The Quickest Way To Reach Average Fitness

[Murf]

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.

 

[Murf]

...Advice...

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.

 

[Murf]

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

 

[Murf]

You're 6'3" and only weight 12.5 stone. You need food not exercise

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.

 

[Murf]

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. 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.

I'm ******* like a race horse at the moment.

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.

 

[Murf]

Right, quick update.... I went for a run yesterday night, down to the local park, round the lake and then back. Managed to run for about 13 minutes, then I walked for 2 minutes then ran the remaining 7. Was absolutely knackered by the end of it, and questioning the will to live. Was a bit stiff afterwards but felt good. I've woken up this morning though and I think I've pulled every muscle in my legs! My calfs and right hamstring especially, are causing me some grief so I think I overdid it. I do feel better though, despite the strains and stiffness.

I'm next going to go swimming at some point over the weekend, as I think I need to lay off the running til next week to let my legs recover!

 

[Murf]

There's conflicting information around, but if you were to swim your nuts off for 30 minutes or run your nuts off for 30 minutes, you'd burn more calories running. A lot more.

The only instance where you wouldn't, would be if you were a very competant swimmer and a poor runner - a "plodder" as I like to call them. See plenty of these when I'm out running and it's usually young girls just out for a pose not really achieving anything in the way of fitness.

Well I'm certainly not a plodder but I definitely over cooked the running. My calves are still killing me today. Gonna go swimming at the weekend then running again next week but I'm going to take it easier. I certainly couldn't have held a conversation with someone while doing it, I was wheezing from about 5 mins onwards.