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I've been getting a few pms and e-mails from you li'l civvies, FNG's and Cherries, asking advice about how to deal with Shin Splints, Blisters and how to improve your PT. (Hence the title. See how this flows?) So, in the interest of, well, me, really, I've stuck most of it here.
SHIN SPLINTS
I live with shin splints. Always will. No reason you should, though. (Unless you want to be the incredibly hard, good-looking, and macho he-man that I am.) Shin splints is the name given to pain experienced at the front of the lower leg. The most common cause is inflammation of the periostium of the tibia. (Yeah, I can pronounce it, screw you!) Your tibia is the front bone in your lower leg (Your 'shin bone.' Which is connected to...) The periostium is the muscular sheath that surrounds that bone. The injury comes from overuse of that muscle, and can be caused by running on hard surfaces, running up the toes or "ball" of your foot or by an activity where a lot of jumping is involved. If you "over pronate" then you are also more susceptible to this injury. Over pronation is a common problem that is caused by too great an angle of medial (middle of body) roll of one or both your feet. Your foot rolls inward putting undue stress on the knee and hip and can cause them to become misaligned. Good running shoes will correct most over pronation problems but you may need to have orthotic devices designed for your shoes. This is actually a lot more common than we've realized in the past, and is especially prevalent amongst athletes, so you non-infantry types that suffer from the sort of delusion that marathons are fun may want to listen up here.
Symptoms of shin splints usually include :
-Tenderness over the inside of the shin
-Lower leg pain.
-Occasionally, edema (swelling) will be present.
-Lumps/bumps/nodules over the bony prominence of the shin (the front of your lower leg).
-Pain when you move your toes or foot bending them in a downward position.
-A redness over the inside of the shin.
What can I do about it?
-Rest them.
-Apply ice in early stages. RICE is the doctor approved method for recovery. RICE works (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation). Ice your shins for a couple minutes every night and elevate them above your heart while watching TV or sleeping.
-Get better fitting shoes or orthotic inserts. Age does matter, just not your age. When's the last time you bought a pair of running shoes? And I do mean running shoes. Not cross trainers, not basketball shoes, RUNNING shoes. If they're over 6 months old, you're probably due for a new pair. Oh, and despite what your girlfriend tells you, SIZE matters. When you buy the running shoes, make sure they're the right size. Don't measure size with a Brannock Device (the metal measuring device at shoe stores). You must go off of feel, not written size. Different manufacturers have different standards for size. Remember, your feet expand from the pounding when you run, so you need the size to accommodate for it. The rule of thumb is to keep trying on bigger and bigger sizes until the shoes feel like clown feet, then go back down a 1/2 size and you have the correct size. Trust me it works.
-Utilize other non weight-bearing exercises to strengthen the surrounding musculature.
-Apply heat after the initial acute stage, particularly prior to heavy exercise.
-Take an OTC (over the counter) NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) like Motrin.
-Properly stretch prior to, and especially following, exercise. The best way to stretch your calf is to stand with your toes on a curb or wall, and your heel on the street and lean into it. Another way is to get into a push up position, then, keeping your knees lock straight, walk your hands closer to your feet until your heels almost touch the ground. Hold this for 10-30 seconds and slowly let it out. Repeat.
Now, kneel with your feet together, toes pointed out, and sit on your heels. Hold this for 10-30 seconds and slowly let it out. Repeat.
- Change the surface you're running on. Concrete (side walks) is the hardest and worst for your legs, knees, etc. Asphalt (roads) is a close second. The best is a soft surface like grass or sand. Consider changing your route to a softer area. Or just run along the grass beside the road/sidewalk. Whenever possible, try to find grassy or dirt paths. Not only are they easier on your body, they're usually more visually stimulating.
-Change your cardio routine. You can still do Cardio everyday (or every second day) as you like. Just minimize the impact cardio. Instead of running, get on an elliptical trainer. Take a bike ride once a week. Swim. Anything that lets you get the heart rate up without pounding on your shins until your body has a chance to stretch the calves out again and reduce the swelling in your shins.
