Running v. Walking

Okay, I've historically ad a big problem with making time to allow myself exercise. Up until recently though, I was doing pretty well with setting aside time to take one or two decently long walks every day. This tapered off quite a bit, unfortunately, as the weather got cold outside. The last few days I've changed my routine a bit and gone for short runs, as opposed to long walks.

A few years ago I ran a lot, and lost quite a bit of weight that way. But as I've gotten back into exercise, I've shied away from it because I was worried I would shock my system too much or hurt my fat self. But after running these last few days, I feel much better for it. It gets my heart really beating in a way that walking doesn't. I'm actually a little sore right now (but now really hurt, like I was concerned) and I feel more like I'm accomplishing somthing. Plus, it seems like I must be burning more calories for the time I spend.

I'm wondering what the benefits/drawbacks are to running short distances vs. walking long distances. Ideally, of course, I should probably do both... Actually, the way I'm doing it I kind of am doing both, because I'm not in very good shape. I stretch before hand, and start out walking a short way, then break into a run, and keep going until I feel about like falling over. Then I make myself slowly slow back down to a walk, and start running again as soon as I feel capable. I do this for a set distance (.5-1 mile so far, the last couple of days) and slow down and stretch again at the end. Is this a good method of quickie-exercise? I'm not really sure. I'm going to make myself stop blabbing now, and give someone else a chance to respond! :tongue: Thanks!

 

Until lately I've walked a lot. I have serious arthritis problems and running is too hard on my body. The problem with walking is that most people just walk along on a fairly level path or road, and it really doesn't take that much effort. Walk in the woods, and unless you're in an environmentally sensitive area, stay off the trails and walk cross-country, in the mountains if you have them. Now, to "kick it up a notch", slow down and try to make as little noise as possible. It's a lot more work than just bustin' through the brush, but you have to try it to realize it.

 

Good idea! Unfortunately, I don't have any woods easily accessible anymore. Part of my issue with exercise is I have no transportation or money. So I pretty much just have my body, house and neighborhood to work with. (No gym or equipment or way to buy any...) I *do* have access to a school up the road from me, which has a track and some playground equipment I could use. At least I could do pull-ups or something... I know I should be exercising my body in different ways, but I'm unsure how best to make a routine of it.

 

Hi Humble Bee!!!!! I started running again several months ago and have felt a lot healthier. I used to run up to 10 miles a day in high school and my first two years of college and just stopped one day.
I started again by walking a mile then running half a mile and repeated that twice for two weeks. I multiplied my running distance by 1/2 every other week and now walk half a mile to warm up and then run three miles. I haven't lost a whole bunch of weight from it but it has increased my mental health dramaticly and toned up my legs. I want to start a group with other runners on here and made a thread about it.

 

Well I kind of do the combo walk-run thing too because I can't handle nonstop running yet. I'm trying to get myself to the point where I can run nonstop for 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week. Right now I power-walk 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week, but some of that time I'm running. I enjoy it, it feels good, but it's not easy! At least, not yet! But I was never a runner, always a power-walker, so this is something a bit different for me to get used to.

 

so you said you had access to a track...tempo runs are great at the track. on the straightaways you run at a "fast" pace, not a sprint, but a run that is 60-70% of a full sprint. then on the turn, you walk to recover and once you hit the straight, you run again. you can start doing that and get a 1/2 mile done and build up to 1 mile.

*fast* is dependant on your level of running - to start off with, it might just seem to be a jog, but over time you'll get faster.

you can do shuttle runs (20-40 yds long).

for BWE (bodyweight exercises) - theres plenty of ways to get into shape using BWE - great thing about them, you can do them pretty much anywhere.

no particular order - you got your pushups, squats, lunges, pullups, chin ups, body rows, planks and other ab/core exercises, burpees, squat thrusters, hindu pushups, hindu squats, dips, animal walks and crawls, flutter kicks, etc....etc...

say your doing pushup. theres plenty of variations to doing pushups and plenty of progressions that can be made. so we'll start basic with someone not able to perform a full pushup (just for sake of discussion). that person will start off doing incline pushups - maybe at a 45 degree angle. and then as they get better, they'll decrease the angle 35 degrees and so on until they get to doing regular pushups. from there, theres plenty of ways to build up the number of pushups ( (1)ladders - 2,4,6,8,10,8,6,4,2 or; (2) doing sets or 10 or; (3) greasing the grove by doing pushups a set of pushups every hour or whenever you enter a room). some progressions would be triangle pushups, wide arm pushups, decline pushups. then after getting good at those style and other styles of pushups, you might progress to doing clap pushups -> to behind the back clap pushups, to going for maximum height of pushing off the ground. so as you can see, theres plenty of ways to make progression with just the pushup.

you can do the same with most of the exercises i listed. makes plenty of progression and get plenty fit by doing them.

one piece of equipment i think everyone should have is the jump rope. other things you might wanna get that are also cheap or can be made are push up bars and a sandbag. oh, and an abwheel.

