<p>I suppose I should mention that thin doesn’t mean strong- not referencing anyone here, but for others who may read this at some point.</p>
<p>( but those who are very overweight but still argue they are healthy- being obese does affect endurance and breathing/heart rate- etc)</p>
<p>Anyway- since you mention being out of breath- I wanted to ask if you have allergies or asthma. I have both & while I am forced to breath deeper- when I exercise hard, I also take benadryl at night for allergies.
Even if your heart rate and blood pressure looks good, have them check your O2 level.</p>
<p>change up your music- is maybe what you need :)</p>
<p>I will share with the group that this morning my beautiful 16 year old daughter told me that I looked chic. So…I might be out of shape, but I can still look good on occasion.</p>
<p>The other thing that was so funny was that last night as I left the parking garage, the woman in front of me had a bumper sticker that said, “Too out of shape to get into shape.” Sort of the theme of this thread!</p>
<p>I use a heart rate monitor also. It helps me make sure I’m not working too hard. It might be good to use on the hike. Can see how hard you are working- provide peace of mind. My maximum heart rate is several beats higher than the formulas predict- based on what I’ve seen on the HR monitor. If you don’t want to use a HR monitor you can use what is called perceived exertion. See this link <a href=“http://img.timeinc.net/health/i/20070102[/url]”>http://img.timeinc.net/health/i/20070102</a>
/runwalk.pdf The second page describes the different types of workouts. It is based on running but applys to any type of workout.</p>
<p>You are training for an endurance event so most of your training should be at at an easy level with 1-2 workouts at a harder level. You are training your heart but also your body’s ability to us energy resources efficiently and increasing muscle endurance. There is a possibilty that you have been training too hard and therefore not making progress.
I agree you need to vary your workout.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to do weights at the gym you can do some simple exercises at home using soup cans ect as weights. Also, core exercises using just your body weight. Most women’s magazines have such routines. My son took our medicine ball so I improvise and use the Tide bottle. Squats and lunges will help the leg muscles. Do strength routines everyother day so you recover. Also the Concept 2 rowing machine mentioned earlier is one of my favorites. It uses the most muscles of any exercise machine. I met one of the creators of the machine last spring. I look at it as a workout that provides strength and cardio in one workout. </p>
<p>Another thing is to remember your body gets stronger by stressing it through exercise and allowing it to recover. Make sure to drink plenty of water after working out and eat something within 30 minutes.</p>
<p>About two years ago I was an overweight coach potato. Now I am sort of a fitness fanatic. It is confusing. I would reccomend the books Running for Mortals or Marathoning for Mortals. They have good sections on fitness. Although you are not running they still would be benefical and are easy to understand.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. I was confused reading some of the posts also.</p>
<p>So almost everyone is saying that I should do an easier workout (maybe for an hour instead of half an hour) rather than a harder one? Just doesn’t make sense to me, but I’ll try over the weekend.</p>
<p>It is very disturbing to think that there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way and if you do it the “wrong” way, it does either damage or no good, but the “right” way or the “wrong” way depends on which book or video you are selling. For most of the history of mankind, people didn’t have to even think of working out. Is it possible that the daily labour they were doing combined both aeorbic and anaerobic activities? They were just worried about getting enough food.</p>
<p>Missypie, Aerobic literally means “with oxygen”–you need to be breathing deeply to complete aerobic exercises. Aerobic exercise typically needs to be done for about 20 minutes in order to benefit the heart muscle. You may need to increase the speed so the heart muscle is taxed for this twenty minute period…</p>
<p>Anaerobic means “without oxygen”–you pretty much hold your breath for these activities.
