Steve Haywood Health & Fitness

We always get lots of visits to the website from people looking for fitness tips and running tips, particularly beginners to the sport of running. And that’s great, because one of our main aims is to help people get into running, as well as to improve and maintain their running – and all-round fitness. If [...]

Advanced too hard? Try the intermediate 5K training plan by clicking here. Well done on improving your 5k time after following the intermediate running programme. You have now been training for around 6 months and running should be a natural part of your life but hopefully still enjoyable. To satisfy that competitive itch it’s now [...]

Intermediate too advanced? See the beginners programme by clicking here. Congratulations on completing your your first 5k race with the beginners programme put together by you for you. This means that  you have been training for around 3 months and your body and mind are adapting to your new lifestyle. I very much hope you [...]

There is a lot of information in books and on line about what to do and how to do it if you are one of the many people wanting to start running for the first time, or making a return after a long break with a view to a race. It can be bewildering, with [...]

My work brings me into contact with lots of runners so I get a good idea of what’s on the horizon regarding future races. A good proportion of the people I have talked to are working towards their first marathon next year with London, Edinburgh and Paris high on the agenda for April/May time. It [...]

Walking is arguably the most natural thing we do, and we have been bipeds for tens of thousands of years. However, as most of us are aware, the modern world has gradually reduced the amount we walk. Transport, especially cars, mean that even on the shortest of journeys people have ceased to walk. Recognising this [...]

I recently wrote an article about nature’s high. This was about how exercise can secrete feel-good chemistry in your body with even mild exercise. This is part of achieving what I have called “the positive cycle”. When training people and giving advice about exercise I believe it is a good method to give imagery to [...]

Up and down the country in various parks there is something going on every Saturday morning at 9am which I would recommend you take a look at, even better join in – ParkRun. My park is Hyde Park in Leeds and the event in every park is a 5k race or time trial or whatever [...]

I have trained and advised people regarding their running for some time now. For people looking to start running for the first time or for those who have just started there are always lots of questions and one of the most fundamental to crop up is “How do I train?” This may seem simplistic but [...]

In the sixties there was a band called the Swinging Blue Jeans who sang a song called “The Hippy Hippy Shake” which was also sung by the Beatles. This was during the era of flower power and the advent of the Hippy movement, which was based on a return and respect for nature (there are [...]