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Fitness help

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View leejaneagles's Profile leejaneagles Flag 01 Sep 16 11.22am Send a Private Message to leejaneagles Add leejaneagles as a friend

Figured I could raise these questions now as I just read the 5 facts topic and it turns out we have at least a couple of marathon runners and personal trainers!

I am 26 years old and consider myself unfit. Blessed with a high metabolism because I am by no means overweight or obese, in fact a little on the skinny side.

I think this doesn't help in a way because if I were fat and unappealing I would try and do something about it.

I eat a lot of fast and junk food. I do eat healthy food and usually 2 out of 3 meals on a day are healthy but I would say in an average week of 7 days I would generally have at least 1 curry, 1 kebab and 1 pizza.

I assume realistically that should be a choice of 1 of those 3 a week not all in the same week.

I've just started going to the gym and my biggest concern is I can only run for a maximum of 6 minutes and my heart pounds and I can't run anymore.

I don't think it helps I have anxiety, seem to be a bit of a hypercondriac, i don't know many other 26 year olds that actively take their heart rate and worry if it's too high or if they are going to have a heart attack etc.

Anyway, due to this anxiety I had an ECG some months back and the docs said I was fine and my resting heart rate is normal.

So taking all that into account and assuming I am at least healthy in my body, does anyone have any advice from going from a real couch potato doing zero excercise to being at least where you'd expect an average 26 year old to be.

I'm not thinking about looking like Rocky or running 10 marathons at this stage but what would you say should my capabilities be and how long do you think it will take to get to them?

Want to address this now before I'm 40 and my metabolism has slowed down and I don't feel like I can go for a run.

 

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View Part Time James's Profile Part Time James Flag 01 Sep 16 11.41am Send a Private Message to Part Time James Add Part Time James as a friend

A lot of running clubs do a "couch to 5k" program which is very popular with beginners. My local club does it but they almost certainly aren't local to you. That's a great place to start. You might not have wanted to spend any money or run with other people but I still recommend it. I joined a running club from a pretty decent foundation in running but have still progressed a HUGE amount since I began.

It's one of many options for you, but I do reckon Googling "couch to 5k" is a good idea to see if there is anything similar in the local area.

You mentioned you had your resting heart rate checked. Do you know what your heart rate has got up to when exercising? A lot of gym equipment has a HRM attached. Probably reasonably accurate for a rough idea.

Regarding diet, mine is awful. I am addicted to junk food and eat very poorly. I do sometimes successfully go through short periods of eating well, but it is the one thing that really keeps me from being as fast as I ought to be! I feel your pain, being a slim guy doesn't exactly incentivise me to behave with food!

Edited by Part Time James (01 Sep 2016 11.41am)

 




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View Part Time James's Profile Part Time James Flag 01 Sep 16 11.43am Send a Private Message to Part Time James Add Part Time James as a friend

Also these "boot camp" things seem to be very popular (i.e.: BMF, Body Blast etc). I am a little bit anti these and can't even put my finger on why, but I have watched them in action and I can't imagine they wouldn't improve your fitness. I defy anyone not to be able to find a "boot camp" type outdoor fitness class in their local area right now!

 




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Hoof Hearted 01 Sep 16 11.51am

I am 62, I have Parkinsons, Diabetes, Arthritic knee joints, Dupeytren's Contracture... to name but a few ailments.

For those reasons I'm out!

 

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View Part Time James's Profile Part Time James Flag 01 Sep 16 11.54am Send a Private Message to Part Time James Add Part Time James as a friend

Originally posted by Hoof Hearted

I am 62, I have Parkinsons, Diabetes, Arthritic knee joints, Dupeytren's Contracture... to name but a few ailments.

For those reasons I'm out!

I suggest having a cigarette, a large pizza and a few pints of Guinness. It sounds like you have earnt it.

Anyone else want any fitness or nutrition advice? Not that I am qualified for the latter....

 




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Hoof Hearted 01 Sep 16 12.01pm

Originally posted by Part Time James

I suggest having a cigarette, a large pizza and a few pints of Guinness. It sounds like you have earnt it.

Anyone else want any fitness or nutrition advice? Not that I am qualified for the latter....

Don't smoke, don't like Guinness, but I love the Pizza option.

I'm making a Spagbol for tea tonight!

 

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View Superfly's Profile Superfly Flag The sun always shines in Catford 01 Sep 16 12.03pm Send a Private Message to Superfly Add Superfly as a friend

Originally posted by Part Time James

It's one of many options for you, but I do reckon Googling "couch to 5k" is a good idea to see if there is anything similar in the local area.


Edited by Part Time James (01 Sep 2016 11.41am)


If you can't be arsed joining a gym, I'd recommend the 'couch to 5k' podcasts from the NHS. I've tried a few times & lost motivation after a couple of weeks but they're pretty decent

[Link]

 


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[Link]

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View Part Time James's Profile Part Time James Flag 01 Sep 16 12.03pm Send a Private Message to Part Time James Add Part Time James as a friend

Originally posted by Hoof Hearted

Don't smoke, don't like Guinness, but I love the Pizza option.

