Cardio endurance and other benefits!

[dwarfcat]

Ill start with a quick story as I always tend to do.
Jan 1st
age 28
weight 390+
pack a day smoker
I started off the year ghastly out of shape and feeling as low as Ive ever felt in life. I lived to eat and life felt like one big chore. Nothing in life was easy, even sex was a difficult chore. The gf and I sat down and made some big plans. We hired a personal trainer, stopped eating out and hit the gym 5 days a week. We were religious about this and by the second week in July I was down to 306 lbs. Through all of this I continued to smoke like a freight train. Well, after vacation and as life usually goes we stopped being as strict with our diet and stopped going to the gym except on days we met with our trainer. Today, Nov 12 I woke up got on the scale and about puked. Looking back at me was 330. Terror filled my soul as I felt control slipping away. The only good thing Ive done over the last 2-3 months was stopped smoking. So I threw on my gym clothes and off I went. I got on the cross trainer, set it up to the same time and levels i was doing months ago at 306 an prepared for the worst. Much to my surprise things were different! I went for an hour on level 10 of the hills program and burned an estimated 1010 calories. I did the exact same I did months ago and 30 lbs ago but I wasn't winded and exhausted. Previously it looked like a moat of sweat around my machine after 1 hour. Today not a single drop! I feel amazing and for the first time feel like I can fully get everything in life going the right direction at once. I cant wait to see how amazing I feel when i get this damn 30lbs back off. Sex is amazing now (tmi). I just wanted to share my experience here as it is truly night and day difference. vape on my friends!

 

[Snickerfritz]

Great job, keep up the training for sure! I've been struggling to get down to somewhere around the 200 lbs mark for several months now, so I kind of know how it is. The weight comes off hard, but goes back on so easily. Just remember, nothing tastes as good as fit feels.

 

[Chas F.]

Congrats on the progress! Weight gain is insidious as well as the symptoms of it. Like you I saw something I didn't like and decided to change it. During my progression I noticed small things that bothered me, not being able to run for prolonged periods of time, heavy sweating and getting out of breath during minimal bouts of exercise. I quit smoking in Aug and continued to lose weight and increased cardio health is definitely a boon! Keep on Keeping on!

 

[dwarfcat]

Congrats on the progress! Weight gain is insidious as well as the symptoms of it. Like you I saw something I didn't like and decided to change it. During my progression I noticed small things that bothered me, not being able to run for prolonged periods of time, heavy sweating and getting out of breath during minimal bouts of exercise. I quit smoking in Aug and continued to lose weight and increased cardio health is definitely a boon! Keep on Keeping on!

It slowly eats at your soul and clouds your brain. The more you gain the worse you feel and the worse you feel the less you want to work out then the less you work out the fatter you get and the worse you feel. It just compounds infinity until you are just at a loss of how you got to where you are. Sitting here at work I feel 10 times less clouded and more ready to face the day from just getting over myself and forcing myself back into the gym

 

[riseabovethestorm]

It only gets better.

I train with an MMA gym in Kalkaska, Michigan. When I first started training, I was also a pack a day smoker. I started vaping and completely went off analogs. When I began, I couldn't run for a minute at 5MPH before needing to stop because I felt like I was dying. Now, 4 months later, I'm running 10 minutes on treadmill at 7.5MPH going to 9MPH for the final three minutes. I'm not entirely attributing it to switching from vaping, I credit it to an increase in general, overall fitness. That being said, I would never have been able to reach that level of fitness had it not been for giving up analogs. In a nutshell: Congratulations on your improvement and I completely agree with and understand exactly how it feels. :]

 

[Jay-dub]

Good read. Thanks for sharing!

 

[dwarfcat]

It only gets better.

I train with an MMA gym in Kalkaska, Michigan. When I first started training, I was also a pack a day smoker. I started vaping and completely went off analogs. When I began, I couldn't run for a minute at 5MPH before needing to stop because I felt like I was dying. Now, 4 months later, I'm running 10 minutes on treadmill at 7.5MPH going to 9MPH for the final three minutes. I'm not entirely attributing it to switching from vaping, I credit it to an increase in general, overall fitness. That being said, I would never have been able to reach that level of fitness had it not been for giving up analogs. In a nutshell: Congratulations on your improvement and I completely agree with and understand exactly how it feels. :]

Is there such thing as recreational MMA training? I dont have the desire or mental fortitude to step into the octagon and really fight but ive considered doing some MMA or martial arts training just for exercise and to maybe gain some skills if im ever mugged in a dark alley. I dont have a ton of time to commit but something like a few hours on a Sat morning a few times a month would be awesome. Do people do this or is it an all or nothing type of thing?

 

[riseabovethestorm]

Is there such thing as recreational MMA training? I dont have the desire or mental fortitude to step into the octagon and really fight but ive considered doing some MMA or martial arts training just for exercise and to maybe gain some skills if im ever mugged in a dark alley. I dont have a ton of time to commit but something like a few hours on a Sat morning a few times a month would be awesome. Do people do this or is it an all or nothing type of thing?

There absolutely is! Our gym in particular welcomes anyone that wants to be dedicated enough to train. Our competition team only has 4 guys on it (myself included) but the team itself is a bit bigger than that. I'd say you're welcome to come out and do some training (if you find yourself this far north, you are anyway), but with the distance, it'd be impractical. But yes. My suggestion would be to find a gym that charges very little, per-session or free (our gym is free. We have a sponsorship agreement with the place we train at). It's the best thing I've ever, EVER done from a fitness standpoint. If you ever come up to check out training or come to a fight, let me know! We'll have a vape.

 

[dwarfcat]

There absolutely is! Our gym in particular welcomes anyone that wants to be dedicated enough to train. Our competition team only has 4 guys on it (myself included) but the team itself is a bit bigger than that. I'd say you're welcome to come out and do some training (if you find yourself this far north, you are anyway), but with the distance, it'd be impractical. But yes. My suggestion would be to find a gym that charges very little, per-session or free (our gym is free. We have a sponsorship agreement with the place we train at). It's the best thing I've ever, EVER done from a fitness standpoint. If you ever come up to check out training or come to a fight, let me know! We'll have a vape.

Sweet, thanks for the info. It will likely be spring before we make any sort of northerly trips but that would be cool to check out a fight and see what you guys do. Ill def keep that in mind and in the mean time do a little research around here and see what we have. Who knows my tune might change when I get to 250 and look all diesel, might be ready to step up and get my ... beat somewhere =)

 

[riseabovethestorm]

250 is a weird catchweight. If you're going to do that, go to 265. 205-265 in most promotions is their heavyweight division. Some promotions have Cruiserweight divisions (I think Cruiserweight under the URMMA is 205-235).

 

[hookem horns]

Good for you! What a great story!