2 weeks Ago By Clare-wilson
Search the internet for advice on how to get fit and you may well end up on a “ Couch to 5K ” running plan, which takes people from being a complete beginner to running 5km. The programme is recommended by the NHS website , and a Couch to 5K app – voiced by celebrities such as comedian Sarah Millican – was developed by the NHS and the BBC in 2016. But until recently there had been little research into the programme’s effectiveness.
While many people find it helpful, some experts are concerned that it pushes people too hard, risking putting them off exercise or causing injuries. So what do we know about the benefits and potential downsides of Couch to 5K? Exercise is one of the most common healthy lifestyle recommendations as it reduces our chances of a host of medical conditions, from obesity and heart attacks to less obvious ones like depression and cancer. Doctors generally recommend we spend at least 150 minutes a week doing moderate-level aerobic activity, which could include running or brisk walking.
The Couch to 5K programme is designed for people who currently do no exercise at all, and want to build up to being able to run 5K without stopping, over nine weeks. It uses an approach called interval training, where running is interspersed with walking. So in the first week, people should do 60 seconds of running, then 90 seconds of walking, for 20 minutes.
The time spent running increases week by week. The idea was developed by a US amateur runner called Josh Clark, who wanted to help people get into exercise gradually, without an unpleasant start. “I had a theory that maybe you could do it in a gentler way,” he told the BBC in 2018 .
Interval training is a common technique, but the timeline used in Couch to 5K had not been rigorously researched before it was adopted in the UK, says sports scientist Dr Nicola Relph at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. “It was designed in the US and then it was simply transferred to the UK. There is very little academic evidence for its use, despite its popularity.
” Free and easy The programme certainly has some plus points. In contrast with taking out a gym membership or hiring a trainer, the Couch to 5K app is free and easy to use. GPs often recommend it, says Dr Sarah Taylor at Liverpool John Moores University.
“If you have got a mobile phone and can download the app, then off you go.” Read Next My husband Spencer Matthews' desert marathon challenge changed him - and me Indeed, seven million people had downloaded the NHS Couch to 5K app by April this year, making it incredibly popular. Part of the appeal may be that to non-runners, being able to run 5km within nine weeks sounds impressive.
“That’s the positive of it, it gets people interested,” says Dr Relph. On the other hand, that pace could be too much for some people, causing them to find the longer runs too difficult or to get pulled muscles and other injuries, she says. “If they’ve got a pain in their knee or ankle, they might think, ‘Oh, I’m not built for exercise.
’ They’re scared to really injure themselves. So then they go back to doing nothing,” says Dr Relph. One recent study, that looked at 34 people who took up similar programmes to Couch to 5K through local running clubs, found half of all those who started dropped out .
Dropping out A larger study by Dr Relph’s team was even more disheartening. She tracked 110 people who started Couch to 5K and found that three quarters abandoned it. One in five of the total had some kind of running injury.
More people dropped out during weeks five and six, and that might be because the amount of running rises quite sharply over this period – from five-minute runs at the start of week five, to one 20-minute run by the end. “There’s a huge leap in the training load,” says Dr Relph. There are ways to make it easier, though, she says.
One is to simply take the programme more slowly. In fact, the NHS site recommends that people increase the runs at their own pace, if needed. One person who had success this way is Jane Morton Driscoll, a calligrapher and life coach, based in Oxfordshire, who took up Couch to 5K at the start of this year.
She took 16 weeks to reach the end of the programme and is now still regularly running. “I was able to listen to my body and I knew that I would eventually get to the end,” she says. People can also reduce their risk of running injuries by doing strength exercises for the legs, like squats, says Dr Relph.
“Just some basic strength exercises built into the programme can help,” she says. “Anything to build up those muscles around your knees.” Unsurprisingly, people who complete beginner running programmes do get fitter, according to the study of 34 people joining running clubs.
After 10 weeks, they did significantly better in a shuttle-run fitness test (also known as a beep test) and slightly improved their body mass index, which is a measure of how healthy your weight is. Professor Stacy Clemes at Loughborough University, who carried out that study, says running clubs could be a better way to start a beginner’s exercise programme, as they tend to pace things more slowly if the group seems to need it. She also recommends people try out their local Parkrun , a free group running event held at many local parks.
While the course is 5K, people are encouraged to walk or run it at their own pace . “That’s a great way of keeping up people’s motivation and enthusiasm for running.”.