I'm making a Spagbol for tea tonight!

I think you have finally answered Adam Ant's question he posed in Goody Two Shoes. It was "pizza".

 




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View Part Time James's Profile Part Time James Flag 01 Sep 16 12.06pm Send a Private Message to Part Time James Add Part Time James as a friend

Originally posted by Superfly


If you can't be arsed joining a gym, I'd recommend the 'couch to 5k' podcasts from the NHS. I've tried a few times & lost motivation after a couple of weeks but they're pretty decent

[Link]

Nice one.

I think joining others does help to keep the motivation going. I am extremely socially awkward (I often wonder if I am autistic!) but even I managed to integrate in a club scenario.

But yeah, anything is good, this looks like a good alternative.

The difficulty with fitness is that it is rarely enjoyable until you feel like you are good at it, but you can rarely get good at it without starting from somewhere. The initial hurdle is really just getting to a point where you don't absolutely abhor what you are doing to get fit.

Edited by Part Time James (01 Sep 2016 12.06pm)

 




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View Y Ddraig Goch's Profile Y Ddraig Goch Flag In The Crowd 01 Sep 16 12.15pm Send a Private Message to Y Ddraig Goch Add Y Ddraig Goch as a friend

Start at the beginning - what are your goals? "Being fit" doesn't really mean anything.

you mention that you are skinny, do you want to put muscle on? You've done some running, do you want to be a runner? Do you want the generic "toned up look"?

What do you enjoy doing? Weights, running, cycling, group classes? Maybe even consider a sport? If you are going to make long term changes you need to enjoy what you're doing.

Diet wise, it's easy to make smart choices without becoming a social pariah. e.g. Kebab - chicken sheesh is perfect. Curry avoid creamy sauces and naans. That doesn't mean you can go mad but it does mean you can still socialise.

Your metabolism does slow as you get older but not enough to be a fat b******. That's a myth, it's about 100 calories by the time you are 55. The equivalent of a choccie digestive.


 


the dignified don't even enter in the game

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View rednblueblood's Profile rednblueblood 01 Sep 16 1.22pm Send a Private Message to rednblueblood Add rednblueblood as a friend

Have you tried "park run" ? I was unfit and could run no more than a few hundred meters before being out of breath,I have just completed my 54 run and now run 5k without stopping in 27 mins. I have met numerous people,some Palace fans and feel much much better about myself.
Park run is a free event,every Saturday morning at 9 o'clock. Some people at my local event walk around. There is different levels of fitness but every body encourages you.

 


In dog beers I’ve only had one.

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View leejaneagles's Profile leejaneagles Flag 01 Sep 16 1.37pm Send a Private Message to leejaneagles Add leejaneagles as a friend

I was going to quote specific questions but there's been so many helpful responses it's just easier to answer various bits from them all:

1. My resting heart rate is around 86. I have always worried about my heart rate though (like I feel something is wrong but have been told there isn't). This causes it to 'rest' at over 100 a lot of the time but this is a false positive. Supposedly it's anxiety that makes it higher but my real resting heart rate when i'm not thinking about it is in the correct bracket.

2. I wear a fitbit and use gym equipment with heart rate monitor so this is probably fairly accurate. It gets well up to 240 beats per minute and this isn't with much strenuous excercise. Obviously at that rate I can't really push myself to go any further/faster. Again though, if you are mixing never doing much excercise, being unhealthy, suddenly running for 5 minutes and actively always having it in your brain "i'm worried about my heart" that probably doesn't contribute to a very healthy beat per minute.

3. To the person that asked what my goal is and what I like. You summed it up pretty well with "generic toned" haha. I do not want to be a hench guy piling on weight and protein to convert into muscle. There's a good reason for this - I can't for definite say I'll stay committed. If I spent 6 months getting big and was consuming lots of protein and calories to burn off at the gym and then suddenly decided I'll have a break for a month I would then look like a blob with saggy arms.

I'd love to be able to say I'm making this choice for good and I'm committed for life but there's no point lying to myself and as I say, committing to becoming Arnie for a year then letting it all turn into flab.

So I think sensibly toned with much more of a focus on being pysically fit within myself. Not necessarily showing to the outside world but being able to 10k or having a lower resting heart rate, those are all realistic goals I'd like to achieve.

Incidently a lot of what has brought this on is my father having a heart attack and being diagnosed with daibetes earlier in the year. Nothing to suggest it will be passed down to me but it only happened because he smokes like a chimney, eats unhealthy and does zero excercise.

Unfortunately, whilst I don't smoke, I have picked up his habits of not enjoying excercise (would love to have something I'm into but I really do dislike all forms of exercise) and his eating habits.

 

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