Increasing my fitness. any tips?

[Edward]

I've been searching the site for some good ways to increase my fitness (haven't come up with much), i've been training 6 times a week for the past 2 months (3 days weights (Max-OT) 3days cardio) i have noticed my fitness increase slightly but not that much. I want to be able to run 10mins fine, at the moment its 5mins, so i want to double what i can do now. My Cardio day consists of

10min Run on the treadmil (decreasing the intensity after 5 'cos im knackered)
10min bike ride (i can do that fine)
10min step machine (i can do that fine)
1000m on the rowing machine.

Is this a good enough workout to increase my fitness

Cheers
Ed

[threenorns]

really, your best bet is to stick with one machine and keep pushing your time. ie, the first week, you just do five minutes of running. the next week, you do six minutes, or even just 5:30, or 5:15 - as long as it's longer. the next week, add another block of time, and so on.

also, what's your diet like? if you've cut calories back a lot, you likely won't improve at a rapid rate.

you don't smoke, do you?

[Edward]

Originally Posted by threenorns

really, your best bet is to stick with one machine and keep pushing your time. ie, the first week, you just do five minutes of running. the next week, you do six minutes, or even just 5:30, or 5:15 - as long as it's longer. the next week, add another block of time, and so on.

also, what's your diet like? if you've cut calories back a lot, you likely won't improve at a rapid rate.

you don't smoke, do you?

Again thanks Threenorns for your help. Would it be a good idea to increase the speed aswell? or keep that steady? Plus the main reason i am doing cardio is to loose weight. and no i don't smoke .

Edit: Should i mainly concentrate on one machine?

My diet main;y consists of:

Morning: Eggs
Snack Piece of Fruit and half a sandwich
Lunch Piece of Fruit and half a sandwich
Dinner:Pastas/rice/chicken/stir frys

[threenorns]

... what quantities are those you're eating? just from what you've put there, you're *totally* not eating enough for lunch and snack and i'll bet dollars to doughnuts not enough for dinner and brekkie as well. lemme guess: total calories somewhere around 1600?

yes, each time, stick to one machine - ie, elliptical on monday, treadmill on tuesday, etc. work on the time first, don't worry about the speed. once you can maintain an easy jog for a solid 20 minutes, then you can start upping the intensity to more of an HIIT thing (this will not only increase your cardiovascular endurance, but is the most effective way to burn fat).

[budhicks1]

You should definitely lift weights. Try a circuit training program. It will especially help.

[CF-OC_gal]

If you've gone from doing little or nothing in the way of structured training to the 6 days a week you talked of then I would say that in 2 months you are not going to see a huge change yet, but do keep at it. That is a good plan IMHO.

Your questions about how to reach your cardio goal of 10 minutes non-stop (if I understand you correctly) makes me think that you have not defined your goal thoroughly enough.

so you want to run for 10 minutes... how far, at what speed? Then get out there and train doing the motions you will do for your goal test. In other words train by running if that is what you want to achieve. Take it in small increments as has been suggested. One of the popular running boutiques teaches conditioning by increasing the running interval by one minute each week and keeping the walking interval at 1 minute.
Each week they train 3x at that rate with the goal of doing a 5K in 20 minutes of straight running.

[midgetcop]

When I first started cardio I was a *very* inexperienced runner, and a former smoker. What I initially did to train for cardio was to stick with the treadmill and try and keep running a little longer each time at the same speed.

Once you've made some gains in your endurance, you can always try and increase your speed for a given time frame, or add some inclines into the run. Eventually you can get off the treadmill and onto a track or road, which is far more challenging.

But if you want to track your cardio progress you have to form a basic plan for how you want to go about it. i.e. this is what I'm going to do this week, and next week I'm going to do the same but improve slightly on the time/speed.

[Edward]

threenorns:
sorry i wasn't specific enough about my diet:

breakfast: Slices of plain brown bread and scrambled egg (2 eggs)
Snack: Banana, apple or orange half a snawich (peenut butter, ham or cheese)
Lunch: banana, apple or orange and the other half of the sanwich
Dinner: Rices/Pastas/stir frys/ always meat based though.

