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- How much exercise?
- Benefits of exercise
- Physical activity guidelines: children (under 5s)
- Physical activity guidelines: children and young people
- Physical activity guidelines: adults
- Why we should sit less
- Physical activity guidelines: older adults
- Exercise as you get older
- Couch to 5K
- Couch to 5K: week by week
- How to stretch after a run
- Get running with Couch to 5K
- Life after Couch to 5K
- Running podcasts for C25K graduates
- Knee exercises for runners
- Knee pain and other running injuries
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- Common exercise mistakes
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- Exercises for sciatica problems
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- Fitness guides
- Get active your way
- Get fit for free
- How to warm up before exercising
- How to stretch after exercising
- A guide to pilates
- A guide to tai chi
- A guide to yoga
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- Walking for health
- 10-minute workouts
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- 10-minute firm butt workout
- 10-minute home cardio workout
- 10-minute home toning workout
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- 5-minute wake-up workout
- Do I need to stretch before exercising?
- Exercises for strong bones
- 12-week fitness plan
- Balance exercises
- Flexibility exercises
- Gym-free exercises
- Gym-free workouts
- Easy exercises
- Sitting exercises
- Strength exercises
- Get fit with Strength and Flex
- Strength and Flex exercise plan
- Strength and Flex exercise plan: week by week
- Strength and Flex exercise plan: how-to videos
- How to improve your strength and flexibility
Couch to 5K: week by week
A week-by-week description of the 9-week set of Couch to 5K podcasts. Each week involves 3 runs.
You can download each week as a podcast:
Or, get the entire programme as a smartphone app:
This One You Couch to 5K app gives you a choice of coaches and helps you track your progress.
As well as Laura, who features on the NHS Couch to 5K podcasts, you can also be coached by celebrities Jo Whiley, Sarah Millican, Sanjeev Kohli or Michael Johnson.
Week 1
For your 3 runs in week 1, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk. After this, you will alternate 1 minute of running and 1-and-a-half minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 2
For your 3 runs in week 2, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk. After this, you will alternate 1-and-a-half minutes of running with 2 minutes of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 3
For your 3 runs in week 3, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk, then 2 repetitions of 1-and-a-half minutes of running, 1-and-a-half minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running and 3 minutes of walking.
Week 4
For your 3 runs in week 4, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk, then 3 minutes of running, 1-and-a-half minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running, 2-and-a-half minutes of walking, 3 minutes of running, 1-and-a-half minutes of walking and 5 minutes of running.
Week 5
There are 3 different runs this week:
Run 1: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking and 5 minutes of running.
Run 2: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking and 8 minutes of running.
Run 3: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 20 minutes of running, with no walking.
Week 6
There are 3 different runs this week:
Run 1: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking, 8 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking and 5 minutes of running.
Run 2: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 10 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of running.
Run 3: a brisk 5-minute walk, then 25 minutes of running with no walking.
Week 7
For your 3 runs in week 7, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk, then 25 minutes of running.
Week 8
For your 3 runs in week 8, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk, then 28 minutes of running.
Week 9
For your 3 runs in week 9, you will begin with a brisk 5-minute walk, then 30 minutes of running.
Tips on progression
The programme is designed for beginners to gradually build up their running ability so they can eventually run 5km without stopping.
The pace of the 9-week running plan has been tried and tested by 10s of thousands of new runners.
You can, however, repeat any one of the weeks until you feel physically ready to move on to the next week.
Structure is important for motivation, so try to allocate specific days of the week for your runs and stick to them.
Rest days
Rest days are critical. Having one between each run will reduce your chance of injury and also make you a stronger, better runner.
Resting allows your joints to recover from what is a high-impact exercise, and your running muscles to repair and strengthen.
Alternatively, you could do Strength and Flex on your rest days. This is a 5-week plan designed to improve your strength and flexibility, which will help your running.
Aches and pains
Some new runners starting the programme experience calf pain or sore shins (sometimes known as shin splints).
Such aches can be caused by running on hard surfaces or by running in shoes that do not have enough foot and ankle support.
Always do the 5-minute warm-up walks as instructed in the podcasts before each run, and check that your running shoes are offering good support.
For more information on preventing and treating injuries, read our page on sports injuries.
You will have good runs and bad runs – accept it, and do not spend too much time analysing the how and why. Even a bad run is good for you.
After Couch to 5K
For tips on how to stay active after finishing the Couch to 5K programme, see our Life after Couch to 5K page.