The usual full recovery time for this injury is two to four weeks.
From personal experience - don't be a hard *** if ya don't need to be. I got shin splints on the inside of my calves back in Basic. I sucked it up until Basic was over, and I was in Battle School. At that point, I couldn't put any weight on my leg without it feeling like someone was taking a spiked rolling pin to my shin so I went to the UMS. Found out I had stress fractures in my legs and had been running on them for a few months. From what I understand the muscles in your lower leg can get broken down and become so weak that they transfer all the weight onto the bone. I ended up being re-coursed and stuck in Holding Platoon for months. Whenever possible, take a day or two off when ya first get shin splints. It's a lot better than having to take 8 weeks off because you got a broken tibia.
Blisters
You're going to get blisters eventually. There's no easy way out. The best way to prevent them is to keep on marching, in order to form thick callus on your soles and heels. Your feet need to be as tough a saddle leather to do the job. It takes quite a few miles of marching and quite a few blisters to get them that way. Over the long haul, trying to prevent yourself from EVER getting a blister is like arguing with a woman - it doesn't do you any good, and you end up worse off than before.
Blisters come from two contributing factors. Dampness and friction. Minimize (or better, eliminate) friction and moisture and you minimize your chances of blisters.
Moisture comes from external (rain, swamp, etc) and internal (sweat) sources. There are ways to minimize each of those. Unfortunately, sometimes the methods to counter-act the one source, work against you being able to counter-act the second. For example, Gore-Tex socks. Foot powder is your friend. You can never carry enough socks. You cannot change socks often enough. If you're out of foot powder, antiperspirant on the soles of your feet works. It's a tip I learned from an SF medic. I thought he was screwing me around, until I watched him do it. It works. Gold Bond medicated foot powder is still the best bet.
Friction comes from walking (not much you can do about that. Unless you're smart enough to find a job where you weapon caries you, instead of vice versa) and from your foot sliding around in your boot (you CAN do something about that). Wear two pairs of socks. I wear the issued desert sock inside a properly cushioned white sports sock on a particularly nasty-sounding ruck march. Works every time. They cushion, the allow moisture to wick away, and there is less movement as they are snug enough that they don't rub or ball up. Make sure you have boots that FIT. They have to be broken in and fitted to your foot properly.
Training (road marching) toughens your feet to increase your resistance to blisters through calluses. There are tricks to help accelerate the toughening process as well.
You have to be careful with mole skin. The adhesive on the mole skin is not enough to keep the patch on your feet. Mole skin is for AFTER the march. I know some guys who try to wear it before a march. They always pay. I've seen guys use moleskin improperly. It always came off during the march, ended up being a ball of crap in their boot, and actually made their feet worse than if they wouldn't have used it at all.
Do NOT wear band aids! I don't know where this crazy crap came from, but don't do it. Band aids come right off and ball up in your boots, so not only will you have the pounding of the pavement to worry about, but also a balled-up band aid in between the foot and the boot. It won't be a pleasant experience. I promise you.
Some peoples feet react to and take the abuse of the march differently than others. And I've seen experienced troops get blisters. A buddy of mine had his entire sole come right off his foot. Most repulsive thing I've ever seen. All of the callus just sloughed off and took the skin with it. It happens.
Bottom line: Cowboy up. Just powder your feet and put on fresh socks when they give you a break.
PT
I don't claim to be a master anything (maybe baiter), but I can offer a few tips on PT.
Diet: Eat six smaller meals a day, not three big ones. Keep your meals 60% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fats. Don't eat after 20:00 hours. If you must nosh after 8:00 pm, eat popcorn. Drink lots of water. A lot of the time, your body thinks it's hungry, but it's not. It's thirsty. Whenever you think you're hungry, try drinking some water. You may very well find that you're no longer hungry after.
On water: the human body only absorbs .5 litre an hour. Guzzling down a quart isn't gonna do you any good. You're only gonna piss it out, and actually lose hydration. The best method is to keep some water handy and drink it throughout the day. Keep your caffeine intake down. 4 cups of coffee a day, max. Less, if you drink tea and pop as well.
