Starting Slow II: The Son of Slow

by Dave Klecha

I know, it sounds weird, doesn’t it? You would think that a good fitness program would be pedal-to-the-metal, anatomy-to-the-wall, all out craziness. At least, that’s what the in shape people always look like they’re doing when they’re out training. Living in the gym, running 40 miles a week, all that stuff.

My future sister-in-law is a marathon runner. About two months ago, she decided she would run the half-Ironman triathalon down in Benton Harbor, Michigan. So, she started swimming, bought an $1800 racing bike, and finished in the middle of the pack. She picked it up, went all out, and now, unless I miss my guess, she’s got her sights set on the full Ironman they run in Hawaii every year.

But, she’s been running all her life. My brother, her boyfriend, has just been in shape all his life. He can decide he wants to run a 10k race with her in a month or two, and he just trains a bit and does it.

As for the rest of us…

I feel like I need to ease into things, most of the time. If I quit doing something like, say, drinking pop, I’m way more likely to go right back to it, drinking even more than I did before I quit. BUT, when I cut back I tend to stay cut back, and so I cut back and cut back and eventually I’ve cut back to nothing.

And so with exercise. With habits, as described above, I need to start working at it slowly. A couple days a week, a manageable goal. But, when it comes to exercise, your body also needs to start slowly. Not only is attempting to run 3 miles at a time, 3 times a week a tough habit to get into, it’s hard on your body and can lead to injury, as I mentioned before.

The same applies to bodyweight exercises and calisthenics. The Marines start slow in Boot Camp, to the point of testing recruits at one level of fitness when they first enter, and testing them at another before they leave. If the recruits fail either test, they’re sent to a remedial physical training unit until they can pass. Through out Boot Camp, then, the training continues to ramp up slowly, easing recruits into the intensity of physical training that they’ll be tested on later, and all without a weight room.

The Michigan State Police, in advising applicants to their Academy, suggest the following training regimen (paraphrased, not quoted):

Start by determining your maximum repetitions for a particular exercise. You can either do this as a timed event (# of push-ups in a minute, for example) or as the number of repetitions you can perform without a break. Either way, you take this number and use it as your goal for the first week of working out, performing the work-out three times a week. The following several weeks, you add a modest number of repetitions, two to four, each week. After six or eight weeks, retest your maximum repetitions and start fresh. You may be surprised to find that your new maximum is often higher than your total goal for the most recent week.

For an even more gradual (and thus lower negative impact) progression, spread your increases in repetitions out to two weeks.

Next time: MacGyvering your own work-out equipment.