GET FIT
A More Relaxing Way to Run
Nike Run Club: Running Coach
Workout App & Distance Tracker
Want to stay fit, reduce stress, and improve your technique? Try one of the guided runs designed by Nike Run Club and the beloved meditation app Headspace to bring more serenity to your workouts.
Mindful running doesn’t require stopping and meditating by the side of road. It’s simply being present, focusing on form, and having more awareness of the world around you as you move.
To find mindful runs in Nike Run Club, select Guided Runs and scroll down to Run With Headspace. The 15 guided runs—which are part podcast, part private coaching session—range from 25 minutes to an hour. They’re essentially a conversation between Headspace cofounder Andy Puddicombe and Nike Run Club global head coach Chris Bennett, with you in the middle.
Puddicombe chats with Bennett about how to stay more mindful of, say, your surroundings or form. Then he leaves you with words of encouragement—“Allow the body to run, rather than trying to run”—before the app goes silent to leave you to the task at hand: running.
Running is absolutely a form of meditation.
—Nike Run Club head coach Chris Bennett
“I see very often when we’re out running, we’re caught up in our inner dialogue so we don’t even get to enjoy it,” Puddicombe says. “We like you to be more focused, less distracted. And because we are applying awareness to the run, our form and our posture tend to improve.”
The goal isn’t just to make you run better, Bennett says; it’s also to make you feel better: “Some of it is and always should be about just ending the run a little bit more at peace with yourself, your day, your surroundings.”