Getting in Shape

[Rob King]

Dear Dave,

I am woefully unfit, and would like to change this. An important note is that my family is at serious risk for heart disease on both sides. While this has never made fitness feel urgent to me, it's certainly a strike in the 'pros' column. And while I certainly like Brazil's suggestion, and will be pursuing that as I am able, I feel like it isn't enough.

I would like to set a goal for myself, but I am not sure whether or not it is too far outside the realm of possibility. Every year, a local telephone company holds a ten mile race as a fundraiser for ... something I can't recall. I have three friends now who have made running the 'tely 10' their goal. The race is in three months' time, and I guess what I'm asking is if participating in it is a reasonable goal. I can pretty much only run for thirty seconds at a time in my current sorry state without getting winded.

As a continuation of this question, I guess I'm also wondering if you (or any other forumite) has any advice for me as I try and get into shape. I'm too poor for a gym membership, so should running be an acceptable alternative? How about other exercises to improve strength and the like? While losing weight is my primary goal, I would like to improve myself all-around, if I could.

[Signed]
Sedentary in St. John's

 

[Hylian]

I have been walking to work lately. Granted it is only a little over a mile each way but it has helped quite a bit actually. Of course that won;t get you in shape in 3 months but it is a start.

 

[Chazwozel]

Dear Dave,

I am woefully unfit, and would like to change this. An important note is that my family is at serious risk for heart disease on both sides. While this has never made fitness feel urgent to me, it's certainly a strike in the 'pros' column. And while I certainly like Brazil's suggestion, and will be pursuing that as I am able, I feel like it isn't enough.

I would like to set a goal for myself, but I am not sure whether or not it is too far outside the realm of possibility. Every year, a local telephone company holds a ten mile race as a fundraiser for ... something I can't recall. I have three friends now who have made running the 'tely 10' their goal. The race is in three months' time, and I guess what I'm asking is if participating in it is a reasonable goal. I can pretty much only run for thirty seconds at a time in my current sorry state without getting winded.

As a continuation of this question, I guess I'm also wondering if you (or any other forumite) has any advice for me as I try and get into shape. I'm too poor for a gym membership, so should running be an acceptable alternative? How about other exercises to improve strength and the like? While losing weight is my primary goal, I would like to improve myself all-around, if I could.

[Signed]
Sedentary in St. John's

You're not going to be able to run 10 miles if you get winded after 30 seconds even with three months prep time. This is an unreasonable goal, especially if you don't run at all right now. Chances are your posture and running form are going to be terrible. You're going to just hurt yourself doing 10 miles. Hell, if you're winded at 30 seconds I recommend brisk walking at first for like an hour a day. You really need your lungs and circulatory system to adapt to activity. When I say brisk walk, I don't mean humpty dumptying around the block while smelling every rose you encounter. I mean walking to the point of breaking into a jog (yes, you will get shin splints) for an hour, with weights on your wrists and ankles.

A reasonable goal is to work up your stamina to the point where you can run for 20 minutes straight at 50-70%% pace without dying for air and at the same time practice proper posture and foot placement; then start goals like distance.

A few tips:

Look up at the distance while you run (don't watch your feet!) Keep your strides long and your arms pumping. You need to breathe correctly, meaning you need to control your breaths and make sure you're not holding it. Above all, buy a pair of NEW AND GOOD running sneakers. Don't go cheap, a good pair of running shoes is around 70 - 120 bucks. You should get a shoe that matches your foot type: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/shoes/choosing-a-shoe-the-very-basics/481.html

 

[Chibibar]

do what my sister did (she is now a marathon runner)

Walk everyday. I mean every day!! after you feel pretty good walking (say 1-3 miles) then move up to brisk walk, then maybe a jog (keep within 1-3 miles) My sister did over a 10 months of training and she complete her first marathon (I think she made halfway group I forgot) . Of course during weekdays she does like 1-3 miles run and weekend bump to almost 10.


3 months? I don't think it can be done without having a rigid diet and exercise (lots of it) to get your body into the shape you need.

 

[Chazwozel]

do what my sister did (she is now a marathon runner)

Walk everyday. I mean every day!! after you feel pretty good walking (say 1-3 miles) then move up to brisk walk, then maybe a jog (keep within 1-3 miles) My sister did over a 10 months of training and she complete her first marathon (I think she made halfway group I forgot) . Of course during weekdays she does like 1-3 miles run and weekend bump to almost 10.


3 months? I don't think it can be done without having a rigid diet and exercise (lots of it) to get your body into the shape you need.

To get into 10 mile marathon shape in 3 months you need to take on a boxer's regiment of 12 hour a day workouts.

 

[Rob King]

Thanks, Chaz. Decent running shoes are my first priority, then. I'll make it my goal to brisk-walk an hour a day for the next few weeks, and then see if I can ramp it up from there. In the meanwhile, I think I'll avoid taking the company car home between shifts. It's a 20 minute walk to and from work, which never hurt anybody.

