If you’ve ever watched a race, you may have seen some runners whiz by, others resolutely jog forward — and a sizable group slow down to a walking pace, sometimes just a few minutes after passing the start line.
No, they don’t need your cheers to “just keep going!” Rather, it’s likely those walk breaks are calculated. It’s all part of a time-honored technique known as “Jeffing,” and runners have been using it for decades in training runs and in major races like the New York City Marathon.
While this method is pretty well known among runners, it’s not only for those looking for personal records. Rather, it can be a great way for people to add a little oomph to their walking workouts and gain even more health-promoting benefits. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is ‘Jeffing’?
Simply put, Jeffing is a technique that intersperses walk breaks with running bouts to help ward off fatigue and boost endurance. This type of cardio, or aerobic, workout goes by many different names in the running community — run-walk, run-walk-run, the Galloway method, and, of course, Jeffing.
The last two are nods to Olympian Jeff Galloway, who began using this method in 1973 while instructing a beginner running class at a university. (Galloway himself has no particular preference for which term is used. “I’m honored to be a verb,” he said.)
Galloway ran weekly with the 22 students in the program, who naturally divided into three pace groups based on their abilities. “Whenever anybody started huffing and puffing in any group, I would have everybody walk.” Galloway said.
All of the participants stuck with the program for the entire 10 weeks, and all were able to complete their final goal: finishing either a 5K or 10K race. The walk breaks, Galloway believed, played a vital role in that.
In this earliest iteration of Jeffing, there was no set timing on when to start walking and for how long to do so. But after further refining, it soon became clear to Galloway that the important part is to slot in walking breaks before you feel gassed.
“Because you’re taking those walk breaks from the beginning, before you’re tired, before you need them, it feels great,” said Chris Twiggs, the chief training officer of Galloway Training. “It really does feel like you’re cheating because you’re pushing the fatigue toward the end.” When Twiggs used the method for the first time at the 1995 Walt Disney World Marathon, he ended up with about a 15-minute personal record.
The 30-30 method — a 30- second run and 30-second walk — is one of the most popular ways to approach Jeffing, said Galloway. However, if a 30-second run is too challenging, you can scale it back: Twiggs often has walkers start with a 10-second run, 50-second walk, and then adjust from there.
“There’s an almost unlimited way to go about it,” said Kate Baird, a certified running coach and exercise physiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery. That’s part of what makes it so beginner-friendly.
What are the benefits of the run-walk method?
First and foremost, run-walk is a type of aerobic workout that helps improve heart health, said Neel Chokshi, the medical director of the Sports Cardiology and Fitness Program at Penn Medicine. Consider it “interval training-lite,” he said. “The benefits of run-walk mirror general interval training in terms of the gains that people can get.” Specifically, alternating between high- and low-intensity efforts allows you to push hard when it’s time.
Over time, your heart will adapt to those repeated exposures to higher intensities, Chokshi said. Adaptations include being able to pump more blood with each heartbeat, a reduction in resting heart rate and increased blood flow through the arteries.
Interval training also improves your VO2 max, or how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise. This results in better endurance and is also linked to longevity, said Chokshi.
Another great thing about Jeffing is that you can get all of these heart-health benefits while reducing the amount of high-impact stress you’re putting on your muscles, tendons and ligaments. When Galloway first tried this method in the university’s beginner running course, a huge takeaway was that not one participant got injured during the program. That’s big, since beginner runners are at higher risk — they get injured at more than twice the rate as more experienced ones, according to a 2019 study out of the Netherlands.
Finally, you can’t ignore the mental benefits. If you want to scale up your cardio workouts but are daunted by the idea of running nonstop, Jeffing is a great way to overcome that mental hurdle, said Chokshi. Knowing you will have walk breaks coming can help you build the confidence that you can complete your workout — and finish it strong, said Twiggs.
Here’s how to try the run-walk method yourself
While there’s no set way to use the method, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make the most of it.
1. Get the right shoes
Because running brings a higher impact than walking, proper gear becomes even more important, said Twiggs. You might need more cushioning than a walking shoe, or some kind of motion control if your foot rolls inward or outward with each stride, he said. A running specialty store can help you pick out a pair that works for your anatomy and biomechanics.
2. Start small
While folks use run-walk in multi-hour marathons and training runs, these workouts don’t need to be nearly as long — and they shouldn’t be if you’re a beginner. Anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes is a great starting place, said Baird. Once you’re more comfortable with it, you can shoot for 30 to 45 minutes, Twiggs said.
3. Warm up your body
Getting your blood flowing before a workout can loosen up your muscles and gradually increase your heart rate, Chokshi said. You want to do a general, full-body warmup, since running includes pretty much every muscle in your body, including those in your lower body, upper body and core. Moves like hamstring sweeps, lunges with thoracic rotation and cat-cows are solid choices.
4. Choose your intervals
The 30-second run, 30-second walk tends to be the most popular utilization of the program, but “there’s no perfect run-walk ratio that everyone should be aspiring to,” said Twiggs. If you feel like you can’t catch your breath when running for 30 seconds, you can shorten that segment. If you feel strong, you can bump it up to 40 seconds, 60 seconds, or even a few minutes and see how your body reacts.
5. Slow down
Your run effort shouldn’t be a heart-pumping sprint — you want to keep it more moderate so you have the energy to do it all over again during your next interval. “A really good gauge is if you can carry on a conversation,” Twiggs said.
6. Make time for recovery
Even if you feel great after a workout, you shouldn’t do it every day. “Take one to two days between those workouts when it’s new,” Baird said. If you feel sore or tight in one particular spot, that might be your cue to give that area some extra attention during your warmup or next strength-training workout.
7. Don’t consider it a means to an end
The more you run-walk, the more you may want to play with your intervals, gradually increasing your run efforts as you gain more endurance. But it’s important to remember that you don’t have to use this method to reach a continuous running goal if that’s not what you want, said Galloway. You can stick with run-walk and still reap the benefits of running.
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