From rmg3@access5.digex.net Thu Mar 12 13:40:23 EST 1998

In article <3507C492.2781@cermav.cnrs.fr>,
Miles Lakin  <0_fin~SPAM_lakin@cermav.cnrs.fr> wrote:
>Robert Grumbine wrote:
>> 
>Take some completely sedentary over 30's, and the picture might be very
>different.

  Sure was.  (I'd been many years sedentary and in to my 30's before
getting started again.)

>Indeed, 4*20mins might be EXCESSIVE for the first few weeks after maybe
>20 yrs of inactivity. This would be compounded greatly if the individual
>were also to be overweight.

  Even without overweight (no change of weight), 4x20minutes off the couch
was hopeless.  I started with a few minutes in a day, not every day, and
counted up from there.

>However, I've got in mind someone going out and trying, as best they
>can, to run non stop for around five minutes, like they *used* to be
>able to, in the dim and distant past.

  Mine was to run a few wind sprints.  I _used_ to be able to do a
10x100 for warm up.  3x30 yards was a problem in my 'advanced' age
when I first started.  I didn't even try 5 minutes continuously for
quite a while.

>But then we fall back to your point about existing/zero level fitness.
>Only the most hardened sloths would not ALREADY be getting the
>equivalent of 2*10mins just by walking out to the car and round the
>grocery store.

  Didn't take being a hardened sloth.  Walking has never taken my
heart rate to aerobic levels (even considering that to be 0.6*MHR).
I could walk miles at a fair clip (passing most pedestrians) and not
go over 100.  Even the day I walked 26 miles didn't take the pulse up much.
And you'd be surprised how easy it is to avoid walking more than a 
minute or two at a time, more than a few times/day.  (I never did try
to avoid walking, but after I started running again, I did realize just 
how little collateral walking I was doing.)

  If we're talking, however, about someone who _can_ reach aerobic
pulse rates by walking, then I strongly recommend getting to 4x20 walking
prior to going for the running.  For a friend, running turned out to
be much too much stress on the joints, but she can get a very good 
aerobic exercise out of walking.  Whatever works.


-- 
Robert Grumbine rmg3@access.digex.net http://www.access.digex.net/~rmg3/
Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much 
evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they 
would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences