Quick Physiological Changes to New Runners

This is a short article to give you a high level understanding of just what happens to your body when you start running. As soon as you start running, your body starts undergoing some pretty amazing physiological changing, some of these adaptations begin almost instantly and some develop overtime. I'm going to take a look at some of the quick changes that new runners will experience.

Quick Changes

Increased Red Blood Cells/Plasma - Immediately, when you start running, your body will start screaming "I NEED MORE OXYGEN!" To meet this demand your body will start producing more red blood cells in order to deliver this oxygen. As red blood cells are produced, the blood becomes thicker, so the body will produce more liquid (plasma).

Left Ventricle Gets Larger - The left ventricle of the heart is the portion of the heart which is the one that contracts and sends the blood out to the working muscles, it gets larger. The volume of the left ventricle will increase, and as a result it will pump more blood out with every heart contraction, providing more oxygen to the muscles. Your muscles are demanding more oxygen supply, so you heart is adapting to meet that demand.

Additionally, what you see with that is the stroke volume (stroke volume is the volume of blood pumped from the left ventricle per beat) of the heart will increase. We are ejecting more blood to provide more oxygen. This leads to a lowering of the resting heart rate. Since more blood is going with each beat, you do not need as many beats to meet your bodies oxygen demand.

Increased Leg Stiffness - When you begin to run, your body begins to stiffen up the connective tissues in your legs so you naturally have more spring. There is an energy return in the body as a person starts to run, and we start seeing the legs stiffen in a way that creates an increased energy return in every step. Leg stiffness sounds like it would be a negative thing, but this is a positive. The "super shoes" on the market today are beneficial because of their springiness which helps supplement the bodies own natural springiness and creates efficiencies.

Quieting of the Brain Alarm - When you first begin running, especially those first runs, the brain is sending non-stop fatigue alarms. Everything hurts! It's all suffering, it feels impossible, your legs can't do it, your lungs can't do it... but trust me this settles down. Those first couple weeks, the run intervals will be uncomfortable and may feel painful. By week 3 or 4 or 5, despite doing more running for longer intervals, you'll be able to run along and have a chat. Your brain starts to quiet down because it will learn that this new activity is not a threat or emergency. It does not need to alert your body to fatigue, it's going to be okay! The reduction in the brain alarm is one of the fastest and most important adaptations for new runners. You need to survive the first part, deal with the initial unpleasantness, and then you'll start to understand why you see smiling chatting runners.

A key to helping the body along with these adaptations, is knowing that there is no minimum pace you need to run. To be a runner, you don't need to push yourself to the max. There is no such thing as too slow, for new runners. New running, should be a gentle running effort. If after the initial adaptations take place and you still can't run and talk, then the majority of the time the issue is that you are pushing too hard. Training too fast/hard can inhibit the first physiological developments a runner should undergo and stunt your development.

Overall, as a new runner, your most aggressive growth period will be your first 12 to 14 weeks of consistent running.

If you have any questions reach out to me through Final Surge, e-mail: markdidham@gmail.com; or Facebook PM.