how long did it take for your fitness to improve?

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trulyhealy
trulyhealy Posts: 240 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i’m just curious about what exercises people do and how long it it take for your cardio to improve.

for my i just realised how much i’ve improved since i started working out. for example i did this 80s around workout that’s so fun for the first time in july and back then it was so difficult and then now i can do it all easily!!

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  • trulyhealy
    trulyhealy Posts: 240 Member
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    trulyhealy wrote: »
    i’m just curious about what exercises people do and how long it it take for your cardio to improve.

    for my i just realised how much i’ve improved since i started working out. for example i did this 80s around workout that’s so fun for the first time in july and back then it was so difficult and then now i can do it all easily!!

    the workout dvds that i love doing got too easy so i started to incorporate hand weights like 3 weeks ago and now my strength has improved quickly too!!
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    It will always be improving. Fitness should be a lifelong endeavor. <3
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,473 Member
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    Ohhhhhhhhh, my first hot yoga class. I felt great the first thirty minutes, but then it hit me and I spent the next 45 minutes in a trembling, mortally embarrassed heap of sweat. I literally thought I would die on the mat and was silently sobbing in child’s pose and wondering if husband and kids would miss me. Thankfully, no one could see the tears for the sweat.

    I got used to the hot classes in a couple of weeks.

    It took me about ninety days to be able to do everything presented in mat Pilates, a “proper” roll up and teaser being the hardest to master. ( I still ****ing hate wall-sits with arms and elbows pressed against the wall. )

    Nowadays I do back-to-back hot yoga and heated mat Pilates classes four times a week, with a quick mile and a half walk between while they sanitize the room. So strength and endurance does come with persistence.

    Running took me many weeks to build to 5k and it’s still a trial to do that distance. I’m not a natural runner, having come to it in my late 50’s, but by God, I’m a determined one.

    Weight training.......what I like is that you don't master it. There’s always a higher weight to strive for.

    Yoga has infinite variations on arm balances, weight training has infinite room to improve. It’s what keeps me motivated to go back.

    Plus it’s all so darned much fun.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
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    I was stunned and amazed at how FAST my fitness improved once I got started. This was back in May of 2019. I was 330 pounds and basically hadn't moved a muscle other than to pick up a TV remote or a pizza in 15 years. It was that bad. I almost couldn't get started with exercise because there was nothing I could comfortably do, so it was 4-5 minutes on an exercise bike or one lap around my cul-de-sac, 1/6 of a mile. By August, 2 months later, I was doing 45 minutes on the exercise bike and 2 mile walks; another month or two later, and exercise was fully locked into my life as a one hour per day activity rain or shine, where it remains to this day. I'd go into the numbers, but suffice to say that my blood pressure and resting pulse plummeted, and didn't take long to do so. Within a month of starting exercise, summer of 2019, mp BP had dropped 20 points.

    I feel bad for people who both don't exercise AND don't know what it can do for one's health and sense of well-being. I mean, if someone knows and decides they don't want to, that's one thing, that's their choice. But when I contemplate my ticking-time-bomb obese family members who refuse to move and just don't understand what could emerge in their lives - pretty quickly - if they'd just give it a shot, it's a little frustrating!
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    edited August 2020
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    From the minute I'm not sitting on the couch at the speed of zero and I'm walking out the front door until my legs grow weary from hiking and backpacking. All movement counts. Find activities you love to do and do all of them on your own terms. Action and momentum will take you much further than motivation and willpower. Those are limited resources but taking action and exercising on Day One along with your positive food management plan is a two-fold benefit. Swing the mountain of momentum the other way and move, move, move.


  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,402 Member
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    By a little bit every day. As an irregular runner I stopped running again after 2 months because I wanted to focus on other sports. Only managed to run 7km once in that time. I kept up my long weekend hikes. And one day I realized I'd done a 16km powerwalk.
  • RockingWithLJ
    RockingWithLJ Posts: 243 Member
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    A few weeks
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,365 Member
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    I was in really good shape a couple of years ago and then life happened and I stopped going to the gym and working out. Won't go to the gym until this current *kitten* storm settles down, so 2 months ago I got my bike prepped and ready. Started riding the last week of June and 2 months later I'm riding 17-20 miles a day, 5 days a week (and getting faster/more consistent in pace every time I ride).
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    The human body is an AMAZING thing. I'm reminded of that often.

    Most recent example: when I got started 'again' in mid June, walking a 3.5 mph pace on the treadmill felt like WORK. I had been running 10ks and running/walking 1-2 half marathons a year. Now I'm doing ~30 minutes in the morning and 30-35 at lunch around 3.7-4.0 mph. And today's lunch walk: I felt good and really strong.

    My original example: I was in a car accident January of 2003 which resulted in two broken legs. This happened early on a Sunday morning. They inserted titanium rods in both legs (knee to ankle in each, and hip to knee in one), no casts. 5 days later, on a Friday they had me get out of bed. Granted it was next to nothing and involved me standing up for a few seconds with a walker. Two weeks of in-hospital physical therapy started the next day. I was able to (slowly!) climb stairs when released 19 days after my accident. And in mid March, I made my sister cry before her wedding when I surprised her by walking into the church (with a cane, and again slowly).
  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,135 Member
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    When I started the C25K program in March and finished it early May. Went from not being able to run at all (60 second intervals) to running for 35+ minutes straight! That's when I knew I was getting fit...
  • threewins
    threewins Posts: 1,455 Member
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    I noticed my fitness improved after about 2-3 hours of exercise (broken up into different days). Initially my average speed for a run dropped as I got tired quickly but within 2-3 hours it was back to what it was at the first session. Initially I would run out of puff which was the limiting factor, but after my lungs improved their efficiency it was time for my legs to turn to jelly. That went away once my daily runs reached about 15 minutes. After that it's a very slow process of extending my run speed and duration, over months or years.
  • Shortgirlrunning
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
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    It’s always improving. I can see differences in my running month to month. I started seriously running again in May. Running 3-4 miles with an average pace of 11:34 per mile.

    This month I’m completing a half-marathon next week. My short runs during the week are 5 miles and my average pace is 10:12 per mile.

    After the half I’m going to cut back on the running and incorporate more barre classes and I’m excited to see how I improve in that area of fitness over time as well.

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