Have you also put on a weight and are resolving to shred it off? If you have, cardio is gonna be you best friend for a time being. If you wanna reduce a lots of weight in a short time or are hell lot of motivated to kill that fat in you, you are surely gonna come across running. So based on my experience with the same drill, I would love to tell a things or two to you guys so you don't end up in bed after very few days of your new resolution.

• Weight bearing exercises : Any explanations but the name of the activities themselves will tell you what these particular exercises are. Based on the topmost google search result, some of the really good examples of these exercises are :  walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, playing tennis, and dancing.

Where you might go wrong in practicing these?

Weight bearing exercises needs you to work against gravity. The key to do these without injuring you body is in the technique of performing and also the rest and recovery time you are giving to your body.

How can legs be injured doing these?

• In any of these activities, you are gonna rely a lot on your legs. Whether you are dancing or running, hiking or jumping, you gotta land on your legs. In such scenario, if you have any deficiency of calcium(check for vitamin D3 also), you will have weak bones to support you body weight. In case of a bulky body and weak legs, performing such activities can bring a toll if you don't give proper nutrition to yourself and strengthen the muscles and bones of your legs first thing before starting these.

• If you are having a worn out or old shoe, please avoid running in them. If you are going to start running on a hard surface, you need to have a proper running shoe from any of the brands like Nike, Adidas, Asics, Saucony, Newbalance etc. Without a proper shoe, you will have shin splints in no time and believe me, they are so haunting.

• If you have weak shin bone and you start running to loose weight with a bad shoe on hard surface, you can also get stress fracture in tibia and it is even worse.

• If you are performing these exercises on a day to day basis and are not providing enough time to your body to recover from a day's impact, it will surely bring an injury home. When ever you repeatedly hit a part without giving it enough rest, it starts getting worn out and in a long run, it sustains an injury.

A little more particularly about running :

Stress fracture in lower tibia and shin splints are very common and can happen with you if you :

• Start running rigorously from day one.

• Don't buy a proper running shoe.

• Have a calcium deficiency.

• Choose a hard surface for running with improper equipment.

Where splints are muscular and go away with proper rolling, stretching before and after workout and following best practices for running, stress fractures are really bad to happen to anyone and they go away with proper rest only and no weight bearing exercise for 4 to 6 weeks varying on specialist's consultation.

If you are having shin splints already, you can refer a number of good resources on youtube suggesting really good curing techniques. Some of them which I have personally seen are :

My own case : just to warn you :

I decided to rely on running and HIIT(High Intensity Interval Training) to loose weight and get in shape faster. I ran 2 kms on treadmill on day one but it was tiring to the soul as my weight was 75kgs. Soon I started running 2-3 kms everyday on treadmill only which comprised of inclination running, sprinting and running with weight on shoulder. My shoe was not a really good one and it was also a loose one and bigger on my feet as I was using it for an year now. I was never a big fan of running so knew a little about it. I started running and in 7-8 days, some really serious pain was there in my shin(lower tibia). Those were actually just the splints to warn me. I thought that it's just because I am not used to it and carried on with daily running. I also increased the pace of workout and started some serious cardio after it which comprised of jumping jacks, lunges and burpees also. All of this was adding more and more burden on my shin area and little did I know that the pain will not subside easily afterwards. In 20 days, I was able to drop 7-8 kgs and stopped running. Now after some 20 days of rest when my shin felt really good, I again started running but this time on a hard track with same shoes and also increased it on daily basis. I was running 4-5 kms everyday pushing myself each day and this time I was rigorously sprinting too. After running, I would do HIIT again which comprise of jumping jacks, in and outs, lunges, burpees and after a week only, I got a really bad pain in both of my shins. After diagnosis, doctor told me that I have stress fracture in them and need to rest properly now. I am still resting and pain comes back even if I walk too much.

All of it happened to me because I didn't research well and directly picked up a new sport. Though I am agile fitness fan but I had no prior experience with running and also, I didn't stick to best practices.

Best practices before you start any of rigorous weight bearing exercises :

• Check on the technique of the exercise from various online sources available.

• Buy gears and proper equipment(good shoes, bands).

• Learn stretching and cooldown exercises which are to be compulsorily done before and after workout.

• Take proper nutrition and I insist you to take vitamin supplements.

• In case of running, choose a good trach and shin splints will be there frequently so to stay safe from them, practice rolling, icing inflammation two to three times a day or you can read from various professional's sources available online on it.

• Give proper resting time to your body. Your body should have proper recovery time for every day of exercise you practice.

• Just don't over do it and also, start any activity on a slow pace and gradually increase the pace. Also, your best performance shouldn't be tested on everyday basis but once or twice only in a week. Like if you are running and want to see how fast and far you can make it in ten minutes, you shouldn't do that daily. Just do stamina and endurance building exercises everyday which have low impact on legs and then just once or twice in a week, run to check if you are killing your milestone.

• Take expert's advice if you know any. Like a veteran runner or a fitness practitioner.

Thankyou for reading. Build a good physique and please don't injure yourself.