My summer goal is to be able to job for 30 minutes without feeling like I am about to die. I would also love to lose a stone, but I am more concentrating on exercising at the moment. If I'm healthy and take more pride in my body, then I'm more likey to eat better. There is no motatition to eat healthily at the moment because all I am doing is sitting on my ass all day, being lerthargic is not a problem. So, I want to start running and stuff, then do a rework of my diet.

That's exatly how I feel. I hope this shin hold up better when I try running next week.

my plan is since school just ended, starting monday morning i will be taking classes at the gym. i dont have enough will power to go to the gym and work out on my own terms, so i thought itd be good to take classes. the thing that really sucks is that with the schedule that i have for work i can only go to the 6am classes... but i have spin on monday, yoga on tuesday, pilates on wednesday, awesome abs on thursday, and spin again on friday.

my goal is to look awesome in a bikini by the time i go to the beach more frequently this summer.. good thing its only may.

the thing that sucks is that im going to hafto wake up at 5:15am, go to the gym, come home to shower get ready and eat, and then i hafto go to work until 5.... im praying for a miracle

i wish i was like that. if i'm eating well, i'm don't exercise enough. and if i'm exercising daily, i don't eat well. i'm current not eating well, but i;m able to jog continuously and comfortably for five miles (something i've been working toward, inconsistantly, for three years.) i really need to get it all together.
i'm going to working of strength training and a better diet this summer.

Does anyone have any experience with swimming for fitness? I like swimming, so it seems like the only cv-type exercise I could see doing regularly, but I was suddenly struck with the sense that I wouldn't know what I'm doing. There's a city rec center with an indoor pool very close to my job. I went over there on Friday and looked around. 'Adult free swim' or 'adult lap swim' is scheduled most evenings, so it looks like it would fairly convenient to do regularly. But I really feel now like I'm supposed to know things I don't.

I've always loved the water, and can't even remember when it was actually too dangerous for me to be in water above my head. At the beach as a child I'd have to be forced out at the end of the day, blue and wrinkly. But I'm no athlete of any kind. In summer camp I always did poorly on the swimming tests, and thus was always put in the group that did nothing but hang on to the edge of the pool and kick. I don't care about being fast or competitive; I just want it to be good exercise and not to hurt myself. Does anyone have any advice?

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So I just got back from the race in the Chequamegon. The single track was a blast even though it was deadly slick from several days of rain and light snow. Someone ran into my rear derailuer (which is now bent) during a 4 bike pile up just after the second checkpoint, so I had to hike it to checkpoint two (5 miles away) and ended up as a DNF. Oh well. It was worth it despite the 30 degree weather, bent derailuer, and DNF.

If I were you, I would sign up for a stroke improvement class. Once you have the technique down you can just start doing sets. Whatever your heart desires that will challenge you. The drills I have from swim team are too intense for me now, but you should try and do a 8-20 laps warm up and cool down and then winthin that time do sets. Swim a relaxed 50 m and time yourself. If it takes you 1min, then do 50 on 1 min x some number. Sprint the 50 m and then break for the rest of the min.

So... what are everyones' goals for this week?

Me:
1. No eating while watching TV.
2. Walk 30 mins 3x
3. Swim 40 laps 2x
4. Renew gym pass for summer.
5. Buy new running shoes.

OMG scooter, that sucks! But i'm glad you at least competed.

Staying alive And riding my bike a lot more to get my metabolism going.

I like swimming for exercise, and I think so long as you're doing it to get healthy, then it doesnt matter how good you are at certain strokes. So long as your using your muscles, and your energy, then its gonna be healthy. Just be sure to warm up and warm down, even if its just by swimming a slow couple of lengths.

I think you'll swim more efficiently and be able to improve at swimming (ie, improve your cardio) if you are swimming properly. I stick by my previous advice, which is to take stroke improvement. Why would someone want to swim all willy-nilly? Why not learn to do it properly? It's just so much more comfortable and efficient.

You're probably right, but my previous bad experiences and the presumably considerable expense of such a class in New York City are likely going to mean that I just don't do it. Although I do need some kind of cv excercise, I guess I don't need to rob swimming of all its fun by failing at it.

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You should just track down anyone who has worked as a lifeguard and get them to help you for an hour or two. A few pointers can go a long way.