Supplements: Don't go throwing away a lot of cash on supplements. Get a good multi-vitamin; take some anti-oxidants if you like, such as beta-carotene and vitamin C; if you're a guy, take some zinc and magnesium. These two minerals will cause your body to produce more testosterone, up to 40% more. Don't go buying the pro-hormones Androstendiol, Androstendione, etc. These have been shown to actually increase your body's estrogen. To help your body recover faster, you can take creatine monohydrate. This will cause water molecules to bond to your muscle cells more efficiently. You will gain a fast 7-12 pounds in a week, but it's all water retention. However, it can work against you if you're trying to improve your cardio. The extra weight can be a pain in the knees. Also, if you decide to take creatine, drink more water than usual.
Okay, now the physical training part:
Find your resting heart-rate. Now double it for 20 minutes a day. That's all it takes to lose flab. Doubling your resting heart-rate for 20 minutes a day. Are you gonna tell me you don't have 20 minutes in your day?
Don't get hung up on weight. It doesn't matter if you lose weight or gain weight, really. What matters is how much blubber you're packing. That's what's gonna kill ya. The fat on your frame, and the fat in your arteries. Do you really care if you weigh 300 pounds or 30 pounds, if you feel great, and look fab-u-lous?! Of course not. And, once you begin to work out, you're going to gain weight. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue. So don't get your panties in a twist.
Studies show that a weight-training program, combined with a cardio program will cause you to lose the most fat and gain the most muscle, in the shortest time. Gaining muscle is the goal, because it raises the metabolism, even when you're resting. Your body will burn fat tissue to feed the muscle tissue, even while you're sitting on your gluteus maximus stuffing your yappeus maximus.
If you can't find enough time in your day to both work out with weights and do an aerobic workout, sacrifice the run. Studies have proven now that a proper weight resistance workout is almost as effective in improving the cardio-vascular system as a cardio workout. And weight training does more to gain muscular strength, muscle mass (thus raising your metabolism, thus burning fat more efficiently), tendon/ligament strength, bone strength, and flexibility/agility/coordination. Weight training is the better workout. If you plan it properly, you can get just as much aerobic value as anaerobic. (What was that? Some dumbass in the back just say “But I don't wanna get muscle-bound"?) You can't. If you're doing the movements properly, with a full range of motion, you are getting a stretch with every repetition. If you can't get a full range of motion, you're using too much weight. Drop the poundage and concentrate on proper form. Feel the stretch. Lou Ferigno, at 300 pounds, could do the full splits.)
Speaking of stretching, I know some of the old-school types out there have some weird and wonderful stretches that involve a lot of bouncing, or they like to stretch before working out or going for a run. Don't. (Oops! I mean, don't stretch hard. Stretch, but don't strain.) Stretching before a workout is like stretching a cold retainer band. It's gonna tear and snap. Stretch after warming up. Do something active for a couple of minutes, then stretch. But definitely stretch after a workout. Don't bounce when you stretch. Period. Every stretch is a slow movement. Take it to the point of stretching, not to pain. Pain is bad when you stretch. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. For those who simply can't take that much time, at least hold it for 10 seconds. Stretch for at least 10 minutes. It would be better to stretch for a half hour every day. Do it while watching TV.
Ah, the fairer sex, I just heard the delicate bell-like tone of a damsel saying something about not wanting to lift weights because she “doesn't want to look like a man." Sweetheart, you can't. Unless you're some kind of genetic freak, or are taking some serious doses of steroids, you simply cannot put on enough pounds to look like a man. It requires major testosterone to get that “she-male" look that champion female bodybuilders get. Their bodies can't produce that much, so they get it from needles and pills. You won't get that look. If you want to know what you'll most likely look like from a healthy weight training program, see pictures of Rachel McLish. >Drool.< If you want to “tone up" or “firm up" or whatever the heck the new terms are, you wanna lift weights.