IE: Sprinters use almost no oxygen to run their 100 or 200 meter runs…In fact, most hold their breath when they compete.</p>
<p>Dr Kenneth Cooper of Dallas (Cooper Clinic) is the ‘father’ of aerobics…cooperaerobics.com…Believe he received a big public health award from Harvard’s School of Public Health last spring</p>
<p>Try alteranating a longer easy workouts with shorter harder workouts. My moto is “everything in moderation”. I try not to do the same thing two days in a row. Keeps me from getting bored also.</p>
<p>You are right about our ancestors. Think about when we were kids. We got exercis with out even thinking about it, playing tag, riding our bikes to the store to get a candy bar ect.</p>
<p>Yeah, being in Dallas and hearing so much from/about Dr. Cooper, it’s sort of alarming when Iloveagoodbrew sends a link about how aerobic exercise is terrible and useless.</p>
<p>Okay, tell me if I’m dumb or if I’ve had a breakthrough. You said you need to be breathing very deeply during aerobic exercise. So, if you’re exercising so hard that you can hardly catch your breath, is it harming your body, or preventing you from progressing, making your workout dangerous, or what?</p>
<p>When the kids were little we went to the Grand Canyon and hiked down the Bright Angel trail a bit. On the way up I had to stop “to admire the view” quite a bit. The kids, on the other hand, chit chatted the whole way up, never getting out of breath in the least. Running up and down that soccer field or basketball court is terrific exercise, even if your team never scores a point.</p>
<p>Rule of Thumb: You should be able to converse with a partner…Huffing and Puffing is OK, but you should be able to talk…Some say whistle a tune–you get the point. Over the long haul, you might be limiting your progress, but typically we need to push ourselves out of the comfort zone in order to benefit aerobically. It takes a LOT of exercise to do damage…If there are no overlying medical conditions that preclude you from exercising, that is…Always good to check with physician, of course</p>
<p>“So, if you’re exercising so hard that you can hardly catch your breath, is it harming your body, or preventing you from progressing, making your workout dangerous, or what?”</p>
<p>IMO this is intensity training. Good once a week, maybe twice. Sprinters and long distance runners train differently. One does more intensity training, the other more endurance. </p>
<p>You have plenty of time left to get ready for your hike.</p>
<p>Try a long hike brisk walk (doesn’t matter if there are no hills) once a week starting with 1.5 - 2 hours and increasing the duration by 15 minutes each week. Wear what ever you plan to wear on the hike and bring food/water. Do an easy workout the next day to loosen the muscles and keep the blood flowing. Continue your current workout once or twice a week. Do 1 or two mid-length easy workouts and some strength exercises while watching TV. </p>
<p>Give yourself 2-3 weeks and you should see some progress.</p>
<p>You want to figure out what clothing, food, ect works during the langer hikes.walks. Don’t want to try something new the day of the hike.</p>
<p>My daughters bought these fabulous cushy hiking socks at REI. Last weekend my 13 year old wore them to work out in. After 10 minutes she said, “My feet are BURNING!”</p>
<p>Thats not good. May need to try something else. </p>
<p>I am going to try your tradmill workout. I usually avoid the treadmill like a plague. Can’t get used to running on it, feel like I’m going to fall off I do the eliptical instead.</p>
<p>Missypie – Seems to me that your big problem is in your head. You don’t want to be seen while working out…you don’t want people staring because you are out of place in a gym. I don’t either. I have always felt this way, even when I was a skinny kid being forced to run track. Hated it. Hated being observed while sweating and red-faced. But I’m way over 40 now and the truth is…I am now invisible. I’m middle-aged, thick in the middle, and going grey. Nobody notices a woman like that, no matter what she is doing. She is a ghost. </p>
<p>So run your ‘sprints’, lift those weights, tote that barge, lift that bale…sorry. Nobody is looking at you – they are all looking at themselves and the hottie of whatever sex does it for them. Look inward, Angel, and make yourself what you want to be, whatever it takes. </p>
<p>As a side note to all those who may feel that they are too old…my mum will be 70 this year and just lost 30 lbs by doing 40 minutes of stationary bike/treadmill every day for 5 months. Yay, Mum!</p>
<p>Wow, between that and Momofwildchild’s suggestion that if I die at LA Fitness my survivors could get a lot of money, I’m really encouraged. But of course, I guess you are right. I guess I’m only visible to the slimy employees trying to get me to pay for a private trainer or upgrade my membership in some way.</p>
<p>You are getting some good advice. You aren’t training for the Olympics- you are preparing for a long, uphill hike. You can do this. Golfingmom is correct that long walks will prepare you, as will uphill stair or treadmill work. There isn’t one “formula”. The key is to not burn out or get hurt.</p>
<p>My takeaway from this thread was to add intensity to my runs, sprinting in short bursts. I realized that my daily runs had become the easiest part of my exercise routine, so was definitely just coasting. It felt great to really push this morning.</p>
<p>The more you can mix up your routine, the better for overall conditioning. I find the classes at the YMCA (sculpting, yoga, finning, etc.) push me pretty hard and add a lot of variety.</p>
<p>The last class I took was when “step aerobics” first came into fashion…maybe 1991…the teacher was going real fast on these complicated patterns of moves and I couldn’t follow her - that was the end of classes for me! Remember that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, where Ray thinks Debra has the hots for her step aerobics teacher, so Ray goes to class with her and makes a fool of himself? That was pretty much me, except I didn’t break the teacher’s boom box.</p>
<p>I don’t know…I’d feel the need to faintly object that the moms on this exercise thread are invisible at gyms! </p>
<p>Btw, those step classes are killer—I tried one recently—the teacher was making everyone go fast, the steps were really complicated and it felt like a knee accident waiting to happen. </p>
<p>At one point, the teacher said, “you aren’t listening!” (to me–in a class of 30 people, in the back of a huge room—I didn’t notice until she repeated it several times until I looked up). So…who’s talking invisibility…? :-)</p>
I was just kidding…!</p>