You can take stroke improvement until the cows come home. GOOD swimmers do it all the time. I took it for several summers myself and I am at best a passable swimmer. So you don't need to be a pro by any means, but a few pointers on how to be more efficient might make swimming a much more do-able activity.

Anyone who has their national lifeguard cert has to be a passable swimmer, because there is a timed swim, which, in order to pass, you need to have a passably efficient technique or you will just not be able to make the time. This is why I think you should just track down a lifeguard/former lifeguard to give you some pointers. Of course, you may be doing just fine and be entirely exagerating how much help you need! But I think it's worth mastering something that approaches freestyle and breast stroke if you are going to swim for anything other than cooling off in the summer.

That is in fact a good idea, but I don't really see how I could do it. I don't know a former lifeguard offhand, and I don't know anybody who belongs to the place I was thinking about joining. Where they don't permit personal trainers, so they might give you a hard time if it looked like you were being instructed. And the truth that just the word 'freestyle' gives me the heebie-jeebies and flashbacks of hanging on to the side of the pool and kicking with kids who got younger and younger than me every year, so I should probably leave swimming as something to do for fun instead of making it just another thing I can do but doesn't count because I can't do it right.

Sorry to bring the thread down by asking for advice and then pissing on it! I guess I should just have as fitness goals for this season just to keep doing yoga (which I don't have any bad associations with because I'm unusually flexible) regularly and quitting those last few cigarettes a day.

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If you come up to Ithaca I can teach you to swim in the gorge.

So armed with new shoes and two weeks of rest, I walked up to the track at school today to try jogging. My shin started twinging after 4 minutes of jogging. Grrrr. I figure I'll try jogging twice a week as long as I can with no pain. So four minutes blows, but it's better than no minutes. At least my fitness surpasses my pain tolerance.

How is everyone else doing?
I am going swimming tomorrow.

Believe it or not i've started jogging in the mornings.

Well its more walking than jogging, but i figure bursts of jogging is speed interval training to get fitter and its jsut moving and breathing (well when i remember).

Because I never wear a watch i'm usually only doing about 25mins (sometimes 20, sometimes 30) and boy is it fucking freezing in the morning my ears hurt.

I figure this way instead of going to the gym 5 times a week i can just go for the 3 times for weight training and suppliment every second day with jog/walking so i have my after work time back to myself.

dunno if i can keep this morning thing up though.

My rule is morning walk/jog or gym after work, so if i dont' do one i have to do the other.

I'm jsut putting in all this extra effort to make up for years of sedentaryness, when i start school again (part time after work) i'll be a lot busier/.

i'm shit as hell though, my legs are weird, my right leg seems to move sideways a bit than straight. i also can't get a good stance. on teh treadmill its worse, my feet don't seem to lift high enough so its more a shuffle. really pathetic actually if i take longer strides i tire out faster than if i do smaller steps.

this morning i stayed jogging in one spot whjen i felt i was getting out of breath so this way i didnt' stop suddenly back to walking but was keeping the heart rate up.

hey all,

"hello" ...a well-meaning friend has recently referred me to your website....so far all good....

as for fitness - I've just joined the gym on the weekend, and so far so good. as with other members I've trialled a couple, and decided on one that 'fits' both on a humanistic level and 'back-pocket' level.

I think goal setting is really important....as you all know

This week, I had planned to go to spinning class three times a week (6.15 am!!) so, obviously, didn't make it today, will go tomorrow, and hold myself accountable to this forum.....

i'm sorry to hear that your shins still hurt.

The treatment for shin splints is rest. Depending upon severity it is often necessary to completely stop running for a period of time. Generally this is done until day-to-day activities are pain free. When running is resumed – and this is where many injured runners make a mistake – it must be significantly different from the routine that lead to the injury. The concept of relative rest employs lengthening the interval between training as well as decreasing the volume and intensity of training. One can often substitute cross-training activities (e.g., bicycling) for running to help increase the interval between running days. There should be a graded and gradual increase in run training, keeping an eye out for the return of any shin splint symptoms.

Stretching and strengthening the calf muscles can help prevent the injury from returning.

soleus muscle stretch
gastrocnemius stretch

http://www.rice.edu

Getting in shape for being outside for this upcoming fall semester. I've recently joined band, playing cymbals. I've also never done this before, but those cymbals are pretty heavy after holding them for a while. I'm trying to tone my arms and legs. I started running today, so hopefully I can keep that up. The other thing I need to work on is eating healthy, so I can have a lot more energy.