Question on building stamina

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I am leaving in a little over 3 weeks to go to Norway with my family. We go every summer and spend many days hiking/climbing in the mountains. This last year I let myself get very out of shape, and because I have exercise induced asthma, I notice that my lung capacity has gone down, and so has my stamina. I know that 3 weeks isn't a lot of time, and I should have started sooner, but better late than never, right?

What can I do in 3 weeks to help boost my stamina and lung capacity? What sort of exercises/training? What would you do? How many days in a row? I know I'm not going to be where I was last summer, but I want to be better prepared than I am right now at this moment.

Thanks!

Replies

  • AJL437
    AJL437 Posts: 71 Member
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    Stairs, stairs and more stairs and then some more stairs.
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
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    Read up on HIIT, it's the fastest way to build stamina. If you go to a gym and they have Tabata classes, take them. I think you can do 6 days a week of it for 3 weeks without accumulating fatigue.
  • hilsidney
    hilsidney Posts: 93 Member
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    Great! Thank you guys so much. I will look up HIIT and Tabata. Hopefully I can do 6 days a week! I dread stairs, but that's actually a great idea since I'm looking to climb up! :)

    I really appreciate you guys.
  • AJL437
    AJL437 Posts: 71 Member
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    I absolutely hate stairs too, but it's where I can really see I am making a difference in building my stamina in a short time period. Being able to climb one more stair without needing a break is very encouraging when you are trying to get results in a short time period.
  • halleymw
    halleymw Posts: 246 Member
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    I disagree about hiit 6 times a week. You might do it 3 times, but otherwise I would agree with stairs and perhaps something like couch to 5k.
    Mike
  • Hexahedra
    Hexahedra Posts: 894 Member
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    I disagree about hiit 6 times a week. You might do it 3 times, but otherwise I would agree with stairs and perhaps something like couch to 5k.
    Mike
    The original Tabata experiment was done 5 days a week.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897392
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Great! Thank you guys so much. I will look up HIIT and Tabata. Hopefully I can do 6 days a week! I dread stairs, but that's actually a great idea since I'm looking to climb up! :)

    I really appreciate you guys.

    I agree with HIIT. I've never tried tabata, but I've been doing Turbo Fire which has plyometric HIIT workouts and they have greatly increased my stamina and lung capacity.