Small, weak and flabby to well-defined

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sinkingthinking
sinkingthinking Posts: 21 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about fitness. I've long been into nutrition as a means to improve my brain's performance and prevent neurodegeneration, but always neglected exercise. Apart from benefiting my brain (I have several diagnosed neuro-developmental/mental health disorders and this was what initially motivated me the most) my other goal is to take up running as a hobby, and I aim to be fit enough to run a 5K for charity in a few months, without having to stop to rest.

My BMI (which is a worthless measurement I don't care about at all) is normal, but my body composition was terrible when I started this new regime. I never had it tested but I didn't need to, I wobbled all over and I've already seen improvements but I'm not as rock solid as I want to be. I don't want to be weak, squidgy and pathetic anymore, I want to be strong, even if that means being slightly more muscular than is fashionable for women right now. I've been reading studies about how beneficial muscles are for the brain, even more so than cardiovascular exercise, and even in the short-term, I feel more of a high when I do resistance training (not the wimpy high-rep low-weight kind prescribed for women, either) than on the days when I just run.

I've been developing a new regime for myself in the last two weeks and I'm finally settling down on interval-style running every day (that only takes 10 minutes at the moment before I'm almost dangerously out of breath, due to my asthma and unfit state, but I love knowing how much good it's doing me when I'm all sweaty and gross, haha) and every other day I do squats, wall push-ups, crunches, hold a push-up position, and I've just got myself some 5Kg weights which are actually much too heavy for now but my muscles already feel bigger so I hope to be swinging them over my head in no time. :)

Thanks for reading :)

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  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    Interval running daily Is not ideal --you should really switch to 2-4x a week max. You can alternate between steady state days and intervals. You're doing great. Keep it up!
  • sinkingthinking
    sinkingthinking Posts: 21 Member
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    Thanks for the reply and advice! Would you mind explaining the reasoning behind that though? I know you're not supposed to do resistance training every day because your muscles only build new tissue on the days you don't do any. Does daily cardiovascular exercise also prevent this new growth? It would be hard for me not to run most days because I feel so much better afterwards, physically and mentally. But if it's for the best, I will try. :)
  • gshoemaker06
    gshoemaker06 Posts: 264 Member
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    Thanks for the reply and advice! Would you mind explaining the reasoning behind that though? I know you're not supposed to do resistance training every day because your muscles only build new tissue on the days you don't do any. Does daily cardiovascular exercise also prevent this new growth? It would be hard for me not to run most days because I feel so much better afterwards, physically and mentally. But if it's for the best, I will try. :)

    I would say feel free to run your heart out! That's great that you enjoy it and want to keep running! I would just say switch it up so your body/muscle memory doesn't get stuck in a routine. Sprints are great, but if you do sprints everyday with out some longer steady-pace runs, you wont get better as fast.

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