C25K at 374 pounds? Am I setting myself up for failure?

RLDeShazo

I would like to start jogging. I know I will need to ease into it, given my weight. I was thinking I could spend 2 or even 3 weeks on each "week" to give my body time to adjust to the huge strain. Has anyone else done it at my size and been successful? Right now, my top speed on the treadmill that I can do for any length of time is 3mph, and that is for like 15 minutes.


The reason I want to do this now is that I want to play soccer (scary, I know!) It has been my goal to play next summer, because by then I will have lost enough weight and be in much better physical shape than I am now. But I would REALLY like to play before then, if possible. But I don't want to even get out there on the field if I can't at least jog a little.

jnhu72

I think your idea to spend some time on each level is a great idea. Listening to your body will be the best thing you can do while doing C25K. I tried to go faster on it then I should have and got shin splints and it set me back a lot.

calitravelingal

when i started the c25k program i was apx 235 lbs. some weeks were harder than others, so i repeated them. the best 2 pieces of advice i can offer are: 1) see your dr 1st, to check your blood pressure, heart rate and other things that could affect the speed at which you attempt the program. 2) go slow, i tried to jog to fast and got nowhere. when i slowed down things became easier, so if you can walk at 3.0 then jog at 3.0. It's not about how fast you go but the motions are different and take getting used to. I'm sure you can do everything you want, just remember that things take time and don't get on yourself if things don't improve as fast as you'd like them to. Best of luck!

dad106

I'm in the middle of C25K(Just did Week 3 Day 2 this morning) and I think you will be fine.

One thing I suggest if you are comfortable/able, is to run outside instead of on a treadmill. I did one session on a treadmill, and while it went fine, it was a pain in the *kitten* to keep switching between the two modes every few minutes. Running outside allows me to be more "free" and makes running feel more natural.

KenDubya74

I so want to do the C25K, it's one of my goals... it will have to wait a lil bit still now that I'm nursing a leg injury from pushing myself too hard yesterday. Very cool goal Robin, I know you will accomplish it. I'm rooting for ya!

RLDeShazo

I'm in the middle of C25K(Just did Week 3 Day 2 this morning) and I think you will be fine.

One thing I suggest if you are comfortable/able, is to run outside instead of on a treadmill. I did one session on a treadmill, and while it went fine, it was a pain in the *kitten* to keep switching between the two modes every few minutes. Running outside allows me to be more "free" and makes running feel more natural.

I will be doing it outside, because I don't want to put the gym's treadmills through that much punishment! LOL

mark996

I'm 376, started the C25K 3 weeks ago, but it's been getting in the way of my trail riding, so I've slacked off due to recovery. I typically ride 20-30 miles of mountain bike trails on the weekends, and trying to do the C25K during the week made my weekend rides hell, and I enjoy riding a whole lot more than that foreign crazy art of running. But it is still a goal of mine to eventually be able to do both, comfortably and to be successful on both. Good luck!

sweetheart03622

You can definitely do it!! I think it's very smart to be realistic and slow down the program like you said. Also, try to run on softer surfaces (grass, a track, sand, dirt, etc.). Compression clothes will also help a lot with the overall comfort while you're running. I hope you decide to give it a shot and I can't wait to hear about you getting out there and playing soccer!!

iKapuniai

Go to Google and look up "400 pound man runs marathon"... he's an ex sumo wrestler who completed a marathon and ran the whole way through at 400 +/- pounds... if he can do it, I'm sure you can too! I'm 320lbs and I want to start running too... every time I tell myself I can't, I remember that man and it motivates me.

Good luck on your journey and I wish you the best!

Love and Alohas,
Ihilani Kapuniai

RLDeShazo

Well, I got started last night. I was really sore this morning and my ankle was a little tender, but it is already feeling better. I was able to make it through the full time for the jogging parts. I am awesome!!!!

contingencyplan

you will struggle with the sprinting portions of C25K at that weight and could cause damage to your knees. jogging is not sprinting, and C25K requires you to sprint. If you can't sprint for the intervals needed, you're not doing the program. At that weight it is very important to stick exclusively to low impact forms of exercise. Swimming is the best. Takes water aerobics classes if you can.

bloomlately

Wha? Couch to 5k preaches going at a slow pace and working on building endurance, not speed. No one getting off the couch should be sprinting the program.

RLDeShazo

you will struggle with the sprinting portions of C25K at that weight and could cause damage to your knees. jogging is not sprinting, and C25K requires you to sprint. If you can't sprint for the intervals needed, you're not doing the program. At that weight it is very important to stick exclusively to low impact forms of exercise. Swimming is the best. Takes water aerobics classes if you can.

I can't take a class. but thanks for the vote of confidence. I have every intention of only doing as much as i can. I may have to make some alterations to the program to fit me, but at least I am trying.

RLDeShazo

Just looked over the schedule. I don't see any sprinting.

