Out of Shape

[speg]

So I have been really slacking in the gym deparment this term, as I've been so busy with school. In fact, I hadn't worked out since early December.

I knew I was getting out of shape when I could start noticing some flab on the gut, and I have a really physical job coming up in a couple months so I knew I had to get back on track.

So I went for a quick run today... and my god is it incredible how quickly you can fall out of shape. I was able to run about half a mile before I was DONE.

This sucks!!! I used to be able to run 5 miles no problem, and you're saying two months of inactivity destroyed that? Oh man.

So, do you think I will be able to get back in shape quickly, or am I basically starting back at square one?

 

[Megatomic]

Not square one, but several months of no training degrades conditioning pretty quickly. You lose fitness quicker than you can gain it back from what I've read.

 

[CRXican]

I started a similar thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...262455&highlight_key=y

I ran three miles last night with some brutal calisthenics in between and can get out and run 2 no problem on the weekends. You'll be ok.

 

[StageLeft]

I find it surprising that you could truly run 5 miles before and are winded now at .5 in just two months. In any case, if you really want to get back to it two months is enough to put a pretty damn significant increase to physical fitness, but that only means if you really want it; throw the kitchen sink at it, cycling, running, whatever else you can get your heart rate down and physical fitness up pretty substantially in two months if you're looking to be able to run more miles or do better with a fitness test or something.

 

[brikis98]

It takes much longer to build up your fitness than it does to lose it through inactivity. However, you don't really lose everything and it's typically much faster to re-build it than to build it the first time. Work your butt off and you'll be back to 5 miles in no time.

By the way, it's worth considering what "fitness" really means. A lot of people seem to believe the ability to run is all that counts in being physically fit & healthy. For some reason, strength, power, agility, speed, etc are all left out of the picture, even though they are all extremely important for most activities in life as well as your overall well-being. The Crossfit Journal has a free article called "What is Fitness?" that may be worth a look. If you really want to get in shape - that is, improve your fitness across the board - you may want to check out Crossfit.