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Hello, so past couple months I've been focussing on losing weight the last couple weeks I've been working out everyday but I don't know if I am making progress or just breaking a sweat. My daily routine the first few days was walking/jogging/running 2 miles then working out in my basement including benching 3 sets of 5 reps and 50 crunches then a mix of leg curls and or leg extensions, 3 sets of 10 reps squats or boxing. Now around two weeks in I'm running/jogging/walking 3-4 miles benching 3 sets of 5 reps , squating 4 sets of 10 reps and then some mix of the others.
I've been ablw to increase the weight a bit but I am limited to the exercises I can do as I only have a parabody bench setup and a heavy end bag. I'm currently intimidated by gyms and just more comfortable working out at home currently.
The last couple days I have been more tired during my runs and experiencing pain in my calves, ankles, and shens. I used to see gradualy improvement and could walk at a 4.1 on a treadmill then run in spurts of 10.0 for the last 1/4 lap of each mile or last 1/2 lap of each mile at 7.0. Then i could run a full mile at 5.5 non stop but now i'm slightly struggling to walk at a 4.1 so I go down to a 3.0 or 3 5 when I must and run in spurst more around 5.5 or 6.5. Because of this i have not done leg extensions in my workouts.
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If you won't got a gym, do some research on bodyweight exercises or calisthenics so you're doing something that's more well-rounded than just squats, bench presses, and leg extension/curls. Particularly if you're not My advise getting older is don't neglect the core. Otherwise just spend some time on the internet. Workouts are like ***holes. Everyone has one and theirs is often the best. It's not. It's a process of trial and error and figuring things out.
Running/walking, sounds mostly like over training. If you're an advanced runner, sure, you can run every day. The majority of runners, particularly ones that aren't slow, do not run every day. If you're struggling to run one mile at a slow pace, you're just not an advanced runner. You're very, very new. Train like someone who is very new. If you've got over use injuries to the point you can't walk without pain that's lingering for several days (as opposed to just being sore for a day or two after a run), you need to stop and recover. Stick to taking a walk around the neighborhood or at an easy pace if you must do something until you can walk without discomfort.
I don't know what a lap is on a treadmill or what a 4 or 7 or 10 are. Generally, a treadmill will report something that it purports to be a speed. So a 10 would be 10 mph. Cheap consumer treadmills aren't known for speed or distance being particularly accurate, however. Regardless that's actually quite fast for a new runner. A lap if I had to guess would be a mile. A new runner doing 6:00 minute/mile splits for 1/4 mile is, A, pretty impressive and, B, not necessarily a good idea. Maybe if you weren't a runner but were an athlete in general it would be smart. For someone coming off the couch though that kind of interval training is a terrible idea. If you've been doing that every day I'm and are coming off the couch, yeah, I'm not surprised at all.
I'd look at either None to Run or Couch 2 5K. I prefer None to Run but you should use either as a very rough guide. It's not something you linearly follow form Week 1 to Week 12. Some people will get stuck at Week 1 for a month. Others will go that's way too easy and jump in at Week 5 and skip weeks and be through Week 12 in a month.
It sounds like you need a rest. Take a week; walking might be okay, but not too far and not too fast. Some stretching and yoga may be beneficial to keep your body moving. After that-- do you feel like you are making gains? Your goal is to lift to failure (whether it's fewer reps with more weight or more reps with less weight); however, this is not safe for some lifts if you don't have a spotter (namely the bench presses, but if your squats are not in a rack that would protect you if you were to fail, then these, too). However, you can do the best you can. I can usually tell when I'm going to fail on the next rep and I simply try to get close but stop before I get there.
Do you do any sort of "pulling" exercises (pullups, chinups, rows of some type, etc. to counter the pushing motion of the bench press)? Do you do deadlifts or pushups?
I hope you are focusing on your form, and putting your form before the number of reps or amount of weight you are lifting. And yes, proper squat and bench press form will include support from your abs, though separate core work is never amiss.
Definitely focusing on form, the bench I have has safety arms as well as the typical rack so I'm relatively fine without a spotter but as you said I go to a point where I start to feel like I'm going to fail then stop to be safe. I don't have a proper pulling exercise yet but I'm working on that. Fairly soon I'll have a far more diverse setup for a variety of exercises. I do plan on adding more core exercises as my only core work is situps, crunches, and the little benefit from boxing/kickboxing.
Looked into the none to run program and thought it would feel too much like going backwards so I tried walking briskly for 2 minutes then running at a casual pace for 1 minute and did so for 4 miles with lil to no problem. I've also increased my stretching and icing my legs if the pain increases then I will definitely stop for a bit but this was feeling a lot better.
I would lose motivation if I did the same workout routine and activities every week. Try mixing it up with some walks, laps in the pool or tai chi to balance strength with flexibility, aerobic activity and balance.
I try to mix up some of the workouts I do each day but I try to keep bench press, sit ups, squats, and now floor assisted pull ups everyday. I also often take my dog for a walk. Besides my heavy bag I have an assortment of speed, maize, ground, double end bags etc I try to encorporate some of the old Aikido, BJJ, and boxing drills I used to do when I was heavily into those.
I plan on getting a bowflex system to encorporate more specific areas of the body later on. I don't have easy acess to a pool currently but that would probably be a good adition.
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