The schedule
Bookmark this page so that you can easily return to check on your progress.
Week Workout 1 Workout 2 Workout 3
1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
•Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
•Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
•Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

4 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
•Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

5 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
•Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.
6 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
•Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
•Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
•Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 22 minutes) with no walking.
7 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes). Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes). Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).
8 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes). Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes). Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).
9 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes). Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes). The final workout! Congratulations! Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).

contingencyplan

Hmm, I could have sworn the program had intervals of jogging into sprinting in there somewhere. Guess I was wrong. In any case, my only concern is for people's safety. There's been a growing trend in fitness lately gravitating back toward people doing super-high-intensity, high-impact workouts as was popular in the '80s. And although the people who went through those programs back then saw great results at the time, they found out a few years down the road that their knees were totally destroyed because of it. It didn't work then and it won't work now. In about a decade or so, you're going to see all these people saying they saw great weight loss results doing programs like Insanity getting knee surgeries done. What I want to know is, why don't people learn from it the first time around? They found out in the late 80s/early 90s high impact exercise totally destroys your knees when done by significantly overweight people. So why are we going back to it now? Where is the logic there?

bloomlately

There's no sprinting. Cool Running mainly talks about working on building up your time or distance running, not your pace. The NHS podcast I use likes to remind listeners to not start off too fast at the beginning and to slow down if you have to towards the end.

girlonfire15

Don't let your size stop you if you want to start jogging. If the first day of C25K proves to be too much for you, start out with just plain walking or google a pre-C25K program. (They exist!) If you want to ease in to it, you could make each day a week - for example, do W1D1 for a week, W1D2 for the next week, etc.

As a side note, don't worry too much about speed when you're starting off as well. I've seen loads of people crash and burn from trying to go too fast! If it's faster than you can walk, I'd say it counts.

RLDeShazo

Hmm, I could have sworn the program had intervals of jogging into sprinting in there somewhere. Guess I was wrong. In any case, my only concern is for people's safety. There's been a growing trend in fitness lately gravitating back toward people doing super-high-intensity, high-impact workouts as was popular in the '80s. And although the people who went through those programs back then saw great results at the time, they found out a few years down the road that their knees were totally destroyed because of it. It didn't work then and it won't work now. In about a decade or so, you're going to see all these people saying they saw great weight loss results doing programs like Insanity getting knee surgeries done. What I want to know is, why don't people learn from it the first time around? They found out in the late 80s/early 90s high impact exercise totally destroys your knees when done by significantly overweight people. So why are we going back to it now? Where is the logic there?

I understand your concern. If you could have seen my "jog" last night, you wouldn't worry about it being too intense. LOL
Carrying around the weight I have now will also do damage to my knees. Surprisingly it hasn't yet. I don't plan to run any marathons any time soon or even run a 5K. I just want to be able to play a little soccer, and when coaching, at least be able to show them a little bit of what I'm talking about.

tinkermommc

Well, I got started last night. I was really sore this morning and my ankle was a little tender, but it is already feeling better. I was able to make it through the full time for the jogging parts. I am awesome!!!!

You ARE awesome!! Keep it up! I say go for it and it you don't have a 5k scheduled than you can take your time repeating weeks and taking an extra day off if your body says too. Or alternate in some just plain walking days could be helpful. I found it helpful to schedule a 5k with friends out a ways so that I could take my time but I couldn't back out. I scheduled my 5k 9 mos out at the time I did it and now it's 2 mos out and I'm finishing week 7. Good Luck!!

Azdak

It's a question of risk percentages. As weight goes up, risk goes up (risk of overdoing it, risk of orthopedic injury, etc). Risk describes groups, not individuals.

So any individual is free to test the odds. You can do things to lower the risks--slowly progressing, proper footwear, listening to your body, lower-impact surfaces, etc.

At your weight, I don't think anyone can honestly tell you "sure, you can do it", even though many will. (I certainly can't--and I think I'm in a position to know).

But I would never say "absolutely not", either. Physiologically, there is no reason why doing a lower-impact, lower-intensity activity now while initially losing some weight, would have ANY negative effect on your long-term goal. So, right now, there is no NEED for you to try to run.

However, if that is something that you want to do, and that will motivate you, and there are no health reasons (hypertension, etc) to prevent you from doing so, then, yeah, give it a try. From your other comments it sounds like you have a realistic outlook on what it will take, and how you might have to modify things. Good luck.

reashamoriba

I started at 364 and I have been doing c25k and I take each workout a couple days but now I am down to 284 and I am on week 7 of a 12 week program. Started in October. I also signed up for a 5k each month to keep me motivated. It is a journey because I my size at first it was difficult to even walk 30 minutes. But I pushed my way and most the time I have to repeat each workout 3/4 times during the week.

woodsk67

Congrats! Doing this with a few coworkers-- You will be fiune, as many have said, if you need additional time during one of the weeks, take it.. The best part is you decided to start the program

chrystee

I started at 300 pounds, and with a heavy group of girls.. You can do this. We spent 2 weeks on each week. The key is to keep doing it at least 3 days a week. You lose so much if you let a week go between running. You can do this. Look at Biggest Loser people, they run like crazy.

chrystee

I started at 364 and I have been doing c25k and I take each workout a couple days but now I am down to 284 and I am on week 7 of a 12 week program. Started in October. I also signed up for a 5k each month to keep me motivated. It is a journey because I my size at first it was difficult to even walk 30 minutes. But I pushed my way and most the time I have to repeat each workout 3/4 times during the week.

