Page 21 - April-June 2024 Edition

depleted your body starts to store more. Very soon your body is forced to break down fat into
sugar to replace and increase the glycogen stores. You initially burn through your blood sugar
very quickly and if there’s not enough oxygen getting into the muscle you build up lactic acid.
The metabolic pathways to deal with lactic acid are underused and immature but with regular
exercise they start to improve. You increase the use of muscles and that stimulates new muscle,
new blood vessels and new metabolic pathways. This all takes time: new muscle, stronger
bones, stronger ligaments and tendons and wider arteries slowly happens over months and
years. Rushing it simply causes lactic acid damage to tissues, chronic inflammation, over
stretched muscles and strained ligaments that take months to heal. Start where you are. If you
walk then start by walking. If you walk from the car park to the office or the bus stop, or round
the supermarket then do the same as usual, but every morning put on your trainers and walk
the same distance. Slowly! Then repeat in the evening. You might think you can run 5 km: I sure
you can but you will feel so sore for a week you will have run 5 km once, then limped for 5
days.
Dick and Rosie Stockley
Walk for 10 minutes every morning and evening at your usual pace and after 3 days you have
|Health Feature walked an hour. You might think it’s a waste of time putting on trainers to walk slowly for 10
minutes but you’re training your mind too. It becomes a habit to put on your trainers and
BY DICK STOCKLEY exercise twice a day.
So, start with slow walking, 5 minutes out, 5 minutes back. if that doesn’t make you tired, no pain
at all, no stiffness; and only if it’s so easy your body doesn’t protest at all, then and only then,
GETTING FIT WITHOUT GETTING HURT you can start to increase. Walk faster for 5 minutes out and back which increases the distance.
If after 2 days still no twinge, then walk out the same distance i.e. 5 minutes, and jog very slowly
back. Jogging uses some of the same muscles as walking but stretches some new ones. So
slowly. Don’t increase the speed until you have done 2 days without a twinge. What’s
Everyone goes through phases of wanting to get in shape, get fit, lose weight, climb Rwenzori or happened? You’ve walked and jogged 140 minutes in a week. Second week jog very slowly 5
run a marathon. There’s a huge market in fitness: from what to eat, what not to eat, what pills to minutes, stop, turn around, walk a minute then jog home. Do it again in the evening. If next day
swallow, which supplements to take, what exercise regime to follow, what gym to join what you feel a twinge, or stiff, go back to the fast walk out, jog home. You’re increasing your
trainers to buy. You’ll certainly lose pounds: and dollars, euros and shillings. In UK you can’t walk glycogen stores, you’re stimulating the metabolic pathways that clear up lactic acid, you’re no
into a shop to buy trainers without seeing wall to wall adverts for supplements, protein drinks, longer burning plasma proteins as an emergency fuel, you will be turning fat into glucose into
whey, and diagrams of the molecular structure of the heels of the trainers guaranteed to make glycogen all night to replace and increase the glycogen stores. You don’t see it, don’t feel it,
you run faster without injury. And you’ve guessed it: the only comment I’m going to make about but you’re getting fit. If you’re twinge free, after 2 days start jogging 10 minutes out 10 minutes
shoes is who repairs them. Cobblers. Maybe the elite athletes need personal trainers, extreme home. Slowly. Exercise must be balanced. Jogging actually exercises arms, abs, spine, pretty
diets, exercise plans and the latest protein drinks: the one they get paid to advertise. There is much every muscle in the body. So, in the second week start doing sit ups. Very few very slow.
one certainty. They all disagree, which is why a new must-read book comes out every year. Any twinge Stop. Try press-ups. If you can’t then do standing press-ups in the shower. Stand arms
length from the wall and put your hands on the wall, lean in until your face and chest hit the
I’m 70. Before Covid I ran to work twice a week and cycled twice a week. The reason was the wall then push back to standing. Do it 5 times. If it doesn’t hurt next day try 10. If it’s easy after 3
traffic was so awful I couldn’t stand it any longer and I got to work tired, sweaty and feeling days try proper press-ups. After 2 weeks what you do depends on your aim. If you want a six
frustrated. Running and cycling I got to work tired, sweaty and feeling wonderfully self righteous, pack and a bikini bod then carry on with the 20 minutes jog twice a day but concentrate on
passing all those cars stationary at the junctions. Then along came Covid and we were told the sit ups and press-ups. Always do less than you can but do it often. If you want to do a
running on the streets was attempted murder. I cycled 4 days instead. Now I’m retired living in triathlon start swimming and cycling, if a marathon is on your bucket list then work up to 10
the Kalahari and I know what it’s like to struggle to get back into shape. Slogging through soft press-ups 10 sit ups a day but concentrate on the running. The principal is the same. Do a lot
less than you can but do it often.
sand certainly makes me tired and sweaty but no good feeling, self righteous or otherwise. So
how to get back into shape without pulling a muscle, feeling exhausted, getting knackered SO, LET’S ASSUME YOU WANT TO RUN A MARATHON IN JUNE
going nowhere and giving up after a week? Week 3. If you’re now running 20 minutes twice a day without any pressure, you can drop one
of your runs and increase the distance. Do not try and increase speed. Jog very slowly with
RULE NUMBER 1 short steps. You’re trying to make new muscle, new arterioles, widen the arteries, burn fat. If you
No pain no gain is silly and dangerous. It might work for pros but not for Mrs. average who wants start to stretch out and run hard you are going to pull something, stretch something, tear
to run a marathon in 3 months. Pain means injury means stop. What’s your aim? Whatever it is, something and you’re out for a month. If you’re getting twinges and stiffness then go back a
take your time getting there. Start with doing a lot less than you think you can and doing it step, and slowly work back up until you are getting into an easy routine of slowly jogging 20
often. There’s a lot that happens when you exercise. The body runs on blood sugar, which is minutes twice a day. You should not be running any further than 2 or 2.5 km each time but you
replenished from the glycogen stored in the muscles and liver. If those stores are constantly
19