For Those Trying to Get Into Shape...
Posted by shifto | Posted in exercise, fatty mcfattison, running, you better man up | Posted on 23:50
I was originally writing this on a military message board to a guy who described himself as "unfit" asking military guys for tips on how to get fit. As I was writing I realized my message was getting quite long and no one on a message board would ever read it. I also realized that these were actually workout goals I've been setting for myself. Weird. It's funny because there are a couple people that I know that are trying to get back into shape so I should probably post this for everyone's benefit.
Be honest with yourself and answer this question: Am I fat? If the answer is yes, then first and foremost lose the extra pounds. Take a two prong attack to it. Diet and exercise. If you're already fat, then you don't have the luxury of continuing to eat the way you do to get yourself that way. You have to reduce your intake in such a way so that your body taps your fat stores. On the exercise front you want to focus on the cardio. Ensure that your cardio lasts longer than 20 minutes. Your body will tend to burn sugars (carbs) in the first 20 minutes of your workout. After that period you'll start burning long term energy sources which in this case would be your fat.
When you lose the extra pounds it will be so much easier to do just about anything else. Breathing, climbing stairs, recreational coupling will all be much easier. Not to mention, running with 20 less pounds.
Concurrently, with your weight losing goal you should be working on getting your muscles stronger. The basics are pushups, pullups, and crunches. Do not skimp on the pullups. If you can't get to a park or gym then I recommend buying an iron gym from bed bath and beyond so you can stick it in your door and have no excuse not to do them at home. Make sure you do sets just like you would on a machine at the gym. So for your pushups try 3 sets of 20 a piece or even 20-15-10 at first and work your way up to 3 sets of 20. Eventually work your way up to 25, then 30, etc. Make sure to do different types of pushups (standard, wide arm, close hand, incline, burpees). Same for the others.
Alternate these muscle activity days with cardio days. Initially work on endurance. If you are in the "fat" category as discussed earlier then you should be running for at least 30 minutes. Distance does not matter. Eventually, you want to make sure that you're doing at least 5k (about 3 miles) in that 30 minutes. Once you've mastered the endurance (and lost significant weight) then you can start working on speed. This is when you want to run at an 8 minute per mile pace. Scale it back to 2 miles in 16 minutes and then a third mile and slowly work your way to doing all 3 miles in 24 minutes. Eventually, if you keep scaling back in this way you should strive to run 3 miles in around 20 minutes and the other 10 minutes being extra innings for your heart.
If you find yourself hitting a plateau and you just can't improve on the above system then it's time to start working in sprints. Your sprints should always be balls to the wall intense and in short, but frequent spurts. Pick a set distance like the distance between light polls in your neighborhood and alternate sprinting and jogging/walking between each one. First time sprinters will realize that different muscles hurt after a sprint versus a regular distance run. Another fun one is to alternate sprinting a quarter mile and walking a quarter mile for 2 miles. Regardless of how you do it your sprint work outs should happen at least once a week.
Eventually, you will probably want to replace or incorporate your muscle strengthening exercises with workouts in the gym. Once you start working out at the gym you might be diesel enough to do your runs in the morning and your muscle strengthening exercises in the evening or vice versa. The only issue at this point would be time.
Be honest with yourself and answer this question: Am I fat? If the answer is yes, then first and foremost lose the extra pounds. Take a two prong attack to it. Diet and exercise. If you're already fat, then you don't have the luxury of continuing to eat the way you do to get yourself that way. You have to reduce your intake in such a way so that your body taps your fat stores. On the exercise front you want to focus on the cardio. Ensure that your cardio lasts longer than 20 minutes. Your body will tend to burn sugars (carbs) in the first 20 minutes of your workout. After that period you'll start burning long term energy sources which in this case would be your fat.
When you lose the extra pounds it will be so much easier to do just about anything else. Breathing, climbing stairs, recreational coupling will all be much easier. Not to mention, running with 20 less pounds.
Concurrently, with your weight losing goal you should be working on getting your muscles stronger. The basics are pushups, pullups, and crunches. Do not skimp on the pullups. If you can't get to a park or gym then I recommend buying an iron gym from bed bath and beyond so you can stick it in your door and have no excuse not to do them at home. Make sure you do sets just like you would on a machine at the gym. So for your pushups try 3 sets of 20 a piece or even 20-15-10 at first and work your way up to 3 sets of 20. Eventually work your way up to 25, then 30, etc. Make sure to do different types of pushups (standard, wide arm, close hand, incline, burpees). Same for the others.
Alternate these muscle activity days with cardio days. Initially work on endurance. If you are in the "fat" category as discussed earlier then you should be running for at least 30 minutes. Distance does not matter. Eventually, you want to make sure that you're doing at least 5k (about 3 miles) in that 30 minutes. Once you've mastered the endurance (and lost significant weight) then you can start working on speed. This is when you want to run at an 8 minute per mile pace. Scale it back to 2 miles in 16 minutes and then a third mile and slowly work your way to doing all 3 miles in 24 minutes. Eventually, if you keep scaling back in this way you should strive to run 3 miles in around 20 minutes and the other 10 minutes being extra innings for your heart.
If you find yourself hitting a plateau and you just can't improve on the above system then it's time to start working in sprints. Your sprints should always be balls to the wall intense and in short, but frequent spurts. Pick a set distance like the distance between light polls in your neighborhood and alternate sprinting and jogging/walking between each one. First time sprinters will realize that different muscles hurt after a sprint versus a regular distance run. Another fun one is to alternate sprinting a quarter mile and walking a quarter mile for 2 miles. Regardless of how you do it your sprint work outs should happen at least once a week.
Eventually, you will probably want to replace or incorporate your muscle strengthening exercises with workouts in the gym. Once you start working out at the gym you might be diesel enough to do your runs in the morning and your muscle strengthening exercises in the evening or vice versa. The only issue at this point would be time.
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