Ive been toying with the idea of getting back into shape after a lengthy depression. Any ideas to starting (or in my case, restarting) to workout?
I know a fair bit about training (mostly from getting and keeping myself fit for work for most of my life: I've played rugby and boxed at regimental level and ran marathons for the army); PM if you want to ask anything or need advice.
Basic points:
You will achieve your objectives far better, unless you're incredibly well-motivated, if you have a specific goal
for which you can measure progress, and which have deadlines. For example, 'I want to lose weight and get fitter' isn't good, because you don't know when you're halfway there or a third of the way or whatever. So say 'I want to lose a stone in three months' or 'By June, I want to be running six miles in an hour'. The reason for this is that if you set deadlines, it means you're far less likely to procrastinate because you can't just add that lost day on another time; it's gone. What you will then do is make a chart and put it on your wall so that you can measure your progress over time, which will give a psychological boost - you don't feel you're improving much if you knock ten seconds per week off your mile-and-a-half, until you look back six weeks.
You can't do anything in little time with little effort, no matter how you train. A serious training programme should in my opinion last between six weeks (a runner preparing for a race) and a year (a first-timer preparing for a marathon) - any shorter and you won't be able to make the gains, any longer and you'll lose sight especially if the time period crosses a psychological milestone such as a new year or a period of leave - mentally, this will make it seem much longer. When you see how bodybuilders or celebrities acheived magnificent results in short time, remember how dedicated they are and how much money and free time they have - if I spent my working week in the gym, I'd probably look like Arnie before too long. Guess how long you think it will take you, and add on a little.
To lose weight, you need to use more energy than you take in, and to gain it you need to do the opposite. All diets and other 'celebrity miracle solutions' are based around this. The upshot of that is that you need to eat sensibly for what you are doing - in general, high protein, low sugar and low fat for a man, with carbohydrate intake to suit your weight goals (3000 Calories is normal, a runner in training eats 6000 and doesn't gain weight). It also means that all those expensive supplements are a waste of time - good diet and good training will see you through far better.
Fitness divides into Cardio-Vascular endurance, strength, power, muscular endurance and agility. CVE is your heart's ability to pump blood and your lungs' ability to oxegenate said blood; it's used for long-term PT such as running, cycling or swimming at a moderate pace and is trained basically by practising. Weight training will get you the next three - I could write a book on that, see the next point. Strength is the maximum weight that a given muscle can lift, power is strength transmitted at speed (therefore: you need strength to generate power) which includes throwing and sprinting, and muscular endurance is your body's ability to tolerate lactic acid and do anaerobic exercise for a long period of time - press-ups and sit ups test and train this for most people.
With regard to weight training, it will help you generate power, strength, ME (although it's not essential for this) and of course muscle mass. You split an exercise down into sets and reps; one rep is one full movement with the weight and one set is a number of these. By the time you have finished all of your sets, that muscles you have worked should be very tired and you may well be unable to do another rep - that's what you want. In general, train power with 1 set of up to 5 reps, strength with 2-3 sets of up to 5, endurance with 2-3 sets of 12-20, and build mass with 3 sets of 10-12. Obviously, vary the weight for each one to acheive the desired effect.
Finally: Take two days off per week, but not consecutively. Listen to your body - never train on an injury. Don't give up. A basic mantra is that anything works and nothing works for long - keep it varied and keep at it and you'll do fine. Good luck!
thx again
