{"id":79702,"date":"2025-08-20T08:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T08:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/79702\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T08:23:09","slug":"why-the-10-rule-could-save-you-from-running-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/79702\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The ‘10% Rule’ Could Save You From Running Injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re hoping to improve your heart health and longevity<\/a> or keep your joints healthy<\/a>, running is a pretty great exercise choice. <\/p>\n

But as with so many great things, more is not always better.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to go<\/a> for consistent, very long runs if your main goal is heart health \u2013 and as any over-ambitious runner will already know, taking on too much too fast can lead to injuries too.<\/p>\n

Which begs the question: how long is too long to run, and by how much should runners increase their distance a month? <\/p>\n

Well, according to a paper published in the British Medical Journal<\/a>, 10% may be the magic number.<\/p>\n

What is the 10% rule in running?<\/p>\n

After following 5,200 runners for 18 months, researchers wanted to know which changes to distance seemed to cause injuries.<\/p>\n

They tracked participants\u2019 runs with a smart watch and then noted who faced overuse injuries. <\/p>\n

Once they\u2019d analysed the data, the scientists found that \u201cA significant increase in the rate of running-related overuse injury was found when the distance of a single running session exceeded 10% of the longest run undertaken in the last 30 days\u201d.<\/p>\n

In other words, if you increase your running distance by more than 10% of your longest run, you might be more likely to face injuries. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Nike<\/a>, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Timothy Miller recommended the method \u2015 you shouldn\u2019t increase your long run distance by more than 10% a week.<\/p>\n

Should you ever ignore the 10% rule in running?<\/p>\n

Yes, but Dr Miller doesn\u2019t think<\/a> you should add more to it \u2013 it\u2019s more that some people will need to stall on their existing progress for a while, including beginner runners.<\/p>\n

Injuries, fatigue, and just not feeling up to running further can all be signs that you need to scale back. <\/p>\n

And remember \u2013 the point of running does not need to be infinite growth. Those running for health need not ever go above their preferred distance<\/a> so long as it helps to meet the goal of 150 moderate-intensity or 75 high-intensity minutes a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether you\u2019re hoping to improve your heart health and longevity or keep your joints healthy, running is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,10695,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-79702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-running","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}