Now, on to lifting. Use free weights as much as possible. Machines are great for finishing movements, and isolation exercises. But, to gain strength, you need free weights. And use big, compound movements. These are the ones that strengthen more than one body part. They involve the stabilizer muscles. That's why push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and other body-weight resistance callisthenics are great for strength training. They involve so many muscle groups. The big compound movements are the likes of bench press, squats, dead lifts, bent-over rows, and cleans-and-jerks. And don't work the same muscle group for more than 40 minutes, or you enter into a catabolic state. That's where the body begins to feed off the muscle instead of the fat tissue.
If you decide you wanna do it right, and combine weight resistance training with aerobic workouts, do your cardio (running, stair-master, etc) after your weight training. Do the resistance workout first. Otherwise, you'll be too spent to get a proper workout. Cardio is simple, put one foot in front of the other. Now repeat. But weight training can be hazardous if you're new (or stupid like me. “Sure! Throw some more plates on there! Nah, I don't need a spotter. OW!"). So it's best to do the cardio after. You don't need to keep running the same distances and trying to lessen the time. You need to incorporate speed training, hill training, and distance training to develop a sound running base. Try just doing wind sprints or Fartleks every few runs. I guarantee you'll see your endurance increase, and your running times decrease.
That's about all I can think of right now. I hope these are some help to somebody out there.
oops! Forgot a supplement that's out there. Ephedrine. Okay, I have used the old ephedrine/caffeine/aspirin stack. I don't recommend it to anyone, because it is dangerous. I have a heart condition (mild murmur) but, through research, and trial and error, I know the best dosage for me to use. It is an effective fat-burner. It does generate a lot of energy before a work out. But I advise against it. That means all those over the counter products as well (Xenedrine, etc). Just don't mess with it folks. Especially you young 'uns out there. This crap kills kids.
I don't know why I'm bothering to do this. After all if you're so damned lazy, you can't do the research, then you won't do the PT either.
Oh, yeah, and for (Well you know who you are, so I won't embarass you further) Sex and PT. Those old myths from your football coach in high school are just that: myths. It doesn't 'drain' you. In fact, steady sexual activity increases your testosterone production. Which improves your fitness and recuperation. So, now you have another excuse to use when you try and get into Betty and Veronica's cheerleader skirts. Good luck with that.
SHIN SPLINTS
I live with shin splints. Always will. No reason you should, though. (Unless you want to be the incredibly hard, good-looking, and macho he-man that I am.) Shin splints is the name given to pain experienced at the front of the lower leg. The most common cause is inflammation of the periostium of the tibia. (Yeah, I can pronounce it, screw you!) Your tibia is the front bone in your lower leg (Your 'shin bone.' Which is connected to...) The periostium is the muscular sheath that surrounds that bone. The injury comes from overuse of that muscle, and can be caused by running on hard surfaces, running up the toes or "ball" of your foot or by an activity where a lot of jumping is involved. If you "over pronate" then you are also more susceptible to this injury. Over pronation is a common problem that is caused by too great an angle of medial (middle of body) roll of one or both your feet. Your foot rolls inward putting undue stress on the knee and hip and can cause them to become misaligned. Good running shoes will correct most over pronation problems but you may need to have orthotic devices designed for your shoes. This is actually a lot more common than we've realized in the past, and is especially prevalent amongst athletes, so you non-infantry types that suffer from the sort of delusion that marathons are fun may want to listen up here.
Symptoms of shin splints usually include :
-Tenderness over the inside of the shin
-Lower leg pain.
-Occasionally, edema (swelling) will be present.
-Lumps/bumps/nodules over the bony prominence of the shin (the front of your lower leg).
-Pain when you move your toes or foot bending them in a downward position.
-A redness over the inside of the shin.
What can I do about it?
-Rest them.
-Apply ice in early stages. RICE is the doctor approved method for recovery. RICE works (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation). Ice your shins for a couple minutes every night and elevate them above your heart while watching TV or sleeping.
