Everyone has their reason to stay fit but so for many of us, that reason is not easy to be found. Computer programming is not fit-making that's for sure. I myself was a couch potato, until about 2006. I was 31. At that time I was learning dance movement therapy and my group leader (Marton Nagy) was 74 and was still very active (you can't teach DMT from an armchair). At that time I was thinking going to university and maybe doing DMT as a profession and... well, you can't do DMT for decades if you are unfit, can you? Another motivation was the prospect of growing old, getting into wheelchair compared to the agility Mr. Nagy... not a pleasant thought.
So I went to the gym weak and hopeless (the former was true but much to my surprise the latter wasn't). I was unable to stay on a treadmill at any decent speed (my tops was 6km/h), I could do the grand total of zero pushups. Fast forward a couple years, I am still going to the gym, still with a personal trainer, I can run a couple ten seconds at 9.3 miles/hour (15 km/h) and do 2 miles below 18 minutes, do sixty pushups in two minutes (with a couple seconds of rests included) and so on.
What do you win? Self confidence. Gratification. Stamina. For example, transatlantic flights have been a horribly tiring experience, now it's just dull. My lower back also hurt a lot, now this is mostly gone.
If you were sitting in your chair for 10+ years, don't try alone. It simply won't happen. Face it. Instead, get a personal trainer. Not only will your trainer give you advice on how to train but -- him waiting for you will give you the pressure to get your lazy ass down to the gym. (S)he can set you up with doable goals -- for example, I started with walking 40 minutes. Walk I could :) but not much else.
At the end of these few paragraphs let me say thanks to my awesome trainers: Viktor Molnar, Andrew Cobleigh and Thomas Cobleigh.
My motivation are not the impossible shape youngsters but this 67 yrs old Mr. Brown doing some very serious weights.
Comments
health challenges
Chx - Your story is an inspiration (as someone who feels somewhat hopeless about being able to make much headway on the fitness front). Thanks for posting this!
I've found athletic endeavours challenging my entire life, mostly due to crappy lungs and then other health issues making me fatigue very easily. I can get good at short/intense exertion, flexibility, strength... but endurance and cardio have been HUGE challenges, and something I've never been able to improve much on.
I've tried working with personal trainers before, with very little success - it's extremely frustrating, as most of them really aren't equipped to train someone with all of the constraints I have.
That said, after the first half of last year being one of the worst times of my life healthwise, I am feeling strong enough to start working on my fitness levels again, and thought joining here would be a good motivator and place to share the experience.
My goals (which are very small perhaps compared to some, but are at the appropriate level for me right now):
Finally, I think the most important goal for me will be to make sure I don't get too frustrated and hopeless about this again (it's happened before), and give up. I just need to keep trying to improve very slowly, but steadily.
That's my story.
Well done @chx, it takes a
Well done @chx, it takes a lot of dedication to implement fundamental lifestyle changes.
@arianek, i strongly recommend you read through www.stronglifts.com, particularly http://stronglifts.com/if-you-have-several-goals-this-year/
Also, bodybuilding.com is a great resource.
Don't be put off by the names, they are actually quite general training resources.
And if you start to feel hopeless perspective is a great tool - this guy is an inspiration - http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/brian-used-bodybuilding-to-rise-above-cp...
Wow @williesabrook - I was
Wow @williesabrook - I was skeptical about your links (part of my bad attitude about this stuff) ;) but they were actually really great!
The "one goal" advice is very good advice I think, especially for someone like me who puts too much pressure on myself and gets discouraged easily in physical fitness endeavours. The "gain weight" goal is sort of a parallel must have to any fitness goals, and since I'm still actually trying to gain fat it can be mostly focused just on keeping my food intake as it has been. (I've actually gained about 4.5 lbs since the start of September, which is a freaking miracle in itself after not being able to gain weight for a few years, and dropping very low in the spring.) But I think I will contemplate the other goals and try to decide on a clearer focus to start with.
And the story about the guy with cerebral palsy is really inspiring to me! My challenges aren't obvious to anyone looking at me, but they are still pretty big struggles for me. And stories about athletes recovering from injuries is hard to relate to for me, since they were in really good shape to start! ;) I actually really enjoy weight training (it's one of the few "sports" I've enjoyed), and I used to go 2-3x/wk for a long time from about 2002-2008 or so, but as my joint pain and inflammation have increased over the years, I've had to virtually stop. I can do a little bit of light training now and then, but especially the upper body (which was my favourite), is a real no-no these days. It's been hard to establish a new routine since having to stop that!
Actually, in light of that, maybe getting regular exercise into my routine would be the best starting point before approaching some of the other goals!
Boot Camps Work better for me
Personnly dispise the traditional gym. You go. you walk into a huge room of people all doing their own thing. Every one has a separate goal and therefore a separate routine, however the equipment is finite and some time routines come crashing into each other. With the rise of person music players in the gym it can be hard for people to ever reize that they are being inconsiderate to the person behind them when they sit for 45-90 secs on a machine between their reps.
To avoid these problems I have started to going to 'bootcamp' style classes where there is one course (that changes every time I go) that all of are going through. a good trainer can modify the course enough for each person on the fly so that individual goals are still available. Also a sense of community is gained
in the session.
While I go to an independent MMA fitness center to do this, crossfit training centers use that model of training. I would strongly sugest that people take allok at that. as you may fine the benefits to be amazing.