The Quickest Way To Reach Average Fitness

Murf

Murf

Murf

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,649
Location
Newcastle
For the last 4 years (I'm 22) I've been living possibly the most unhealthy lifestyle known to man. I started smoking 20 a day at 18, take aways and fast food everyday, constant snacking, more alcohol than I care to mention and I did more than my fair share of other stupid stuff.

About a fortnight ago I quit smoking. I also cut out caffeine and snacks and my drinking has been reduced to 3-4 pints a week. I'm looking for the best possible way of getting myself into some sort of shape as quite frankly I'm ashamed of the state I let myself get into.

I'm 6'3" and weight about 12.5 stone. 2 stone heavier than when I was 18. I've started cycling on weekends (only for ~40 mins at a time and for the first time yesterday I went swimming). I'm finding that I'm running out of breath before I'm getting tired if that makes any sense so I really want to work on sorting out my breathing.

Does anyone have any recommendations for the most effective way to get into half decent shape? I'm not interested in weight loss or muscle toning (certainly not yet anyway), I just want to be able to show up and play football with my brother on a weekend and not make an idiot of myself.

I'm willing to put in about 90 mins per night, and I'd consider cycling the 5.2 miles to work as well.
 
well cycling to work everyday would have you fit as a lop but it'll be hard to keep that sort of motivation going.

personally i think swimming is the way forward, im starting that again this week.

the best way ive been told tho is when you run for 2 mins then walk for 2 mins the run .....etc forget what its called no (anyone know?) thats meant to be the quickest way to build stamina anyways.
 
Clerkin said:
the best way ive been told tho is when you run for 2 mins then walk for 2 mins the run .....etc forget what its called no (anyone know?) thats meant to be the quickest way to build stamina anyways.
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HIIT High Intensity Interval Training i think thats called supposed to be a very good way to build genral stamina and cardio fitness, as a lifegaurd i see so many people that come into the pool to get fit and just end up swimming one length every 10mins and spending 10mins at the other end chatting try to avoid that and keep your pace up to help improve your stamina ;)
 
Hello mate, read about the quitting smoking and making an effort in GD, nice work :)

In your case you'll be getting out of breath before the muscles tire from overwork. The smoking/doing nothing will have adversly affected your lunch capacity and cardiovascular fitness. If you stick to some solid training for a few months, this will vastly improve. You'll probably find that after the first week you're dead, lack energy and constantly ache. If you can get through that, by the end of the first month you'll be a lot fitter.

I know you're not afraid of putting the work in if it needs it, but 90 mins a night is too much - it's overtraining, which is not beneficial. I suggest cardio 3 times a week, running will give the best results by far. From my own POV I find swimming a bit boring, the scenery doesn't change and I don't like dodging other people. Cycling is OK if you're going somewhere, but I don't feel like I'm working as hard as I could be. Running is also better as you can take the mp3 player along. If you've got the time to train at other times, I wouldn't cycle to work. Annoying in bad weather and you'll get a bit of a sweat on for work first thing which I wouldn't like.

The running in intervals is Fartlek training, ie run for 2 minutes, sprint for 30 seconds, jog for 2 minutes, as part of a longer ~30 minute run. HITT is more of a short, set regime which lasts about 20 minutes. Not for the beginner at all. If you do decide to go for running (I hope you do) then don't touch these methods until you are already pretty fit. You'll find that you have fast periods and slow periods on your run, this is normal. If you can start by running for 20 minutes, 3 times a week you'll see progress in no time.

You're still underweight for your height too. If you want to do this at least half decently you'll need to sort out your diet. There are people on here that could offer you a rigorous, highly detailed plan, but I know that's not what you're after. Cut out the snacking on crap, replace it with fruit if you fancy a bite. Have common sense meals, takeaways are very bad. Eat breakfast too, it kick starts your metabolism in the morning which you'll need to effectively train and get fitter. Eat smaller and more regularly. Nothing wrong with 5 meals a day if they are smaller, good square meals - meat, complex carbs (tateys, rice or pasta) and try to have veg with every meal, even if it's just from a bag of frozen mix. You'll find your appetite increasing after a few weeks of training anyway.

Right, get running :)
 
Cycle to work. I cycle into uni and it's brilliant, much quicker than the bus or tube and it keeps me fit. It's not too miserable in the cold either, but I can't wait for the weather to get better. The AA reckon my cycle is 5 miles and it takes me about 20-25 mins. You should definitely do it as the weather gets better.
 
BrenOS said:
...Advice...
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First of all cheers for the advice. Secondly my lunch capacity is as large as ever! Just worried about my lung capacity. ;)

I've got Leazes Park at the bottom of my Arthurs Hill so I wouldn't mind going for jogs down there. I was cycling at the weekend but I found I was working my legs really hard but wasn't really out of breath so iI figured I wasn't working myself hard enough. I went swimming last night and I could really tell that it was having an effect. I was struggling to put more than 2-3 lengths together but started to improve near the end. As far as my diet is concerned I've been having 3 set meals per day including breakfast for the last fortnight, no caffeine, no snacks, no carbonated drinks or anything so I'm getting there on that front. Beens cabbing free bananas at work too. :)

So would running for 20-30 mins say mondays and fridays with swimming on a wednesday be ok? I'd like to keep some swimming in there if possible as I don't get bored of it, and I certainly felt like it was working last night.