 

Thanks for the replies, everyone! Fitzy, that was way helpful! I think I will start doing what you suggested with the track. It'll be easier for me to measure my distance that way, too.

For the bodyweight exercises, do you know of a site that would describe the different methods of different exercises? Since I'm such a newbie, I want to make sure I'm doing them right. Since I'm so out of shape I'll definitely be starting slow with the "easy" versions of everything. You mentioned incline pushups - how would I go about doing a 45 degree pushup without a board or equipment to measure it with?

Good idea about the jump rope. I could probably even figure a good way to make something with hemp twine... Could you tell me a little more about the other stuff - push up bars, sandbags, and abwheel? How to make/use them?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

for the incline pushup - any horizontal bar would work, a bench at the park. it doesn't have to neccessarily be excatly 45 degrees, just find an incline that you'll be comfortable building a base strength off of. then you can lower yourself. so the edge of a desk, bench, chairs, even the wall, whatever, so long as you can press down and back up. can also use stairs and do pushups from your knees...

pushup bars help build more depth into your work, you go down deeper and adds more variety into the workout: i have these ones


jump ropes are great, no need to explain the basics. i would get a quality rope though, about $10

abwheel. in the first link below (bodybuilding.com) they show how to perfrom the exercise from the knees. thats how you want to do it. i wouldn't jump into the abwheel if your a beginner though, plenty of other exercises to use before progressing to the abwheel. its very effective tool, but can hurt you if your not prepared to use it or can't use it correctly.

sandbag - there fun, but very humbling haha. i have 4mm ziplock bags filled about halfway with sand and taped up. and then i put the ziplock bags into a trash bag and put in into my army duffel bag. you can get sand at the beach for free. or you can get a 40 pound bag from home depot for a few dollars. you can do throws, squats, and lifts with the sand bag. it can be a pretty intense workout.

so a sandbag is pretty easy to make:
-plenty of sand
-atleast a 3mm ziplock bag
-trash bag or contractor trash bag or something to stash the ziplock bags in for easy weight increases or decreases
-duffel bag
-tape

you want the sand to be a little loose so that it'll move around on you, which is why you don't need much max weight, because its unstable. i think a 20-25 sandbag would be great for a beginner, maybe less for you. just try it out. i would make small 5 pound bags of sand and have like 5 of them to start off with in the duffel bag. but have more sand to add when needed.

if you want to make push up bars, you can use PVC pipe from home depot. you can make a lot of equipment from pvc pipe. i'll try to find a link to homemade equipment but the rope, bars, and abwheel shouldn't cost more than $30 if you look around

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exername.php - found some exercises there, just go to the first pull down menu and select bodyweight exercises

http://www.rosstraining.com/forum/ - great forum i go to. ross is a great guy. lots of bodyweight type training, not to say that he doesn't do work with weigths. i have his never gymless book - which mainly focuses on BWE and other things.

also just searching google or youtube for videos may be helpful

 

Awesome! Thanks for all that, I'm sure just playing around with BWE and a jumprope in addition to the running/walking will keep me busy for a while.

I'll work on coming up with sandbags, they sound like a really good, simple idea for weights. And pvc is a great idea too.... I have access to it for free most of the time, so I bet I can come up with something good.

Off to check out those websites in more depth... thanks again.

 

just tossing out some more ideas - if you have any more questions just ask, i'll try my best to answer

another great idea to do while you are running/walking is to drop and do a set of pushups or do some jumping jacks or squats and then continue to run/walk

for example - run 1 lap around the track, drop and do 10 pushups (or whatever you decide to do, but save the strength for other exercises). do another lap and do some squats. do another lap and do an ab exercise.

 

I was laying on the couch watching tv all day today and the cowboy's cheerleaders marathon was on and they workout like Chris said doing push-ups as many as they can do for 1 minute and then as many sit-ups as they can do in 2 minutes and alternating squats and lunges with 8 pound hand weights for 3 minutes and then run a fast as they can 2 miles around the track. The weight that the first year girls took off in the two-week try-out period was incredible.
Yeah so anyway Chris you were right and those girls didn't look bulky from hand weights.

