Question about exercising..

You just kind of said a bunch of stuff. What are your goals? Fat loss? Endurance? Anaerobic potential? Just the simple mental health boots?

I think that running helps with all of those things, and I can advice really good base principles for it.

And absolutely not, no sprinting. Speedwork is advanced and has more potential for injury. If you're new to running, then you should start slow and do endurance with time goals rather than distance goals. That will improve your body's ability to process fat as fuel and to remove waste products. The increase in efficiency will help you to do the speedwork later.

 

My philoosphy on exercise is that you have to go at an intensity low enough that you can maintain a routine and enjoy it rather than burning out. Exercise is no hard until you get more advanced. The idea is to gain, to use Jeff Galloway's words, a "benign addition" to the activities. Consistency is more important than anything else. If you can pick something you like and stick to it for 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week, then you can start to increase your muscle efficiency.

You may not build much mass during this time, but you will be improving cardiovascular efficiency which will get more nutrients into your muscles as well as help remove waste from there. That will decrease the chance of you injuring yourself when you switch to more tension oriented exercise to build mass.

I'm not sure that I recommend taking protein supplements of any kind. Is there any reason why we can't just eat natural food while we're exercising?

 

You want a swimmer's body, and you don't have much time to work out, so I'd suggest (surprise!) swimming as exercise. It is an excellent full body workout and excellent cardiovascular exercise as well, plus it is much more forgiving when it comes to injuries than other exercise forms.

It's also very difficult to swim without figuring out how to breath properly and efficiently, so it'll help with this too.


Dancing is okay but don't expect to get that muscled dancer's body from doing that alone - they all supplement their dancing with time in the gym.

 

I know you said you couldn't swim, but you did say you were going to learn!
In fact, that's probably a good thing. It will ease you into it, starting out with easy stuff which will be better for you anyway until you get your baseline fitness up.

Pilate's and yoga do not build muscle to any significant degree, unless you are doing some weird weighted Pilates, in which case I'm not sure if it really counts as Pilates.

 

As I said in my other post, they will be going to the gym and doing traditional workouts as well.
Dancing is great for fitness but, unless you are doing things like acrobatics or lifting other people, you are unlikely to put on a great deal of muscle mass.

 

I know swimming is on the "later" list. But I will add another vote for it, anyway.

For practical purposes, I learned to swim as an adult. And one thing I noticed was that my breathing did improve. My teacher told me he'd had the same thing happen to him when started swimming more due to his job (both life guard and swim instructor).

Another bonus: swimming is lifetime. I have one former high school classmate who was a runner in high school. His knees completely gave out before he was even 35 if I recall right. Meanwhile, one sees some very old people still swimming.

It's not hugely difficult learning to swim, at least on a basic level. I was able to lap swim within a month of starting. My only two limitations:

• Limited distance (but I could make it 25 yards, one wall to the other, on my own with no difficulty).
• I also was limited to shallow water. This limitation lasted about 2.5 months from the original start date. But most of the limit was due to comfort, not technical ability. I went in with serious water fear, thanks partly to psycho swim instruction when I was 8. Technically, I could have easily passed the pool's deep water test--25 yards non-stop--about a month after starting. Fortunately, most of that pool's lap lanes never got very deep.

The final selling point for swimming that might appeal: a chance to see guys wearing Speedos.

 

If you're skinny and want to build some muscle and don't have much time to work out, I'd suggest focusing on compound exercises (squats, bench press, overhead press, deadlift). They rely on several muscle groups and that's why they're supposed to be the most effective for building muscle. You can look for a workout routine online (I've tried a workout called "5x5" that got me some good results). Good luck, pal!

 

I know all too well how hard it can be getting my schedule to work with someone else's. The one word of warning is that as you get older, the opportunities to learn can become more difficult. Maybe where you live is different, but in my area most programs appear to be mostly for kids. So take advantage of any opportunity you might have.

Another thing that can make learning harder as an adult is if you have any sort of serious fear of water. If you do, it's a very good idea to be a little picky about who teaches you at first, and choose someone you feel comfortable with. One reason I didn't learn when I was 8 was because of the teacher I had. I was never comfortable with her, and, looking back, I don't think she really knew how to deal with a scared 8 year old. I was very careful with selecting a teacher when I did actually learn.

I learned a bit more than 10 years ago. At that time, I was about 26.

That's true in my area, too. Sigh.

In my area, casual swimmers (the splash around the pool a few times in summer) always wear trunks. But what astounds me is that even many regular lap swimmers also choose loose boxer style trunks. Trunks are a terrible choice. There's more water drag (which slows you down), and I find them uncomfortable.

Of course, the Speedo style suit is unfashionable. I remember one person saying, "I don't want to see a guy's package." I guess my attitude is along the lines that guys are built a certain way, and if you don't like it, look elsewhere, or find some dry land activity.

 

Water in your nose is not a problem. One does not breath in through the nose. You can get a mouthful of water, but you quickly learn to cope with that.

One point worth remembering: in your early attempts, you will be in shallow water. If something goes wrong, you can just stand up.

Yes, some swimmers will wear something for drag to help with conditioning. They even make special drag suits. Most of the trunk wearing lap swimmers I see, however, are probably wearing trunks for some other reason--society pressure, excessive modesty, or perhaps a really good clearance sale at Target.

Ah, the impatient father. I'm all too familiar with the impatient father.

For learning to swim, patience is required, both by the teacher, and the student. You don't learn in fifteen minutes. For that matter, it could probably be argued you can never finish learning. There is always something that can be improved or changed.

Interesting double standard, isn't it?

 

Or they just like them better!