13 episodes
NHS Couch to 5K NHS Choices
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- Health & Fitness
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4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
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This is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks.
It is:
- Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly
- Virtually free - all you need is a decent pair of trainers and an MP3 player (a regular mobile phone will do)
- Easy - a motivating 'personal trainer' tells you exactly when to stop and start.
The plan sets three runs per week with a day of rest between each run.
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Couch to 5K - Week 1
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 2
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 3
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 4
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 5 run 1
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
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Couch to 5K - Week 5 run 2
Couch to 5k is a running plan designed to get complete beginners from being a couch potato to running 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks. It is: - Achievable - starting with a mix of running and walking and building up slowly - Virtually free - all you need
Customer Reviews
Sceptical of going back to running after a long break
I was sceptical about going back to my evening run after almost a year of not running. This app gave me a gentle kickstart which help me to build my stamina & strength gradually. I look forward to my runs now even after a hectic day @ work 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾.Naomi Oladosu
It’s really good but a couple of watch-outs…
This is the third or fourth time I’ve C25K. It’s a really good programme in that given sufficient time you can get to 30 mins running easily (not 5k). Having done it I think 3 times now (it’s so easy to lose fitness) the watch-outs are:
- Music - terrible (why can’t they improve this - we need bouncy music for running)
- Stretching - never mentioned (the first two times I did this programme I had an achilles niggle - this is just because I didn’t no how to stretch - hired a PT, now sorted)
- Tempo - weeks 5 and 6 are too rushed (if you’re new to running, suddenly going up to 25 mins is a struggle, you can get around this by repeating all of those weeks 3 times).
Overall good but could be much better now I’ve seen it in hindsight.
I didn’t think it would work
Being someone who has always hated running and who has put on weight over lockdown I didn’t think it would work for me but I thought I’d give it a go. I’m now into week 9 (the final week) and instead of being able to run 30 minutes or 5km (the target of the programme) I’m now able to run 11km in 1 hour 10 minutes.
I am really impressed and it really did take me from nothing to being able to run a lot more than 5k. To be honest, if I can do it anyone can!