 

Thanks again, everyone, for the input! I just wanted to quickly update everyone on my thang...

I've been using the school up the road at night to exercise. It's turned out perfect. It's a half mile walk from my house, so I can take that briskly to warm up. Once I get there, there's a cute little 1/4 mile track that I can do a couple laps around. It's small enough that I can actually RUN it without killing myself. (I know, running half a mile without breaking isn't much to brag about, but for me it is) Among the playground equipment, there is a bar about the height of the top of my head that I can use to attempt/work up to pull-ups. There are various bars, benches and curbs where I will progressively lower the angle on my push-ups. Once the ground dries out after the winter I'm sure I'll find a place out there to do crunches, but in the meantime I'm keeping that at home. The really great thing about this is I can do it twice a day (once with each dog), the walk there/back makes a great warm up/cool down, and once we're there I can take my dog off the leash and run and play with them without worrying about cars.

As far as progress goes, I had recently lost some weight and quickly put it back on. I'm not sure why it came back so fast, but for a couple of months I had slacked on exercise. In any case, when I was starting all of this up again about a week ago I was back up to 238. I weighed myself yesterday and was down to 228. I'm not taking it too seriously, though, since I know a lot of that was probably water-weight or something. I feel a lot better, though. I'm also cutting out dairy from my diet in the midst of all this, and between the two changes I can't believe the amount of energy I have suddenly!

A couple of questions... Well, really, just one question. Is it better to pace yourself for longer, or push yourself harder? This applies both to running/walking and things like push-ups. If I plan on going "x" distance, should I go as fast as I can, catch my breath by walking, and go as fast as I can again? Or should I go at a pace that I'll be able to sustain for the whole distance? Similarly, with push-ups and the like, should I do more at an easier angle, or should I push myself and do fewer at a lower angle? I'm not clear on which way is more effective.

In any case, I feel damn good! I'm glad I thought of using that school!

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to add - I put my scale away in a cupboard. I'm going to make myself wait at least a week or two between weighing myself. It might sound silly, but that's always been an extra source of frustration when I've been watching my food/exercise. I'm going for a healthy lifestyle here, not just weight loss. I don't want to get frustrated if I don't lose something every day (Or if I gain a pound, for that matter) and more importantly, I don't want to suddenly find myself at a weight where I'm comfortable and convince myself that it's alright to stop. That's what I did before, and that's how I got so big in the first place.

 

ok, i might jump around a little bit because its still a bit early haha, but i'll try

this is where the importance of having a program or workout plan to follow and log. you dont' always want to go full out everytime you workout, thats a sure fire way of overworking yourself. but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have days were you give a full 100% of intensity. so this is where its important to have the plan, so you can figure out what days you'll go all out and the days you'll workout, just not at that high intensity. you'll also plan in days for active recovery/mobility drills/stretching/etc.

for you, i would definately stick to full body workouts, 3-4 times a week. these are planned workouts. the other days, just go out and have fun with the dogs to keep active, get the blood flowing.

so you'll have days where you push yourself on upper body exercises, you might pick one exercise that really want to focus on, sya the pushup. this day is where you'll push yourself hard with full or pretty low incline pushups. you'll also include other supplemental exercises, like body rows and other exercises.

then you'll have days where you'll go all out with your running, but still do a full body workout. and the same for lower body workouts.

so you see how having a plan and writing it down will get rid of the guess work on how hard you will workout. a beginner usually won't have to "deload" until 6-8 weeks into the program - that is where you take a back off week to fully recooperate.

you want to make sure you're eating enough, keeping a clean diet, getting enough rest through out the week to recover (recovery is aided with good nutrition and rest).

i think its good that you put the scale away. i dont' think people should be weighing themsevles everyday, unless you participate in a sport where you either weigh in, need to keep a BF% (bodybuilders, and fitness competitors). so keep that scale away, except for maybe once a week. and when you do weigh yourself, do it at the same time each week, on the same spot each week, etc. your weight fluctuates throughout the day and week, some days you'll weigh heavier, some days lighter.

 

Yeah, at this point I honestly don't care about the weight that much. But there's a part of me that compulsively wants to "weigh in". Clothes aren't even such an issue, since I make all my own and they're quite adjustable. I'm just enjoying feeling better, though. I have so much more energy.

