How You Can Get the Benefits of Running without Running

The benefits of running are obvious. No special equipment needed. An exercise that works anywhere at any convenient time.

Now comes a new workout routine from the good folks at AARP, which offers four ways to get heart and muscle benefits of running without pounding the pavement outdoors in stormy weather.

First let’s run down all the reasons that running is a positive exercise. It protects and builds muscles and lowers the resting heart rate and works out your legs, hips, glutes, and hamstrings. And recent studies suggest running, contrary to folk wisdom, is not bad for your knees and does not cause arthritis.

“Running is certainly a load-bearing sport that impacts your body. But it’s a bit of a myth that it’s bad for your joints,” sports medicine physician Anne Rex, DO noted in a Health Essentials report for the Cleveland Clinic several years ago. And she adds that there’s little evidence that running causes knee arthritis. In fact, the report noted that researchers in a large survey of marathon runners, found that running more did not raise their risk of arthritis

Of course, one of running’s most attractive benefits is its apparent ability to moderate mood. It appears to improve memory by boosting the size of the hippocampus, the area linked to remembering and learning and running releases endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that which can help boost concentration and a general sense of well-being while keeping stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol in check. Ayesha Abdeen, MD, chief of hip and knee arthroplasty at Boston Medical Center, told AARP that running can “provide a sense of overall calm and well-being.”

All that aside, the undeniable fact is that not everyone wants to be a runner, especially outdoor running during harsh winter weather. So AARP devised four exercises that combined can approximate the effects of running without ever leaving your apartment or investing in an expensive home treadmill.

Step 1: Stand on the lowest step of a staircase, as AARP directs, with heels hanging off the step and hands holding on to a railing for balance. Or more likely in a one-floor New York apartment, stand in front of a tall cabinet with a shelf to grab onto. Slooooooowly raise heels high while lowering the hips and repeat as often as reasonably comfortable.

Step 2: Imagine an opponent and shadow box with him. Or her. Stand with feet apart at hip-width, knees slightly bent, and boom! Throw a punch to the left while twisting body to the right. Then switch and aim the other way ten times as well.

Step 3: Lunge. Step forward with your left leg, leaning forward until your left knee is above your toes, while leaving your right leg should as straight as possible behind you. The right heel should be raised off the floor. Push yourself back up into the starting position. Repeat the move with your right leg and keeping your left leg straight. Alternate between your left and right leg for as many repetitions as possible. No special number of times to do it. Whatever works is fine.

Step 4: Skip rope without a rope but empowered by the clear memory of childhood skipping. Upright, with arms at the side, hop as though those ropes were actually circling. No need to jump really high. Bouncing just about an inch and coming down to land on the balls of the feet until tired of the whole routine does the trick.

ARRP’s best news? When this four-part list is performed twice, with a 30-second rest in-between steps in the course of a ten-minute workout, it approximates the effect of running a mile. All without having to leave the house.