tablets, laptops or TVs.
Back then, children used to play games which hardly cost anything and not so much structured sports like today which are phenomenally expensive, where everyone goes to some sports academy or the other. Skipping rope used to be one classic thing that all who were growing up back then would have definitely done.
When I examine today’s children and youth, despite all their sports, they are far more unfit than their parents who grew up back then. If you throw in a grandparent, they would be the fittest of the lot. We all need to yet again become comfortable moving, and it’ll come together. Posture while sitting, walking or running is pathetic in today’s younger generation because they simply struggle to move, whereas the older ones, in spite of having led a very sedentary lifestyle over last few decades, do have the basics right. Just that we need to work having some plan to get there yet again rather than dive head first into wanting to run faster and longer, because that only leads to injuries.
“We really didn’t have any plans and goals. We were doing it because it was a bit of fun, we could do it at home itself and with minimal time investment. First few days we struggled to even do 10 non-stop skips. But we would carry on for about a minute, take a break for a minute and get started again. ”
For last few months, because of multiple personal reasons, I have been struggling to get back to running, the one that unconditionally has stood by me, rather, run with me, through my ups and downs for three and a half decades now. Almost by accident, about six weeks ago, me and my 14 year old son, Viren, on a daily basis started to skip rope, something I have been advising runners for years now as it helps one learn to land softly as you can’t skip with heavy landing, which is a problem with most runners today. Skipping helps you become a fuel efficient runner, improving your performance beyond what your current training plan does.
As for us, we really didn’t have any plans and goals. We were doing it because it was a bit of fun, we could do it at home itself and with minimal time investment. First few days we struggled to even do 10 non-stop skips. But we would carry on for about a minute, take a break for a minute and get started again. We would repeat that 5-6 times, in total taking less than 15 minutes for the whole routine. We would skip fast, slow, both legs and single legs, all kinds of random variations. We were simply enjoying ourselves, something that is soon found missing in folks you play sports and try to get fit.
As we started to get better, we were able to do 50 and soon a 100 non-stop skips. And before we knew, we could do the whole minute without a break. I am not a big fan of numbers but numbers do help you set targets. Overall, yesterday Viren did 2020 and I somehow managed to do 3006.
Initially, we did go through our set of problems. Calves would hurt pretty early into skipping and even muscles between the shoulder blades, but soon enough the body adapted to it. Last weekend a patient friend requested me to join him for an evening run, something that I don’t do. I surprised myself by maintaining a 4 min per kilometre pace for first 4-5 kms without much of a stress. Fair enough, it might seem crazy fast for most, but to put it in perspective, in November when I did 1 km interval training with my elder son Harsheath, I was struggling to even keep 4 min 30 seconds.
Skipping rope that we use is for 99 rupees only and we love it. The beauty of it is that it can be done anywhere, anytime and by anyone. Even if you don’t want to ever run, you should pick up running no matter what other sport you play or just to get fit, no matter what your age. Just start slow like we did. Do only 10-15 skips at one go. Gradually build it up to doing for a minute. Take a break for a minute and repeat again a few times. You don’t need to do crazy numbers like us. In total do just for 10 minutes a day.
“You might feel calf or even knee pains. That’s because your calves are not used to so many hops. Get those calves moving by doing simple heel raises and chair squats.”
As we experienced, you might feel calf or even knee pains. That’s because your calves are not used to so many hops. Get those calves moving by doing simple heel raises and chair squats, 10-20 of them, 3-5 sets throughout the day. Your knee pain will actually get better as you start loading your knees optimally. Just start slow and back off if pain comes along. Pain just means your body isn’t ready yet to take that load, try again in a few days, till then do heel raises and chair squats.
