I thought I was fit but I still can't...

BerryH
BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
...walk or run up the escalators at Seven Sisters underground station. What's up with that? I run three times a week and go to the gym at least twice more, but walking up a single set of moving stairs has my heart trying to leap out of my chest, my hamstrings burning and a rising sense of nausea. And I do it every working day!

I also go "Gnnnfff!" whenever I stand up, or bend to tie my shoelaces.

What still defeats you however fit you get?
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Replies

  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    Crouching down on my knees to get something. I still almost need help to get up. I ran 39km this past week, and I still have trouble crouching. This is silly. Stupid body.:laugh:
  • SapiensPisces
    SapiensPisces Posts: 992 Member
    touch my toes without bending my knees (y'know like sit and reach in high school gym class).

    I do yoga 3-5 times per week also. Still can't do downward dog either LOL

    My flexibility is hopeless.
  • knitapeace
    knitapeace Posts: 1,013 Member
    Real pushups. I'm finally to the point where I can do nice, clean half pushups but the full ones are still too hard.
  • GemmieNoWobbles
    GemmieNoWobbles Posts: 398 Member
    Running for the bus.. I run 3 times a week, part of a running club and half marathons under my belt but when I have to run without being prepared for it I think I am going to die... I can happily do sprint intervals, cover 1k in under 4 minutes but running for the bus... WTF??
  • Titanuim
    Titanuim Posts: 331 Member
    I still can't do a pull up/chin up and it makes me sad.
  • bebeisfit
    bebeisfit Posts: 951 Member
    Stairs! I too run, bike, strength train...AND I live on the third floor. So, I do a lot of stairs, but they still kill me!
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    ...time travel.

    Everything else, I'm just in a permanent inconsistent state of untrained.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    When you run at the gym, do you run inclines? Stairs are a lot more difficult than running a flat surface. Add steep inclines (even if you have to walk them for a while) to your running routine and it will help.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    When you run at the gym, do you run inclines? Stairs are a lot more difficult than running a flat surface. Add steep inclines (even if you have to walk them for a while) to your running routine and it will help.
    I run outside (including hills where they appear, but it's not super-hilly in north London!), and do other stuff when I go to the gym.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    When you run at the gym, do you run inclines? Stairs are a lot more difficult than running a flat surface. Add steep inclines (even if you have to walk them for a while) to your running routine and it will help.
    I run outside (including hills where they appear, but it's not super-hilly in north London!), and do other stuff when I go to the gym.
    Oops. I misread your OP.

    If you're not regularly climbing stairs and you're not running inclines, stairs are going to kill you.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    If you're not regularly climbing stairs and you're not running inclines, stairs are going to kill you.
    I live in a third floor flat, work in a second floor office and walk up three sets of escalators and several staircases during my commute to work every. It's just that one escalator that kills me! Just pondering on the mysteries of fitness never making you fit for everything life throws at you :flowerforyou:
  • mamahannick
    mamahannick Posts: 322 Member
    ...jog up stairs without getting a little bit winded!
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    If you're not regularly climbing stairs and you're not running inclines, stairs are going to kill you.
    I live in a third floor flat, work in a second floor office and walk up three sets of escalators and several staircases during my commute to work every. It's just that one escalator that kills me! Just pondering on the mysteries of fitness never making you fit for everything life throws at you :flowerforyou:

    :-)

    Well then I don't know. lol

    I used to get winded with stairs and then started walking up three flights at work every day and it helped a ton. Sadly, we switched offices and I'm not even allowed to use the stairs in this building. :-(
  • PatsyFitzpatrick
    PatsyFitzpatrick Posts: 335 Member
    I love Jillian M. But I cannot wait until a BURPEE drops her!! :laugh: Sometime the age thing becomes a factor. You can still be fit but it is not the fit of 25yrs. That is life enjoy :drinker:
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    I still can't do a pull up/chin up and it makes me sad.

    This. I can squat and deadlift with the best of them. My bench is getting there. My OHP is okay. But pull ups? Heck no. I can *barely* just now do a negative.
  • juliemouse83
    juliemouse83 Posts: 6,663 Member
    I still can't do a pull up/chin up and it makes me sad.

    Oh, so this!!!
  • Victoria2448
    Victoria2448 Posts: 559 Member
    I'm working on doing 20 pull-ups in a row..I won't say it's defeating me, because I will not be defeated!

    I've come a very long way....I can do ANYTHING!!!!
  • wanttolose40lbs
    wanttolose40lbs Posts: 239 Member
    I weight train 3Xweek and do cardio 3Xweek, but I can't do a chin up to save my life.
  • MissAnjy
    MissAnjy Posts: 2,480 Member
    This is hilarious because I JUST had this conversation on Friday.

    I went up 3 flights of stairs and I was breathless at the top, could barely greet people. I'm like WTF? I just kickboxed this morning for an hour. I can run a 5k while talking the entire time and I weight train 3x a week........how are stairs OWNING ME? lol
  • ChaplainHeavin
    ChaplainHeavin Posts: 426 Member
    ...walk or run up the escalators at Seven Sisters underground station. What's up with that? I run three times a week and go to the gym at least twice more, but walking up a single set of moving stairs has my heart trying to leap out of my chest, my hamstrings burning and a rising sense of nausea. And I do it every working day!

    I also go "Gnnnfff!" whenever I stand up, or bend to tie my shoelaces.

    What still defeats you however fit you get?

    Two possible reasons.