My first 5k was 60 minutes. I'm now down to 45. I'm SO slow, people power walk faster than me. But one day you'll get faster.. then you will get faster..

Darrell916

I know you can do it. I set a goal for myself for next year myself to do the tough mudder and right now I am over 400 pounds. The great thing is that this site is full of people that are going to motivate you to do your best and reach your goals.

Broderick50

Be careful speaking from personal experience I was working out and feeling good so good that I started running ended up tearing my mcl partially took a break got a knee brace was feeling great again starting light jogging had another set back now i know all people are different but when you have that much weight it's harder on the knees to start jogging or running my advice move to an eliptical or stationary bike and amp of your workouts you can actually do the C25k program on a bike that what's i do but when i get down around 300 to 320 lbs you can believe i will be jogging again

1Fizzle

Speaking personally, I had to ease myself into running. I was near your starting weight, and I had to walk...then work up to a walk run mix...drop some pounds...then get into C25K. It was tough at the start but I stuck with it, now I can run over 20 minutes straight and do 4 to 5 miles 4 days a week. So, it can be done, but listen to your body, rest when needed, and push yourself, but don't overdo it (if that makes sense). Best of luck in your journey. You can do it!

jcearth

You can definitely do it. Personally, I didn't do the C25K program, but I would do "a little more" each workout. I started last March at 471 pounds with walking, and after a few weeks gradually worked jogging into the mix. I can remember all the milestones -- the first time I ran for 5 minutes straight, the first time I was able to run a mile without stopping, and then for 20 minutes, and then 30 minutes. All the while, the weight kept coming off. In October, I ran my first 5k. And then another in November and another in December. In February, I was down to 300 lbs and ran a half marathon --- and there was only one goal to go. At the end of March, however disaster struck. I lost all the feeling in the lower half of my body. After 4 weeks of rest and an epidural injection of steroids, I was able to resume trainging. I wasn't 100%, but I decided to complete my marathon. On May 6th, at 315 pounds, I ran a marathon. The picture on the left is me crossing the finish line. Recovery has been tough, and long, but the experience has been thoroughly rewarding.

FloridaAimee

MY ADVICE- FOLLOW THE C25K PROGRAM, but instead of jogging, simply walk faster. You do NOT want to hurt your knees. Follow the first 3 weeks this way, and then start over at week 1 and try it with the jogging. You need to simply get your body used to moving that much :happy:

And, let me tell you, I am over weight too. I'm 5'3 and 198- should be around 130. While that might not sound like a lot to you, I am small framed and it's a LOT of stress on my body. My knees and ankles do complain.

As a matter of fact, I went to the Dr today because I am having a hell of a time catching my breath when running. And due to a crap ton of issues (illness, shin splints, visiting family), I was re-doing W1D3 off and on for over a month. I was SO excited to finally move on to week 2, the I am really upset with myself right now...The Dr told me to go back and start at the beginning, because she says I have over worked myself and she's worried I will hurt my knees.

Take it slow and easy.

Mellie289

I agree with those suggesting to keep it pretty low impact. I did the C25K with about 50 lbs extra weight and I could really feel it in my knees. This was after I could at least WALK 5K at 4 mph on my treadmill. I think it's wise to follow the rule of not running before you can walk.

If you can currently only walk 15 minutes (at 3 mph), I think you should just work on extending that time. Don't go for speed (jogging). Once you can extend the walking time, see if you can do a brisk walk (at 4 mph). I really think you should get yourself conditioned to be able to do this first before trying C25K because it well help strengthen your legs slowly to be ready to make the increase to include some jogging.

dad106

Hmm, I could have sworn the program had intervals of jogging into sprinting in there somewhere. Guess I was wrong. In any case, my only concern is for people's safety. There's been a growing trend in fitness lately gravitating back toward people doing super-high-intensity, high-impact workouts as was popular in the '80s. And although the people who went through those programs back then saw great results at the time, they found out a few years down the road that their knees were totally destroyed because of it. It didn't work then and it won't work now. In about a decade or so, you're going to see all these people saying they saw great weight loss results doing programs like Insanity getting knee surgeries done. What I want to know is, why don't people learn from it the first time around? They found out in the late 80s/early 90s high impact exercise totally destroys your knees when done by significantly overweight people. So why are we going back to it now? Where is the logic there?

Correlation does not equal causation.

How can you say for sure it was the exercise and not that they were pre-dispostioned to bad knees? Or that they pushed through the pain and thats why they are having knee programs? Also, being overweight already puts stress on joints.. so they had more of tendency to have knee problems.

If OP was doing HITT then I'd be concerned(HITT includes sprinting/walking intervals, and is nothing like C25K.. C25k much more gentle and made for the non-runner and people who never worked out before).

As long as you get your doctors ok before starting any strenuous program like Insanity or P90X, you should be ok. If something hurts then lay off, rest until it feels better.