 

[Chazwozel]

Thanks, Chaz. Decent running shoes are my first priority, then. I'll make it my goal to brisk-walk an hour a day for the next few weeks, and then see if I can ramp it up from there. In the meanwhile, I think I'll avoid taking the company car home between shifts. It's a 20 minute walk to and from work, which never hurt anybody.

I walk 20 minutes from the trian station to work everyday. It ain't no thang.

 

[Shannow]

Round is a shape.

 

[Chibibar]

Round is a shape.

Yes. but it is a shape I don't want to be in

 

[Shegokigo]

Whenever I take a long break from working out, and needing to lose a few vanity pounds, I always follow the same procedure. Not sure how it'll work for you, as everyone's body is different.

1: Immediately drop all drinks other than water. Everytime you're thirsty, water. Every meal you have, water. etc.
2: Drop fast food, completely. Not even "grilled" food from a burger joint. Completely drop it and replace your snack cravings for something "fast" with easily accessible fruit. (Apples, Grapes, No Salt Added Nuts, etc)
3: If you can't afford a gym, begin an easy workout schedule: First week = 15mins of run/walk interval cardio (5min walk, 1min run, 2min walk, 1 min run, 2min walk, 1min run for 15mins), then as many pushups, crunches and other body workouts that you can before you feel strained.
4: Every week, add 2-5 minutes to the cardio, 5-10 more to your workout sets.

Given time doing this, you will see big results, quickly. At least I do.

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

Whenever I take a long break from working out, and needing to lose a few vanity pounds, I always follow the same procedure. Not sure how it'll work for you, as everyone's body is different.

1: Immediately drop all drinks other than water. Everytime you're thirsty, water. Every meal you have, water. etc.
2: Drop fast food, completely. Not even "grilled" food from a burger joint. Completely drop it and replace your snack cravings for something "fast" with easily accessible fruit. (Apples, Grapes, No Salt Added Nuts, etc)
3: If you can't afford a gym, begin an easy workout schedule: First week = 15mins of run/walk interval cardio (5min walk, 1min run, 2min walk, 1 min run, 2min walk, 1min run for 15mins), then as many pushups, crunches and other body workouts that you can before you feel strained.
4: Every week, add 2-5 minutes to the cardio, 5-10 more to your workout sets.

Given time doing this, you will see big results, quickly. At least I do.

The lady knows what she's talking about, listen to her young padawan.

I'll add a bit more, when I buy fruit or vegetables, I create platters from them. With low-fat vanilla yogurt or honey for the fruit, and low fat ranch - or anything else you can think of - for the vegetables. It helps with my snack cravings.

 

[figmentPez]

No Salt Added Nuts

I agree with most of your advice, but why no salt on the nuts?

 

[Cajungal]

Most people eat too much salt anyway. Cutting it where you can, especially if you eat a lot of processed food, is a good idea.

 

[Chibibar]

salt makes you retain water?

 

[Cajungal]

Plus, Rob's heart disease risk. High sodium intake isn't heart healthy.

 

[drifter]

If you want to work on strength but don't have any money, this is probably as good a place to start as any.

Also, regarding salt intake; it is shocking how much salt you can eat without realizing it. At one point I was tracking my diet, and while overall it was better than I expected, I found that I was averaging roughly three times the recommended daily intake.

 

[Cajungal]

Even "healthy"-looking foods can be ridiculous. I try not to eat a lot of frozen meals or canned soup/broth because I don't get to control the amount of salt in there. I bought a frozen dinner last week.... damn thing had 50% of my daily sodium.

---------- Post added at 05:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ----------

Also, I wish I could do push-ups. I can barely do 3. :\

 

[Gusto]

Here's the way I've heard to break from walking into running successfully.

Set yourself a 30 minutes circuit somewhere. Your goal at first is gonna be to run for 2 minutes, then walk for 8. Repeat this three times for the full half hour, and do it every day. Once you find you're no longer huffing and puffing after 2 minutes of running, change it to 3 minutes running and 7 minutes walking.

Keep this up until you're running for the full 30 minutes, and then work on increasing the length of your circuit. Good cardiovascular health and weight loss come from keeping a high sustained heart rate, and this method is made to build up your endurance.

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

If you want to work on strength but don't have any money, this is probably as good a place to start as any.

Also, regarding salt intake; it is shocking how much salt you can eat without realizing it. At one point I was tracking my diet, and while overall it was better than I expected, I found that I was averaging roughly three times the recommended daily intake.

When I was weightlifting. In every session, I increased the overall amount of push-ups by one. There were times it was easy, and other days when I had to force myself to complete it.

 

[figmentPez]

Plus, Rob's heart disease risk. High sodium intake isn't heart healthy.