On a side note running out of breath when not remotely tired is a damn weird feeling, frustrating as hell too.
 
Good stuff with the diet.

What you said about cycling is exactly what I find aswell, hence why I don't do it. I'm not the world's best cyclist either ;)

Run/Swim/Run is fine. Let me know how long you manage to run for the first time out. You'll most likely be massively disappointed, don't worry, running is hard! If you can do 20 minutes that should rise to the ideal time of ~40 minutes in no time.
 
Swimming or Cycling is a great way to get your fitness up and can be very enjoyable. Try going with a few mates and enjoy it, but keep it up, it's a lifestyle change which will take time to become accustomed to.
 
I'd agree with most of the stuff posted on here already but one point i'd like to make is that if you're trying to get fitness for football then steady runs/swim sessions/cycles maybe aren't the full answer - i'm not denying they will improve fitness/endurnace and lung capacity but I've found that being able to run a long distance doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to perform well in something as stop start as football. nothing wrong with the above exercising for gaining fitness but I'd think you'd see most (footy) improvement through regular footy games or fartlek training
 
3 times a week is a very sensible plan for now, especially if you eat right and stay off all those horrible add-ins you've mentioned that go in certain foods (e.g caffeine!)

I'm more of a fan of the swimming, it works the whole body, not just the legs...yes the scenary doesn't change, however it puts less strain on specific muscle groups, for instance the legs, which obviously alleviates the worry somewhat of injuries.

Up to you though, whatever you do will benefit you massively as long as you stick to it :)

Good luck.
 
TomWilko said:
3 times a week is a very sensible plan for now, especially if you eat right and stay off all those horrible add-ins you've mentioned that go in certain foods (e.g caffeine!)

I'm more of a fan of the swimming, it works the whole body, not just the legs...yes the scenary doesn't change, however it puts less strain on specific muscle groups, for instance the legs, which obviously alleviates the worry somewhat of injuries.

Up to you though, whatever you do will benefit you massively as long as you stick to it :)

Good luck.
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I have to admit I'm a massive fan of swimming as I can feel it working all of my muscles, but I know jogging is going to work my cardio a lot harder which is what I think I need at the moment with my knackered lungs.

Chinook said:
I'd agree with most of the stuff posted on here already but one point i'd like to make is that if you're trying to get fitness for football then steady runs/swim sessions/cycles maybe aren't the full answer - i'm not denying they will improve fitness/endurnace and lung capacity but I've found that being able to run a long distance doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to perform well in something as stop start as football. nothing wrong with the above exercising for gaining fitness but I'd think you'd see most (footy) improvement through regular footy games or fartlek training
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I will be throwing the occasional football game into the mixing but this preperation work is essentially so I don't show myself or my brother up by collapsing in a heap weasing after 5 minutes in my first game. I never good pace myself at sports, when I start playing I'll be going full tilt like I did when I was 17, I'm gonna need my lungs to be able to keep up otherwise I'll be on the deck. :p

Been spot on advice guys, confirmed a lot of what I thought and I've got some extra things to try which should make even more of a difference. :)
 
Stretch said:
You're 6'3" and only weight 12.5 stone. You need food not exercise :p
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I used to eat like a complete pig. Take away every day. 2 full meals at work (breakfast and lunch) with at least 5 packets of crisps to boot. Full meal and snacks when I got home as well as 2 litres of coke per day. I just couldn't put any weight on, my fore arms are incredibly girly, and look daft on me as I have fairly broad shoulders. I've actually found eating set meals has made me put on a very small amount of weight but I figure some of that is down to the fact I'm drinking 4-5 litres of water a day now.
 
BrenOS said:
I've been drinking about 4 litres of water a day for about 3 years. Ain't done me no harm cheif *twitch*
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lol ;) I drink between 2 and 3 litres a day, more so when I exercise, but I still think 5 litres of water a day is too much. You two must be in the toilets quite often then. :p I read an article a year ago about drinking excess amounts of water and the damage it can do. If I drank that amount I'd easily add about 6lbs to my weight but it wouldn't mean anything to me because I would know it was water weight as opposed to muscle mass or fat.
 
Tony Soprano said:
lol ;) I drink between 2 and 3 litres a day, more so when I exercise, but I still think 5 litres of water a day is too much. You two must be in the toilets quite often then. :p I read an article a year ago about drinking excess amounts of water and the damage it can do. If I drank that amount I'd easily add about 6lbs to my weight but it wouldn't mean anything to me because I would know it was water weight as opposed to muscle mass or fat.
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I'm ******* like a race horse at the moment. :p

I've replaced the habit of snacking with water, smoking with water, and drinking coke with water, so that's a lot of water. Better than putting that other crap in my system though.

Will post results of my first attempt at jogging tonight. :)
 
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