-Get better fitting shoes or orthotic inserts. Age does matter, just not your age. When's the last time you bought a pair of running shoes? And I do mean running shoes. Not cross trainers, not basketball shoes, RUNNING shoes. If they're over 6 months old, you're probably due for a new pair. Oh, and despite what your girlfriend tells you, SIZE matters. When you buy the running shoes, make sure they're the right size. Don't measure size with a Brannock Device (the metal measuring device at shoe stores). You must go off of feel, not written size. Different manufacturers have different standards for size. Remember, your feet expand from the pounding when you run, so you need the size to accommodate for it. The rule of thumb is to keep trying on bigger and bigger sizes until the shoes feel like clown feet, then go back down a 1/2 size and you have the correct size. Trust me it works.
-Utilize other non weight-bearing exercises to strengthen the surrounding musculature.
-Apply heat after the initial acute stage, particularly prior to heavy exercise.
-Take an OTC (over the counter) NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) like Motrin.
-Properly stretch prior to, and especially following, exercise. The best way to stretch your calf is to stand with your toes on a curb or wall, and your heel on the street and lean into it. Another way is to get into a push up position, then, keeping your knees lock straight, walk your hands closer to your feet until your heels almost touch the ground. Hold this for 10-30 seconds and slowly let it out. Repeat.
Now, kneel with your feet together, toes pointed out, and sit on your heels. Hold this for 10-30 seconds and slowly let it out. Repeat.
- Change the surface you're running on. Concrete (side walks) is the hardest and worst for your legs, knees, etc. Asphalt (roads) is a close second. The best is a soft surface like grass or sand. Consider changing your route to a softer area. Or just run along the grass beside the road/sidewalk. Whenever possible, try to find grassy or dirt paths. Not only are they easier on your body, they're usually more visually stimulating.
-Change your cardio routine. You can still do Cardio everyday (or every second day) as you like. Just minimize the impact cardio. Instead of running, get on an elliptical trainer. Take a bike ride once a week. Swim. Anything that lets you get the heart rate up without pounding on your shins until your body has a chance to stretch the calves out again and reduce the swelling in your shins.
The usual full recovery time for this injury is two to four weeks.
From personal experience - don't be a hard *** if ya don't need to be. I got shin splints on the inside of my calves back in Basic. I sucked it up until Basic was over, and I was in Battle School. At that point, I couldn't put any weight on my leg without it feeling like someone was taking a spiked rolling pin to my shin so I went to the UMS. Found out I had stress fractures in my legs and had been running on them for a few months. From what I understand the muscles in your lower leg can get broken down and become so weak that they transfer all the weight onto the bone. I ended up being re-coursed and stuck in Holding Platoon for months. Whenever possible, take a day or two off when ya first get shin splints. It's a lot better than having to take 8 weeks off because you got a broken tibia.
Blisters
You're going to get blisters eventually. There's no easy way out. The best way to prevent them is to keep on marching, in order to form thick callus on your soles and heels. Your feet need to be as tough a saddle leather to do the job. It takes quite a few miles of marching and quite a few blisters to get them that way. Over the long haul, trying to prevent yourself from EVER getting a blister is like arguing with a woman - it doesn't do you any good, and you end up worse off than before.
Blisters come from two contributing factors. Dampness and friction. Minimize (or better, eliminate) friction and moisture and you minimize your chances of blisters.
Moisture comes from external (rain, swamp, etc) and internal (sweat) sources. There are ways to minimize each of those. Unfortunately, sometimes the methods to counter-act the one source, work against you being able to counter-act the second. For example, Gore-Tex socks. Foot powder is your friend. You can never carry enough socks. You cannot change socks often enough. If you're out of foot powder, antiperspirant on the soles of your feet works. It's a tip I learned from an SF medic. I thought he was screwing me around, until I watched him do it. It works. Gold Bond medicated foot powder is still the best bet.
Friction comes from walking (not much you can do about that. Unless you're smart enough to find a job where you weapon caries you, instead of vice versa) and from your foot sliding around in your boot (you CAN do something about that). Wear two pairs of socks. I wear the issued desert sock inside a properly cushioned white sports sock on a particularly nasty-sounding ruck march. Works every time. They cushion, the allow moisture to wick away, and there is less movement as they are snug enough that they don't rub or ball up. Make sure you have boots that FIT. They have to be broken in and fitted to your foot properly.