I'll start keeping more track on paper of my exercise. At this point I'm taking it fairly easy, so I don't think there's any harm in doing it every day. After a couple weeks of this I'll "kick it up a notch" and start taking a day or two off like you suggested, fitzy.

I'm not quite clear on what you're saying about the power level though... I should incorporate that with my daily schedule? Like say, every day I exercise I walk & run, but maybe odd days I go all-out and even days I try to sustain a pace? Something like that? And as far as BWE goes, do you suggest concentrating on just doing as many pushups as I can one day, and not worrying about crunches until the next day?

Sorry if it's a silly question. I'm seriously amazed - I remember playing a few sports and stuff as a kid, but nobody ever taught me how to EXERCISE or keep in shape. So I'm learning now.

 

I might be wrong but I think she meant sustaining as in long periods of moderate activity burn a lot of fat, especially for women.
What you are doing sounds freaking awesome though. way to go...you inspired me to get off my ass today.

 

exactly, right now you want to increase by consistantly doing these exercises. this is what is called GPP (general physical preparedness) - remember what you did in gym class - pushups, situps, rope skipping, running, etc...thats GPP; pretty much what you are doing. so give it a while before you really get specific in your training - taking it up a bunch of notches and such. right now you are building a base to work off of.



the late Dr. Mel Siff states that GPP is "…is intended to provide balanced physical conditioning in endurance, strength, speed, flexibility and other basic factors of fitness…"
so with this, you want to use as many muscle groups as possible - squats, pushups, squat thrusts, lunges, overhead throwing, etc. basic things you learned in PE class or should have.

where i brought up intensity, you dont' want to do these exercises until you get sick or anything. but you want your heart rate to get up around 65-75% and then over time you'll increase it. but since you're beginner, ~65% is good enough to start from.

i don't suggest just perfomring pushups one day, then another exercise the next. you'll want to do other exercises durign the workout to include all major muscle groups. however, you can have pushups as your core exercise of the day, just make sure you do other exercises to supplement - like if you want to see how many pushups you can perform, thats fine, but add in other exercises AFTER you max out on the pushups. say you want to max out on pushups, and you can't fully do a full pushup yet, still do the full pushup instead of the incline, but break it into low sets of 10 or maybe 5 if you can't do that many. so if your max of pushups is 30, then you maybe do 6 sets of 5 pushups, or 6 sets of 5 pushups; 3 sets of 10 pushups, or 10 sets of 3 pushups. then you would do other exercises, maybe some squats and lunges, a jog.

you can also integrate circut, or intervals into your training. these are great ways to boost your level of GPP. with circuts, i would pick 3 exercises at first. then you would perform each exercise for a number of reps, lets say 10, and then do each exercise right after each other. and then you have your rest.

pushups x 10
squats x 10
jumping jacks x 10
**rest**
^^thats 1 circut. you would repeat the circut a few times, 3-5 times would be good to start. to make it harder, you can increase how many reps you do for exercises, increase the number of times you perform the circut, or reduce the amount of rest.

intervals, you pick an exercise and a set amount of time to perform the exercise, then you would have a rest. so you do 20 seconds of squats, and rest for 20 seconds, then 20 seconds of squats, and 20 seconds rest. you do that for say 3 minutes. for intervals, you go as fast as you can for the time you are exercising. these can get pretty brutal as you improve. to make it harder, you can increase the time of the exercise interval while keeping rest constant...or you can just decrease the rest interval...or increase the total time of the interval.

no silly questions. always strive to learn more. i know nothing, but i'm always trying to learn more. the science of exercise is pretty interesting, lots to learn about.

 

Okay, that's largely what I thought about building up strength and endurance. Mostly the routine I've settled into is going until I can't (running), and stopping to do a set of push-ups. By the time my arms are tired, I'm ready to get up and run again. Throughout the day @ home, I try to stay busy and keep moving, and do crunches, squats, etc. several times a day (basically when I think of it). At this point I'm mostly just trying to build up my endurance, so I can do more later, right? So as long as I push myself, in as many different ways as possible, as hard as I can (without hurting myself of course) I don't think I can really go wrong.

Another question.... Is it better or worse, or does it make no difference, to get most exercise in the cold? Of course, it's pretty cold this time of the year at any time of day, but since I'm running with my dogs at a school, I don't want to go down there until evening, when it's dark and I can be sure not to scare any kids (one of my dogs is pretty big). The last few nights it's been really really cold. I've bundled up the best I could, but the wind just went right through it. To be on the safe side, I've been careful to stretch a little more before I go all out, but does it make any difference besides stiff muscles?