    1) jogging and going up and down stairs are two different animals. Just because you're fit for one workout doesn't mean you're fit for another. For example, although I could go for a five mile run, practicing with my daughters when they played soccer would wear me out in five minutes.

    2) Allergies. I always take the stairs at work (my office is on the third floor). Certain times of the year I am breathing heavy because of the pollen counts.
  • ChaplainHeavin
    ChaplainHeavin Posts: 426 Member
    Real pushups. I'm finally to the point where I can do nice, clean half pushups but the full ones are still too hard.

    Try this military trick. Just do as many push ups (not too fast or too slow) that you can in 2 minutes. Don't worry how many you do, just do as many as you can in two minutes, three times a week. You might start out with five, then rest a few seconds and do one, just keep it up until the two minutes are up. When I started I could only get in 30 or so in that time frame. Now I can do 200 or more in a time slot of three minutes and I add doing to other positions and 3 minutes to it.
  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    Running for the bus.. I run 3 times a week, part of a running club and half marathons under my belt but when I have to run without being prepared for it I think I am going to die... I can happily do sprint intervals, cover 1k in under 4 minutes but running for the bus... WTF??

    anything you do under mental / emotion stress will take the wind right outta ya
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    I understand your frustration!! I know I'm not super fit at all, but I have come a long way, I can walk long distances with no problem (miles and miles) even in the heat or cold, I regularly hike, ride on bike trails, etc. But my husband and I went on a loop at a state park a couple weekends ago that included rockier terrain and about 800 stairs going in different directions and I was SO exhausted!! It was disappointing.
  • ChaplainHeavin
    ChaplainHeavin Posts: 426 Member
    I still can't do a pull up/chin up and it makes me sad.

    Try doing as many half pull ups as you can in two minutes, do this three times a week. You'll be surprised at the results. I went from one to 9 in a matter of weeks but had to stop for a while because I pulled something (no pun intended)
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    I've walked along a section of The Great Wall, which I can safely say has a LOT of steep stairs, and even that didn't get to me like that damned escalator!
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    ...walk or run up the escalators at Seven Sisters underground station. What's up with that? I run three times a week and go to the gym at least twice more, but walking up a single set of moving stairs has my heart trying to leap out of my chest, my hamstrings burning and a rising sense of nausea. And I do it every working day!

    I also go "Gnnnfff!" whenever I stand up, or bend to tie my shoelaces.

    What still defeats you however fit you get?

    Two possible reasons.

    1) jogging and going up and down stairs are two different animals. Just because you're fit for one workout doesn't mean you're fit for another. For example, although I could go for a five mile run, practicing with my daughters when they played soccer would wear me out in five minutes.

    2) Allergies. I always take the stairs at work (my office is on the third floor). Certain times of the year I am breathing heavy because of the pollen counts.

    Two additional reasons:

    3) what you are carrying. Even if it not heavy, adding a purse or computer bag throws your balance off to where you may be swaying side to side or rotating the pelvis more than if not carrying anything. I am at the beginning of gaining fitness after a long term illness and I have noticed I have little trouble going up the 2 flights of stairs at my apartment when carrying nothing but even my purse makes a difference (even more of a difference if I carry it by my elbow rather than over the shoulder)

    4) your shoes. Different heel heights make you carry your weight differently which can affect how you go up the stairs.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    I walk the stairs EVERY day at work- 3 flights- and often more when I have to run errands. I am not an elevator person.

    I use the stair master and jump rope- and run- and I life- I'm very "fit"

    but I am ALWAYS winded at the top of the 3 flights of stairs in the morning- not excessively so- but I ALWAYS have been that way.

    Sprinting for no reason at all (like the person who said running for the bus) gets me like lungs on fire burning. I do DO sprints- so that's not foreign to me. LOL

    Think timing and "extra's" change the way things work.
  • kelly_e_montana
    kelly_e_montana Posts: 1,999 Member
    I finish in the top 5 women in my CrossFit box in all of the weightlifting workouts but I still can't do a pull up. I've been working on it 5x per week for 7 months and am not even close. I weigh about 170 with 27% ish body fat and when I use an assistance machine, I have to add at least 30 pounds.The bottom is my worst. I have no functional strength there. Rows, negatives, lat pull downs, banded pull ups, half pull ups, etc. etc. I've tried it all. I feel like I am too big for pull ups but I do know one other gal built like me who has hers, even chest-to-bar, so I will keep trying.
  • Confuzzled4ever
    Confuzzled4ever Posts: 2,860 Member
    Sleep..

    No matter what I do, how hard I work.. i still toss and turn..

    Also.. when I fall (as in literally my body hits the ground) I hurt for days.. my finger still hurts from the last time I fell and that was 9 days ago.

    Pull ups.. but to be honest.. i need to get back to lifting.. I've been doing a lot of cardio and slacking on the lifting.

    Stretching.. I swear the more I exercise the tighter everything gets..and I stretch before and after.. :grumble:
  • kelly_e_montana
    kelly_e_montana Posts: 1,999 Member
    I love Jillian M. But I cannot wait until a BURPEE drops her!! :laugh: Sometime the age thing becomes a factor. You can still be fit but it is not the fit of 25yrs. That is life enjoy :drinker:

    I disagree. I am fitter now than I was working out in my 20s. I put up times in the top 3-6 women in my CrossFit box consistently, and only one of them is even close to my age. The rest are 8-20 years younger. Don't let your own conceptions of age limit your performance! The top performer in our box is 42 and came very close to making the CrossFit games via the masters' qualifier. He knocked 50 spots off his performance last year when he was a year younger.

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