So now that I am officially back on campus again I have full use of our beautiful workout facilities. The problem is between grad work, being a grad assistant, and working two other jobs on top of all that I have no time to actually get to the gym, much less to make a regiment out of it.
My question is this: if I can only get to the gym and run around the track for an hour let’s say…2 times in a 7 day week, is that short amount of running even helping me at all? Keep in mind too that these days wouldn’t really be consistent either. The gym also has a rock wall so pretending I do that once or so as well.
I just feel that unless I’m actually going three times a week for an hour or two and actually doing something consistently that it wouldn’t even make a difference to my body. Any excersize fans out there to help me?
Basically the way i understand it is that if you push your body to the point that you are sore/very tired your body will try and compensate by gaining muscles in those areas so that it becomes less work next time.
Going from nothing to jogging for an hour two times a week is going to initially build up muscle very fast, but you will shortly plateau unless you begin adding more effort and time.
Of course it is worth it, even if you can only go once a week. Will you be ready for a marathon? No, but when the day comes that you DO have time to exercise you will be more fit than you would have otherwise been.
Two times is better than none but 3-4 would be ideal. If you just go twice a week the conditioning will often backslide before your next time. It all depends on what shape you’re in to start with and what your fitness goals are.
Can you really run for an hour at a time? What kind of distance are you covering in that time? And if you’re in a gym you must be running on like a 1/10 mile track. If the only thing you’re using the gym for is running, maybe save some money and run outside. The scenery’s better
OTOH running is good for endurance and aerobic conditioning but it would be good to do something else at the gym in addition to running. Maybe run 30 minutes, weight training 30 minutes.
And btw, you can get in some meaningful exercise without going to the gym! Seriously, just doing a few sets of burpee intervals at home for ten to fifteen minutes, maybe followed by some sit-ups, added in once or twice a week on top of what your are planning, will do a fair amount. Walk briskly to and fro on campus, even jog it sometimes a little. Take the stairs … You get the point.
Yep… It’s easy to drop and do 20 pushups between putting the burgers on the grill and taking that first sip of beer. Definitely easier than after the 45th sip of beer which is about when the burgers are done.
