Howdy. So i was wondering (because i'm awesome like that) good ways of getting fitter without loosing much weight. I'm currently very unfit (although skinny) and feel like death after 400 metres (jogging) Any help? Stories? Anecdotes? Tips? Bacon? feel free to share
push ups will do really nothing to improve your jogging, and crunches will work the abs which have a minor, but extremely minor impact on running. The only way to improve your jogging is to just do it, and push yourself a little bit further each time. it seems to be more of a cardio vascular issue than anything else. your just out of shape, and having more muscle wont help unless you strengthen your hearts ability to cope and pump oxygenated blood so that you can go further, longer, harder when you run.
I'll be blunt. I'll feel like an idiot and look (or think i look) like a bigger idiot if i go out running around. Especially considering the only place worth jogging through means i have to go through town.
Just run 400m. Then 2 days later, run 450. Nothing is going to happen if you don't actually work at it. If you equate healthy with being able to run long distances, then you have to practice and force your body to 'get with the program'. When I started running I would run for a minute and walk for 4 minutes - and keep repeating for a total of 30 minutes. Now I walk for a minute and I run for 3 for just over 30 minutes. Same would go for swimming. When I got back into it I could barely do 10 lengths. Now I do 40 - one day a couple of weeks ago I did 50! At 25m each, that's 1km (and 1.25km). As someone who was in my mid 30s when I started running, I had to be very careful and not push myself too hard to avoid injury. You'd still have to be careful, but it's just a matter of pushing yourself.
everyone looks like a idiot when they excercise... at least in my opinion. but it is worth it for health and apperence reasons just to, mind the pun, take it all in stride and just dig down and do it.
try going out at night, theres nothing more fun or scarier (in my opinion) than running out at night, just make sure you wear one of those car glow band thingys that you wear and then a car sees you when it drives past
Aerobics can help. Doing aerobics the right way for twelve to thirty minutes a day can tone your muscles and make your heart stronger, giving you more endurance for jogging. This helped me a lot when I took martial arts.
Good advice, here. Im a bit like you. skinny. upper body of a professional road cyclist (picture the chest and biceps!) When i started swimming it took me about 5 weeks to achieve my first goal: 10 laps without stopping. I so much wanted to wear a speedo, but at the same time didn't want to be a poser wearing one without really being a swimmer to back it up. So my reward when I did 10 laps non-stop was to buy my first (of many) speedos. (yay!) Over the early weeks my cardio system adjusted. so did my respiratory system. so did my muscle system. and so on. any activity involves all these systems, and they need to be conditioned to the specific activity you want to perform. So in my case, with a bit of conditioning, I was able to do my 10 laps. Guess what? two days after accomplishing 10 non-stop laps i did 20. and the very next day i did 40. (36 laps = 1 mile; 40 laps = 2Km) two weeks later i did 100! so, be patient waiting for results. be persistent. be regular and your systems will adapt and it will become fun to monitor and see how you improve. Good luck with it.
Actually, I know that doing crunches every day does little to improve muscle. This is due to the fact that when you strain your muscles you create micro-tears. In order to actually build muscle, your body fixes those micro-tears. Without a day of rest in between, your muscles will not heal properly, leaving you with minimal results.
Just start - that's the key. Do something - anything. I would encourage jogging, because I enjoy it and because I can be an idiot and still do it properly. Start with what feels comfortable and do it 3-4 times for a week. Then the next week increase it by just a little. Keep doing this each week, pushing yourself just a little more each time. I found that the most important thing is getting over the initial pain which is inevitable going from sedentary to active... you have to trust that it will go away, and be replaced by endorphins which can give you a real high after each time you jog. This only requires a couple of weeks. As for looking stupid, the first point is who cares.. but then I felt the same way, so I went running in an isolated park, and now it's my favorite place to jog. But I can run in public and I don't feel stupid any more because I don't feel awkward about it - it was pretty much all in my mind... as with most things we think others are thinking about us...
^This pretty much sums up my feeling on this. Also one key thing to remember is that getting fit doesn't happen over a couple of weeks it takes months sometimes years. But one thing that's on your side is that you have time. Don't like the fear of looking dumb well exercising keep you from doing it. I wasted 2 yrs of possible training time because I was afraid of how I'd look compared to the seniors who were lifting twice as much as myself. Best of luck on you training.
cardio exercise like jogging is generally something you do in order to lose weight. if you want to get fitter without losing weight, you're gonna have to do more weight lifting kind of exercise. and you're gonna want to eat a lot of protein because your body needs energy and it will take it back from the muscles if it can't get the right energy from food. and i know it's not the same kind of training, but weight lifting actually will help your endurance when you do go jogging or whatever. i know my endurance really improved when i just lifted weights. stronger muscles wont wear out as quickly cause they don't have to strain as much.
