How many sessions before I rest?

D

doug62

0
Hi all,

Never got a reply to my first post, perhaps it was too long winded and not specific enough so i'll try another. What I really want to know is how many exercise sessions I should be doing before resting myself? Should it be one day on and one day off? Or should I just be pushing myself untill i'm forced to have a day off? I have started with four days on and one day off but i'm finding that by the fourth day i'm really struggling. My aim is to gradually increase my endurance more than anything else (i'm not looking for a quick-fix to lose weight) so I can eventually enter a half-marathon (next year) and run the whole thing.

Any help would be really appreciated!

Doug
 
doug62 said:
Hi all,

Never got a reply to my first post, perhaps it was too long winded and not specific enough so i'll try another. What I really want to know is how many exercise sessions I should be doing before resting myself? Should it be one day on and one day off? Or should I just be pushing myself untill i'm forced to have a day off? I have started with four days on and one day off but i'm finding that by the fourth day i'm really struggling.
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By " on " do you mean cardio, weight training - or both ?

How long and how hard do you train on each of those 4 days ?

" Struggling " in what way ?
 
If you are referring to running as your exercise session, starting out I would suggest not running two days in a row. You are likely to get injured if you don't let your body recover between runs. After a few months, if you are feeling good, go ahead and add another day. Don't increase your weekly milage total by more than 10% in a week.

You can add in weight training or some other form of exercise for your workouts in between run days. I don't see a problem working out every day, although many people will designate one day per week for a recovery day with no workout.
 
Hi Wrangell thanks for the reply,

Sorry I wasnt more specific, by 'on' I mean on my treadmill. As I mentioned in my first post I am 33, 6'1" and about 216lbs and I want to lose my excess weight (around 35 lbs by my reckoning) and more than anything to become fit and healthy. However, I do not want a quick solution as I want this to be something I continue with for the rest of my life. I already have a very good diet as my girlfriend is a vegetarian (so its lots of fruit and veg on the menu in our house) and my weight gain has really come from inactivity and excess alcohol consumption - which I have cut down to once or twice a month).

I started my new exercise regime around 14 days ago. Firstly I started off with 5 minutes brisk walking followed by 5 minutes light running and repeating this for 45 minutes. At the end of each 5 minute 'run' I was completely exausted and even had to push myself to get there (like I said I was pretty out of shape).With each session I have tried to increase the running part by a minute. This was successful on days two and three but I found that on day four I was having to stop again on 5 minutes. Saying that though, after my day of rest I came back and did 8 minutes. Did the same 4 day block again and by day 4 had to drop down to 6 minutes again. Then after the day off I was up to 10 minutes for each running part (5mis Walk, 10mins Run repeat for 55mins).

There is obviously already some marked improvement there and I am quite pleased with myself. Setting targets and improving yourself is a real joy and it can surely only get easier as I lose my excess weight. I suppose I'm just wondering if I would get even better results by changing my patterns?

Thanks
Doug
 
Keep doing what you are doing - it looks like it is working for you. Keep trying to add a little more every few days or a week. But, if you get any lower leg pain, stop immediately and address this. Shin splints are very common in new, unconditioned, heavier runners.
 
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I have had shin pain a couple of times although mostly not at all. On the occasions I do i've just been fighting through it. I am going to have a Video GAIT analysis done at the weekend and use the results to buy some new running shoes. I am hoping that this will at least reduce the problem. I think I am going to try reducing my sessions to 2 days and then a day off and see how this works for me. I guess in a lot of cases the results are down to the individual and playing around with your routine is the only sure way of finding your balance.

Thanks for the advise guys, it really is a help - i feel like I have a whole team of experts behind me!!

Cheers
Doug
 
I would encouage you to also work on your lower body strenght...IE your legs. Building up your lower body strenght will make running with the added weight easier on you over all. Plus, it does help you to forge through those platueu periods in your cardio.

I spent little time on my legs when I first started off. I could run for about 5 minutes them my legs would hurt really bad. I started eating better, keeping myself hydrated AND strenghtening my legs. Now I run 5 days a week for about an hour and 20 minutes and have little pain......granted, I have been training for about 2 years now.
 
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