Running and Physical Exercise

by Mohanarangan
(Chennai, Tamilnadu, India)

I am trying for a defence oriented job. I want to practice for running (1.5 Km in 7mins & 400 Mtr in 52sec), push ups and pull ups.

So how can I do running practice with physical exercise like push ups and pull ups. Can you give me any suggestion to solve my problem?

And need to know when I should do a skipping exercise? After I am finished running or before running?


Answer by Dominique:


Hi there,
Thanks for your running training question.
I don't see a big problem yet, other than that you will have to get busy and start working out to achieve the targets set for that army physical test!

Regarding the mix-up of running with the body weight exercises you described, you can do several things.

1) Keep them separated
So run in one workout, do your push ups, pull ups and possibly other strength exercises in another workout.

2) Mix them up
A good way of building up some fitness is a circuit. E.g. run 400 metres, then do 2 x 10 push ups, 2 x 10 pull ups and then repeat that sequence and go for 30 minutes or so.

Considering you need to build up stamina and strength it might be worth joining a gym. At a gym they can usually give you some guidance about the types of exercises you need to do and provide some sort of program for you with which you can achieve overall body strength, rather than just doing push ups and pull ups only. Combine a few visits to the gym each week with a number of runs each week and you should start getting fit pretty quickly.

With the running I would advise you to do easy runs or run/walks at first. After you get more comfortable with covering the distances prescribed and more, then start doing some speed training as well.

Regarding the skipping or other exercises. I prefer to warm up before my runs with just easy running, no stretching. After my runs I do my stretching. Stretching with cold muscles can be harmful, that's why I usually advise people to do stretching and strengthening exercises afterwards. Whether skipping needs to be included in that I am not exactly sure, but for some stretches I do, check out my running stretches-page.

I hope this provides you with the answers you are looking for.


Best of luck with the training and with the physical test!
Kind regards,
Dominique