Getting started in fitness, for the unfit

Some people who see the need to prepare are very unfit. I was one of these. I had worked quite a few years in sedentary but mentally exhausing jobs, so when I got home, I would sink into further sedentary “activities.”

I was about 60 lbs overweight, and would get winded after just about any exertion. At 44 years of age, I was ill-equipped to start into any serious fitness routine.

When fire threatened my home, I discovered just how out of shape I was—as I mowed down weeds and did other things to slow fire down—and I vowed to get better fit.

Recognizing that there are others like me, I hope that a page about how to tone up enough to start doing real exercises is useful.

Injury Avoidance

For those of us who are beyond those wonderful “bounce back” years of the teens, twenties and early thirties, it’s critical to take it easy on ourselves at first. It’s unwise at our age to jump straight into an exercise program that is much more vigorous than our activity has recently been.

Beyond the threat of heart attack (etc.), one can easily tear muscles and connective tissues that have become soft. It’s always advisable to consult a trusted physician before embarking on a workout program, to discover any particular vulnerabilities and sort out how to avoid their impacts.

It’s more important now (older and out of shape) than ever to know the difference between “good” and “bad” pain. Strong pulling or tingling sensations signal danger, as does radiant, acute or stabbing pain.

Really get to know your body and its sensations and ways of “communicating” with you. This is, in fact, one of the more important parts of training—one of the goals of training.

...which implies...

This also implies that you should skip catching up on news or entertainment while you’re working out, since they will distract you from this critical element of fitness.

Warming up

While your body may well have tolerated lack of warmup when you were younger, it’s even more unwise to fail to warm up as you age. Shake out your hands and feet; waggle your head around (without cranking your neck); roll your shoulders, do a couple of easy-going standing twist exercises and just generally get the blood moving.

Once you’ve done this, then at least some light leg and back stretches are helpful. Being limber is as important as being strong and having endurance (in fact it adds to endurance and strength). Another benefit is that flexibility exercises do develop muscle, and they are a good start at listening to your body. Most importantly, the more flexible you are, the less likely you are to have an injury.

Warmup is important for anyone, no matter how fit or young, especially in colder environments or a long rest. And it gets more important with age. Your body will thank you...

Breathing

One aspect of working out and getting to know your body that many people neglect or don’t even know about is breathing. It can be tempting to hold your breath, straining against it, when doing strenuous exercises, but you should try to breathe as normally as possible, and experience the sensations of doing so.

The major benefit of this is that it helps you get to know your body (and mind) better, by focusing your concentration and forcing you to fully feel the exercises and stop flexing muscles that aren’t part of the specific motion.

Additional benefits are a quickness that comes from using only the needed muscles, and reduction of hernia-related injury risk.

Taking it a step further, make your breathing as deep as possible during a workout. Blood oxygenation is important in giving your muscles and brain what they need in order to benefit from the exertion.

It’s also important to note that with many exercises, one part of the exercise calls for inhaling while another part calls for exhaling. It is helpful to follow such directions, but it can also be useful to reverse it, and see how it impacts you.

Rules for Reps

You can do as few or as many reps (repetitions) of an exercise as befits your conditioning. For the strength-endurance training that best fits survival preparation, you’re better off using easier exercises and more reps, especially at the start.

For general fitness, reps should be done smoothly, so that muscles are worked during the full stroke of an exercise. Sometimes you see someone doing, for instance, curls. At the bottom end of the stroke, they jerk it and the inertia moves it through the up stroke. This only works part of the muscle.

On the relax stroke of an exercise, it can be helpful to regulate how fast you return to the starting position. Using curls again as an example, as you lower the weight, don’t just let it fall; let it down slowly. This makes your workout more efficient by working your arm on both up and down strokes.

Reps can be increased by simply adding reps as you get more used to an exercise, but you’ll build strength faster if you you increase by using several “sets.”

For example, you may not be able to walk a mile. But you might be able to walk 600 yards once a day. Once that’s comfortable, add a second walk later in the day. This would be a second set. When it feels like you’ve mastered that, lengthen both walks. What you’ll find is that by having two sets, you increase the “reps” more quickly and with less risk than if you just try to double your distance.

To belabor the point some, let’s say that you want to increase from 10 situps to twenty. Chances are, if you can do ten once, you’ll be able to do a few (maybe 10 or maybe not) a minute or two later. Or maybe hours later.

By doing so, you’ve increased your daily workout, and your strength will increase that much faster. One morning, you’ll find that you can do 15 pretty easily. Perhaps now you want to do 15 twice a day. Not much later, you find that 20 is quite easy, when it was an impossibility only a few days before.

A Last Word About Injury Prevention

One class of injuries that doesn’t seem to be on the minds of a lot of people seeking fitness is heat injury, including dehydration.

Whatever you do, don’t let yourself get dehydrated. If your mouth gets pasty—that gooey feeling, I’m sure you know it—or you feel thirst, drink water. You may want to use a sports drink, but be aware that it may actually have more electrolytes than are good for you. Water is the best for preventing and dealing with dehydration.

Please see my first aid pages on dehydration and heat injury, and keep in mind what you see there. This is important stuff, most especially for those who are out of shape. Huffing and puffing is part of how your body loses water, as is sweating.

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