Increasing Stamina

WolfWitness wrote: »

I would like to be able to go up two flights of stairs with a reduced sense of breathlessness versus what I deal with now.

I am very much a beginner at any activity, and I'm not sure how to start out in a way that will not hurt myself. I do want to start slow to avoid getting hurt.

What things should I be doing? I have no base workout routine and I do not know how people regularly work out, so I do not know any lingo or steps.

1) Walk on flat ground. Build up to a kilometre ... and once that's comfortable build up to two kilometres, and so on.

2) Start climbing stairs. Go up 5 steps and down 5 steps. The next day, do it again. Keep doing it until that's fairly comfortable. Then try for 7 stairs. And so on.

3) And just generally be active. Get up and walk around the house or office once every hour or so. Park at the far end of the parking lot when you go to get your groceries. Get out of the bus a stop early and walk the rest of the way. Go for a walk at lunch.

Do things that cause you to get out of breath. Being out of breath is an indication that your body needs more oxygen than your heart and lungs are providing. Over a period of weeks, your body adapts to this. Walking can be an easy start, but if you aren't walking fast enough to be out of breath then you won't accomplish much. Cycling and running can help, but only if you go fast enough to be out of breath. Or simply climb steps over and over. The more times you do it the easier it will get.

WolfWitness wrote: »

I would like to be able to go up two flights of stairs with a reduced sense of breathlessness versus what I deal with now.

I am very much a beginner at any activity, and I'm not sure how to start out in a way that will not hurt myself. I do want to start slow to avoid getting hurt.

What things should I be doing? I have no base workout routine and I do not know how people regularly work out, so I do not know any lingo or steps.

Every day add a stair or two.

The more you exercise, the more you're able to. Within reason. In other words, if you just ran your first half-mile today, don't sign up for a marathon next week. Here's my story and it's probably very similar to that of other folks here:

1) I've always been a walker, but as my weight increased, my energy decreased, until I was really down to taking one two-hour walk per week to do the shopping, and begrudging half the steps. And buying something sweet or savory at the bakery to fuel me on the long trek back. Or on hot days, getting an ice cream treat and trying to tear open the package without seeing the calories. Because if you don't know how much of a calorie bomb it is, it totally doesn't count, right?

2) I got an obesity-related complication where, for a few weeks, the doctors forbade me to walk. (Lymph edema. I was told to elevate the leg, take my antibiotics, let the nurses change the dressing, and stay off my feet as much as possible.) AND I was told that one of the best ways to manage the condition was lose weight. And probably reverse psychology came into play along the lines of the minute the doctors told me NOT to walk, I was fighting to get back on my feet.

3) When I started MFP, I committed myself to a daily 25-minute walk minimum. Rain, snow, or shine. Broken up if it had to be. No 'brisk' pace. Just get out and get moving.

4) I have a fitness glider in my basement. I was above the maximum safe weight for it when I started. When that changed, it became, "Either a 35 minute walk OR 25 minutes on the glider every day."

5) As I got into the swing of exercising, and as it took longer to break a sweat on the glider, I upped things gradually, five minutes at a time. Six months later, I try to walk at least 60 minutes per day OR do 50 minutes on the glider, sometimes both.

6) Also, I discovered the MFP forums and learned that strength/resistance training wasn't just 'another option' or 'something else some people do' but actually pretty darned important if I want to preserve muscle while losing weight. I walked into a fitness shop and let them know exactly where I was holding (getting down to a healthy weight gradually, wanting to start strength training, pretty new at it, no real idea where to start). They suggested dumbbells or fitness tubes. I went with the tubes, mostly because I found them on one of my long walks. They're about 45 minutes from home. And I wasn't positive I'd be able to carry the free weights home. Lift, sure. But if I was going to be taking them in a plastic shopping bag... they tear. So, tubes. I found a video on YouTube and some exercises off the Theragear site. And found that initially, I could only do 10 reps of 3 of the 4 exercises I tried; 8 of the 4th. And I was lucky to do 2 sets. It's now four months later, and I've just started doing 4 sets of 15 reps each for the first three exercises, 12 for the 4th. But that took time.

You're smart to stop where you are for now. Feeling a bit of a burn is okay, but you're right that you don't want to strain anything.