Getting into exercise. Any advice?

Hi! first of all i'd say its really good that you have at least started trying already as many people are still 'thinking'.

So, its totally ok if you dont want to go to a Gym and use equipment. Running is a great way to keep fit. you can start with running at a steady pace for few initial days (2 weeks atleast) untill you gain enough stamina. So, as you said you tried running faster, i assume like sprint? because sprinting is a great excercise than running slowly ata steady pace. Where running slowly and for long distance is considered as 'Cardio/Aerobic' (which is also important for our body to burn calories) and Sprint is considered as 'Anaerobic' which is like doing strength training to work on muscles. Also, as you asked about taking breaks, i'd suggest dont sit in between breaks.. if you feel out of breath just simply walk for 2 mins to catch your breath back.

You can do it early in the morning or in the evening too, doesnt matter. but make sure you do some pre-workout stretching before running to warm up your body which is very very important. it could be done by simple jumping/rope skipping for couple of minutes. and post workout stretching is equally important too, you can check videos on youtube to get the exact stretches required after running or any other workout you do.

Other workouts could be strengthening your rest of the body muscles like thighs, abs, calves... which includes Lunges, Squats, full and half crunches followed by stretching do check the exact posture for these workouts on youtube which is very important.

hope it helps.

 

I need to know your age and general physical condition.

I dont know what you have available to you fitness-wise, but joining a gym has been instrumental in keeping me on track. Ive had a gym membership for most of my life. Even if you're frugal, fitness/nutrition is not one area you should skimp on.

Otherwise I would simply start with walking and build up distance/time (however you decide to track it). The key thing is being consistent. If you are fairly young with no health/physical problems, I would aim for 6-7 days a week. When you've been consistently walking for 6 months, I would consider adding other activity.

The main reason that I recommend starting this way is that the biggest issue in getting fit for most people is sticking with it. There are going to be days you dont want to go walk, but you have to push yourself to.

 

You don't need exercise equipment to be fit you're doing fine.

When you say you're running at a slower pace, you mean jogging right? Jogging is good because you can keep it up for longer. Also if you sprint too much at first it can give you stitches.
I train for rowing, and what we do to build stamina is we jog for most of the distance we're supposed to do, and we sprint the last part. That really gets up your stamina, jog first and sprint right at the end. And I'll tell you something, some time soon after you begin jogging, you start feeling REALLY tired and like you want to give up. You should keep going through that time. After a point it stops being so painful and gets better. Also, when you jog, listening to music helps. Go through the music you like and find songs which have the same tempo as the speed at which your feet hit the ground when you run (should be somewhere in between 130-160 bpm). This works amazingly and makes it much easier.

When you're taking breaks, don't sit. It can give you muscle fatigue if you've been doing something strenuous right before. Walking around is good. In fact, your other question is answered here, walking and running can definitely be paired. Start with walking for a distance, then start jogging, then sprint for a small amount of time, go back to jogging if you feel up to it, and if not then walking more is fine.

Also, legs hurting is normal. It means muscles that weren't very active before are waking up and getting stronger. The pain will go in a few days.

If you manage to run for thirty minutes straight, that's excellent. You might need some practice before you manage that though.

There's nothing wrong with running in the heat (I live in a tropical country and I do it nearly every day) but make sure you drink plenty of water, and put some juice powder in it if you can, to replace the salts you'll be losing from sweat as well. It doesn't snow where I live but I'm guessing that's not advisable, you might slip and fall

Running uphill will kinda hurt, I don't think anything is really wrong with it per se but it'll tire you out very fast, and it's much easier to keep a steady pace on flat ground.

When we stretch for rowing, we do this routine which is kinda stolen from a yoga routine called surya namaskar. We added some other things to it, but you can look up the actual surya namaskar, it's really great for stretching. You can look up videos on youtube as well, I'm sure there are good ones which show you how to stretch properly.

For other exercises, you can try squats and sit-ups... don't do too many of any of these at first otherwise you're going to have an incredibly achy body the next day and you'll barely be able to walk. Starting out with three sets of 10 should be fine. Do them every alternate day, and slowly increase the number when you get more comfortable with it.

As for sticking to the schedule... willpower be consistent and don't try to do too much at once. This isn't something you can push too hard, or else you'll hurt yourself. Just be regular with it and it'll be absolutely fine.

Good luck!

 

I don't have any advice, I just wanted to say I'm so glad you made this thread because I'm going to start trying to get fit over the summer when I'm no longer exhausted from college every day (so starting next week)

 

My advice: Dont. XD