by Katarzyna Radzka

Created on: September 17, 2010

Jogging is becoming more and more popular around the world with more people taking up the activity to improve their health. Jogging is a great way to build a solid fitness level so you don’t tire yourself running for the bus. It helps to reduce unwanted weight when the kilos have piled on. And even more importantly it makes you feel fantastic. After you’ve been jogging for a while you should aim to increase the difficulty of your daily jog to stop your fitness from going stale.

Include some hill work in your jogging. Find an area where you’re going to have to run uphill and downhill. Hills are an effective way to build strength in your legs and work your butt. It will get your heart rate up and give you a stronger workout than if you’re just jogging on flat terrain. No hills around your local area than try running a few flights of stairs or increase the incline on the treadmill at the gym.

Try interval training once a week to give your fitness a boost. Jogging at the same pace all the time is boring and feels a bit monotonous. Challenge yourself by sprinting for 200m every two minutes of jogging. Repeat the sprints three, five or more times depending on how you feel and your fitness level. Interval training shouldn’t exceed thirty minutes plus a warm up and cool down.

Increase the duration and distance of your daily jog to make it a little bit more difficult. If you’ve been running 6km most days of the week for a few months now than your body has gotten used to this distance and won’t give you further results. Why not run 8km on Mondays, 10km on Wednesdays and for an hour on Fridays. On the other days stick to your 6km if you want to. Changing the distances regularly will increase the difficulty and make you a more effective jogger.

Change the location that you jog in. If you always jog around the same area than your body adapts to the terrain. Try running in the forest if you’re always running along the road. Jog during your holidays in the country side or mountains. Visit a park in your city and go jogging there. A bit of change in scenery won’t hurt either. You’ll increase the difficulty of your jog and discover sights around your local area that you may have never heard of.

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