In Mike Boyle's book "Advances in Functional Training" I came across a quote by physical therapist Diane Lee who stated “You can’t run to get fit. You need to be fit to run.” And yet, a lot of people begin running when they start their journey to improve their health and fitness.

Ideally running would be the perfect workout to launch yourself into improving your health, since it's less intimidating than going to the gym, however, the chance of getting a chronic injury is high. Especially for beginners, considering that they aren't conditioned enough for repetitive movements of running, and absorbing the forces from the impact of the ground.

Although, the best way to improve your fitness before getting started with running is to work on your fundamental movements such as: squats, hinges (deadlifts), lunges, push-ups, and planks for 3-4 weeks.

Once you prepare your physical fitness with a simple home workout plan, try running after week 3 of training, and I guarantee you it will feel easier to run compared to running without an initial preparation workout phase.

Here's a simple home workout preparation phase you can try for 4 weeks:

Week 1:
A1: Body weight squats 8 reps
A2: Plank 15-25s
A3: Hinge 8 reps
A4: Elevated hands push-up: 8 reps
A5: Lunges 8x2 reps
x2 sets, 2-3x workouts for the week

Week 2:
A1: Body weight squats 10 reps
A2: Plank 25-35s
A3: Hinge 10 reps
A4: Elevated hands push-up: 10 reps
A5: Lunges 10x2 reps
x3 sets, 2-3x workouts for the week

Week 3:
A1: Body weight squats 12 reps
A2: Plank 35-45s
A3: Hinge 12 reps
A4: Elevated hands push-up: 12 reps
A5: Lunges 12x2 reps
x3 sets, 2-3x workouts for the week

Week 4 (repeat of week 1 to compare progress):
A1: Body weight squats 8 reps
A2: Plank 15-25s
A3: Hinge 8 reps
A4: Elevated hands push-up: 8 reps
A5: Lunges 8x2 reps
x2 sets, 2-3x workouts for the week