There's debate about that. For most people sodium intake isn't a major factor in heart health. Only for people who don't drink enough water, or whose bodies don't flush sodium like they're supposed to. For most people it takes a huge amount of sodium to make any difference, assuming they drink enough water, becuase they'll just eliminate it when they pee. Those with kidney problems, on certain medication or who are genetically pre-disposed to problems need to watch their sodium, but there are fare more important things to cut than a little bit of salt on nuts.

 

[Cajungal]

Fair enough. Still.

 

[Creature]

I love jogging! It's great that you're picking it up. Chaz pretty much said all the stuff you need to know to start out with. I used to be REALLY out of shape, and one day I started jogging. I couldn't go any longer than 30 seconds, too. When I first started, each day I tried to go as far as I did the day before or just a little further (to the next house/trash can/mailbox/whatever on the street). Eventually, I built up to jog a mile. Fast forward a couple of years, and I can now jog 7 without stopping. I never imagined that I would ever work up to going that far, but it's very attainable! I went to a specialty running store. The folks there evaluated the way I walk and figured out the perfect shoe for me. If you have a store like that where you live, I'd suggest getting their opinion.

Also, once you really get into the habit of jogging and start increasing distance, make sure you increase milage by only 10% weekly. I didn't follow this, and I ran into some foot, leg, and hip pain.

 

[Cajungal]

:laugh: At "humpty-dumptying" in Chaz's post. What a great image.

 

[Rob King]

:laugh: At \"humpty-dumptying\" in Chaz's post. What a great image.

It was pretty good.

If you want to work on strength but don't have any money, this is probably as good a place to start as any.

Also, regarding salt intake; it is shocking how much salt you can eat without realizing it. At one point I was tracking my diet, and while overall it was better than I expected, I found that I was averaging roughly three times the recommended daily intake.

Pushups I'm pretty good with. One summer shortly after high school I discovered that I was utterly unable to do any more than three. I worked on it every night for several months and I got up to an impressive number. I can still do more than thirty without stopping.

My new fascination has been chin-ups. My girlfriend's house has a bar across their doorway where they do chin-ups occasionally. I can get one on a good day if I try with everything in me. I need to figure out something that will round out my strength-training, I feel.

Plus, Rob's heart disease risk. High sodium intake isn't heart healthy.

It's particularly heartbreaking when you consider the local food. Sunday dinner isn't Sunday dinner without salt pork, and half of the more 'Newfoundlandish' dishes make use of Salt Cod, since way back when that was the only way to make it keep. Heck, even the national breakfast, fried bread dough, isn't done 'properly' unless it's been fried in bacon grease.

 

[Chibibar]

It's particularly heartbreaking when you consider the local food. Sunday dinner isn't Sunday dinner without salt pork, and half of the more 'Newfoundlandish' dishes make use of Salt Cod, since way back when that was the only way to make it keep. Heck, even the national breakfast, fried bread dough, isn't done 'properly' unless it's been fried in bacon grease.

drink PLENTY of water as other have suggested and only water and you should be able to "wash" those out (hopefully)

 

[Chazwozel]

:laugh: At "humpty-dumptying" in Chaz's post. What a great image.

.

 

[Cajungal]

No one warned me about carbs! :waah:

 

[figmentPez]

Ack, I overdid my own excercise yesterday. That reminded me of something I don't think has been mentioned so far, stretching. Make sure to do some, maybe someone else has some good ideas on where to find info on how to stretch properly, because it's not something you want to do wrong.

 

[Chibibar]

I am doing the push up and situp programm (100 push up and 200 situp) I am OUT OF SHAPE! blah. it will be interesting to see how I progress in 6 weeks.

 

[Necronic]

The only important part in exercise in the early stages is the commitment. Everything else is details. Don't spend a penny on it until you can be committed. Seriously, never join a gym until you can maintain an excersize regimen without one. My running shoes are held together with duct tape, and I run 3-10 miles a week.

Commitment takes 2 forms. The first is sticking with an exercise regimen. Set a small goal, like running once every week. If you can do more great, but always meet that goal. If you can make yourself run when you don't want to, that's when you are really starting to get it.

The other form is within the exercise itself. Push yourself. Lets say you are doing a 3 mile run. At 1/4 mile you feel too winded to run. Really ask yourself whether or not you are too winded. If you are, stop, walk, and then start running again as soon as you can. If you aren't at your limit, then keep going. Slow down maybe, but keep going. Personally a good run involves me having incredibly angry internal dialogues where some part of me keeps saying I have to stop, and the other part keeps saying STFU and keep going.

When you first start you may only make it 2 blocks before you are winded. I know I was. Don't get discouraged. Within 1 month I had gone from that 2 blocks to 1 mile. You would be amazed how fast your body can start fixing all the damage you have done to it.