Training (road marching) toughens your feet to increase your resistance to blisters through calluses. There are tricks to help accelerate the toughening process as well.
You have to be careful with mole skin. The adhesive on the mole skin is not enough to keep the patch on your feet. Mole skin is for AFTER the march. I know some guys who try to wear it before a march. They always pay. I've seen guys use moleskin improperly. It always came off during the march, ended up being a ball of crap in their boot, and actually made their feet worse than if they wouldn't have used it at all.
Do NOT wear band aids! I don't know where this crazy crap came from, but don't do it. Band aids come right off and ball up in your boots, so not only will you have the pounding of the pavement to worry about, but also a balled-up band aid in between the foot and the boot. It won't be a pleasant experience. I promise you.
Some peoples feet react to and take the abuse of the march differently than others. And I've seen experienced troops get blisters. A buddy of mine had his entire sole come right off his foot. Most repulsive thing I've ever seen. All of the callus just sloughed off and took the skin with it. It happens.
Bottom line: Cowboy up. Just powder your feet and put on fresh socks when they give you a break.
PT
I don't claim to be a master anything (maybe baiter), but I can offer a few tips on PT.
Diet: Eat six smaller meals a day, not three big ones. Keep your meals 60% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fats. Don't eat after 20:00 hours. If you must nosh after 8:00 pm, eat popcorn. Drink lots of water. A lot of the time, your body thinks it's hungry, but it's not. It's thirsty. Whenever you think you're hungry, try drinking some water. You may very well find that you're no longer hungry after.
On water: the human body only absorbs .5 litre an hour. Guzzling down a quart isn't gonna do you any good. You're only gonna piss it out, and actually lose hydration. The best method is to keep some water handy and drink it throughout the day. Keep your caffeine intake down. 4 cups of coffee a day, max. Less, if you drink tea and pop as well.
Supplements: Don't go throwing away a lot of cash on supplements. Get a good multi-vitamin; take some anti-oxidants if you like, such as beta-carotene and vitamin C; if you're a guy, take some zinc and magnesium. These two minerals will cause your body to produce more testosterone, up to 40% more. Don't go buying the pro-hormones Androstendiol, Androstendione, etc. These have been shown to actually increase your body's estrogen. To help your body recover faster, you can take creatine monohydrate. This will cause water molecules to bond to your muscle cells more efficiently. You will gain a fast 7-12 pounds in a week, but it's all water retention. However, it can work against you if you're trying to improve your cardio. The extra weight can be a pain in the knees. Also, if you decide to take creatine, drink more water than usual.
Okay, now the physical training part:
Find your resting heart-rate. Now double it for 20 minutes a day. That's all it takes to lose flab. Doubling your resting heart-rate for 20 minutes a day. Are you gonna tell me you don't have 20 minutes in your day?
Don't get hung up on weight. It doesn't matter if you lose weight or gain weight, really. What matters is how much blubber you're packing. That's what's gonna kill ya. The fat on your frame, and the fat in your arteries. Do you really care if you weigh 300 pounds or 30 pounds, if you feel great, and look fab-u-lous?! Of course not. And, once you begin to work out, you're going to gain weight. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue. So don't get your panties in a twist.
Studies show that a weight-training program, combined with a cardio program will cause you to lose the most fat and gain the most muscle, in the shortest time. Gaining muscle is the goal, because it raises the metabolism, even when you're resting. Your body will burn fat tissue to feed the muscle tissue, even while you're sitting on your gluteus maximus stuffing your yappeus maximus.
If you can't find enough time in your day to both work out with weights and do an aerobic workout, sacrifice the run. Studies have proven now that a proper weight resistance workout is almost as effective in improving the cardio-vascular system as a cardio workout. And weight training does more to gain muscular strength, muscle mass (thus raising your metabolism, thus burning fat more efficiently), tendon/ligament strength, bone strength, and flexibility/agility/coordination. Weight training is the better workout. If you plan it properly, you can get just as much aerobic value as anaerobic. (What was that? Some dumbass in the back just say “But I don't wanna get muscle-bound"?) You can't. If you're doing the movements properly, with a full range of motion, you are getting a stretch with every repetition. If you can't get a full range of motion, you're using too much weight. Drop the poundage and concentrate on proper form. Feel the stretch. Lou Ferigno, at 300 pounds, could do the full splits.)
