- Do active recovery, get enough sleep and manage stress to allow the body to fully regenerate.
- Strengthen your muscle with targeted exercises to provide better support to the legs and improve fluidity of movement.
- Take care of your nutrition, hydrate well and replenish iron and nutrients to face your workouts with the right energy.
Almost everyone has experienced that sensation of starting a run and feeling like something’s holding you back. Each step feels like an effort, as if there were a chain and a prison-style ball attached to your ankle. It happens, and the causes can vary. If you’ve felt this way recently or in your latest runs, take a moment to stop and consider which of the following situations applies to you.
- You‘ve overtrained, rapidly increasing your mileage or number of sessions without allowing for gradual progression and proper recovery. Your muscles have taken a hit, they’re tired and asking for mercy. This is why your legs don’t respond: they’re simply fatigued.
- You are neglecting rest and sleep, not allowing your body to take advantage of the nighttime hours to do the work of restoring a state of equilibrium that would allow you to wake up the next day ready to go again, charged with new energy.
- You follow an unhealthy diet that disregards the nutrients you need to replenish the reserves you have drawn on to cope with your workout, finding yourself facing the next session with a half-empty tank. Excessive fatigue and exhaustion are also symptoms of a state of dehydration or iron deficiency, which you can safely replenish either by supplementing your diet with foods that are rich in it (e.g., lentils, cocoa, pumpkin seeds) or specific supplements.
To every cause its remedy
The good news is that no matter the cause of your heavy leg experience, there’s always a solution.
- Give yourself the proper recovery and hours of sleep you need to allow your body to regenerate. Even daily life stress can make things worse, so try to take moments to disconnect and slow down. As much as possible, try to take moments to unplug and slow down.
- Spend time on strength training so your legs gain the muscular support they need, making movement easier and reducing the effort required.
- Eat well and don’t improvise your meals, a good workout starts at the table, that’s when you fuel up with the energy needed to perform.