I think i eat enough for breakfast and dinner, i always feel full and as a family we are big eaters. maybe i should increase my lunch and snack quantities, by how much and what?

cardio line up:

Monday: Treadmil (i always run on a 7% incline)
Wednesday: Steps
Friday: Bike

how long should my session on each machine be though. I understand that i should push myself alittle longer each week but do i just do my warm up do my 5mins run and warm down, or should i break it up into sections like run for 5mins, decrease the speed till my breaths back and then for another 5mins etc etc?

Thanks
Ed

[threenorns]

how tall are you, what is your waist size, and how much do you weigh?

[Edward]

I'm 5 9" waist size is about 36 and i weigh 189lb

Ed

[threenorns]

oops - sorry - what's your age and height, as well? (thought that was in your first post)

[Edward]

height 5 9" and i'm 16

Ed

[threenorns]

okay, so basically, you're a growing teen who exercises at least five days a week. that means you need calories to run your body systems (breathing, pulse, thinking, digestion, elimination, immune system functioning - these all require nutrients), calories for basic movements (blinking, walking around, sitting upright in class, etc), and calories for active movement (cardio, weight-lifting, sports, gym class, etc).

by my calculation, you're eating a scrambled egg sandwich for breakfast (238 cals, 9g fat, 27g carbs, 11 g protein), about another 250cals each for snack and lunch (unless that's a sub-type sandwich you're splitting and not a regular sliced bread one), and MAYBE about 600 cals for dinner. total: less than 1600 like i said and most of them at night before you go to sleep, not in the morning before an active day.

NOT ENOUGH.

how much work would you get out of a horse if you only gave it half the food it needed? not much. if you need to drive your car 100 miles, why would you put only 50 miles worth of gas in the tank?

you need to eat a balanced diet - fruits and veg, dairy, eggs and other sources of protein, and whole grains like brown rice. if you don't eat enough, your fitness cannot improve - the horse drops dead, the car stalls in the middle of the highway, you don't reach your full adult height potential.

the first thing you do is rework your diet so you have LOTS of energy to get done what needs to get done. start with 2000 calories a day - at that rate, you should be able to lose about a pound to a pound and a half of fat a week while growing and strengthening muscle and cardiac tissues and improving your lung functioning.

you might want to try a moderate carb diet: 25% protein/50% carb/25% fat. this should give you all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients your body needs as a growing teenager, while providing enough protein to build new muscle and get that metabolism back up where it belongs.

if you eat six times a day, that's a small meal about every two to three hours - each meal should be about 21g protein, 42g carbs, 9g fat; or about 83 cals each fat and protein, 167 cals carbs. these seem like small meals, but you're just getting hungry when already it's time to eat again. if you like more substantial feeds, you can go five meals or four, but not three - that's leaving it too long between meals and your blood sugar drops too low. that means your body will be more likely to have a huge insulin response when you do eat, you'll be more likely to eat more than your body needs at the moment, and more calories will be packed away as excess.

follow this diet for four weeks and gradually increase the time you spend on the cardio machines at one shot: you should experience a slow reduction in body fat, an improvement in your endurance, have more energy throughout the day, and find it easier to concentrate in school.

[Edward]

Thanks alot 3norns your a life saver!

so for my breakfast i need to increse my protein and carb intake (an extra piece of toast and maybe some cottage cheese?). for a snack would it be good to eat something like a peenut butter sandwich or a ham sandwich? Lunch another sandwich and maybe some fruit? and for dinner i'll workout that out when i know what it is

my only main concern now is the length of my cardio workout. how long should my session on each machine be. I understand that i should push myself alittle longer each week but do i just do my warm up do my 5mins run and warm down, or should i break it up into sections like run for 5mins, decrease the speed till my breaths back and then for another 5mins etc etc?

sorry if this getting a bit irritating 3norns!
Ed

[threenorns]

not in the slightest - if it was irritating, i'd not be here, lol.

for each meal, have some of each: fruit, veg, starchy carb (bread, potato, rice, cereal, etc), and protein (dairy, eggs, meat, fish, chicken, legumes, etc). you can use www.fitday.com to keep it all organized.

as for the cardio, don't angst on the speed - work on getting the time where you want it. f.ex, build up as fast as you're comfortable with to 20 minutes. once you can do 20 minutes straight, THEN start pushing the intensity - go faster for a bit, then slow down and catch your breath. go faster, then slow down. even if you can only go fast for one minute and need four minutes to recoup, that's fine. the point is to add a *little* bit every day or every week in whatever fashion you find works the best.