Speaking of stretching, I know some of the old-school types out there have some weird and wonderful stretches that involve a lot of bouncing, or they like to stretch before working out or going for a run. Don't. (Oops! I mean, don't stretch hard. Stretch, but don't strain.) Stretching before a workout is like stretching a cold retainer band. It's gonna tear and snap. Stretch after warming up. Do something active for a couple of minutes, then stretch. But definitely stretch after a workout. Don't bounce when you stretch. Period. Every stretch is a slow movement. Take it to the point of stretching, not to pain. Pain is bad when you stretch. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. For those who simply can't take that much time, at least hold it for 10 seconds. Stretch for at least 10 minutes. It would be better to stretch for a half hour every day. Do it while watching TV.
Ah, the fairer sex, I just heard the delicate bell-like tone of a damsel saying something about not wanting to lift weights because she “doesn't want to look like a man." Sweetheart, you can't. Unless you're some kind of genetic freak, or are taking some serious doses of steroids, you simply cannot put on enough pounds to look like a man. It requires major testosterone to get that “she-male" look that champion female bodybuilders get. Their bodies can't produce that much, so they get it from needles and pills. You won't get that look. If you want to know what you'll most likely look like from a healthy weight training program, see pictures of Rachel McLish. >Drool.< If you want to “tone up" or “firm up" or whatever the heck the new terms are, you wanna lift weights.
Now, on to lifting. Use free weights as much as possible. Machines are great for finishing movements, and isolation exercises. But, to gain strength, you need free weights. And use big, compound movements. These are the ones that strengthen more than one body part. They involve the stabilizer muscles. That's why push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and other body-weight resistance callisthenics are great for strength training. They involve so many muscle groups. The big compound movements are the likes of bench press, squats, dead lifts, bent-over rows, and cleans-and-jerks. And don't work the same muscle group for more than 40 minutes, or you enter into a catabolic state. That's where the body begins to feed off the muscle instead of the fat tissue.
If you decide you wanna do it right, and combine weight resistance training with aerobic workouts, do your cardio (running, stair-master, etc) after your weight training. Do the resistance workout first. Otherwise, you'll be too spent to get a proper workout. Cardio is simple, put one foot in front of the other. Now repeat. But weight training can be hazardous if you're new (or stupid like me. “Sure! Throw some more plates on there! Nah, I don't need a spotter. OW!"). So it's best to do the cardio after. You don't need to keep running the same distances and trying to lessen the time. You need to incorporate speed training, hill training, and distance training to develop a sound running base. Try just doing wind sprints or Fartleks every few runs. I guarantee you'll see your endurance increase, and your running times decrease.
That's about all I can think of right now. I hope these are some help to somebody out there.
oops! Forgot a supplement that's out there. Ephedrine. Okay, I have used the old ephedrine/caffeine/aspirin stack. I don't recommend it to anyone, because it is dangerous. I have a heart condition (mild murmur) but, through research, and trial and error, I know the best dosage for me to use. It is an effective fat-burner. It does generate a lot of energy before a work out. But I advise against it. That means all those over the counter products as well (Xenedrine, etc). Just don't mess with it folks. Especially you young 'uns out there. This crap kills kids.
I don't know why I'm bothering to do this. After all if you're so damned lazy, you can't do the research, then you won't do the PT either.
Oh, yeah, and for (Well you know who you are, so I won't embarass you further) Sex and PT. Those old myths from your football coach in high school are just that: myths. It doesn't 'drain' you. In fact, steady sexual activity increases your testosterone production. Which improves your fitness and recuperation. So, now you have another excuse to use when you try and get into Betty and Veronica's cheerleader skirts. Good luck with that.
