I too long for the day when I might cast off this weak flesh for the power and reliability of steel.
Life will be better when I have nice pair of treads
And some extra arms
And a plasma cannon with a 40 watt range
don't run every day without carefully building up to it. start at 3 days a week until you can consistently run a 10k 3x/week then slowly add extra days a week - maybe 1 per month (or 1 per quarter now that you've already started developing shin splints) until you're running daily. the extra days should be very easy, slow, short runs - 5k max if you're running 10k on 3 harder workout days.
I strongly recommend following a program and not trying to make this up yourself. this has nothing to do with your body being frail - you're asking too much of your joints and ligaments without giving them a chance to build themselves up to the workload you're putting on them.
see:
- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wzPab2BlX4N_2vEJMdVu_alagE6pIlAt/view?usp=sharing
- https://old.reddit.com/r/running/wiki/faq#wiki_for_beginners
This. Seriously the body takes time to heal. Especially when you aren't used to need to heal that quickly. Exercising a building muscle literally injured you. Muscles grow by being torn and growing back more fibres. It can take a long time to get the body to a point where it can deal with that amount of physical activity. Honestly I would always have at least one rest day.
Go swimming or get an exercise bike (assuming it gets cold af where you are) or just a bike. Impact fucking sucks. Don't beat the shit out of your knees.
someone please correct me but isn't it like a week to start building muscle but like 18 months for your tendons to catch up? or was that ligaments...🤷♂️ but anyway, as we age, a physically active body is something you maintain not something you get and then have. it sucks. and takes years to get back to fully.
When I was in high school I started jogging regularly, and I learned the hard way to take days off to avoid injuries, but another thing I learned years later when I became a real gym rat was that my knees were just shit. Doctor said I needed to build my muscle in my joints because I simply didn't have enough cushion between my bones and joints or avoid injury. I couldn't take the high impact of concrete no matter how good my shoes were. (I mean, I was a college student and couldn't afford a pair over $60 as a treat..). So an idea might just be 1. Take every other day off and work another set of muscles in rotation, and 2. Do not skip building up your joints, build you ankles, knees, wrists, elbows etc. They're very important, no matter how beefy your calves and thighs are you joints have to be able to take the strain.
Chill homie.
You've seen the advice everyone else gave about rest and whatnot. I agree with them completely.
I also wonder if maybe you should change the routine. My dad could do days of hard labour on end but could never go running without injuring himself. I workout nearly every day, but a long run takes me ages to recover from, whereas a long swim doesn't. I hurt my knee a while ago so I can't squat big, but I found other exercises to work legs that don't hurt my knee.
Pick exercises that work for you. If you truly think you're frail, do resistance band work instead of stuff involving jumping around and big impact. Go swimming instead of running. Do yoga.
Alternating run/walk days young padawan
Supplement with pullups, clean and press you must, hmmMMMMM
every time I attempt to do a pull-up, it feels like I'm just going to pull my arm out of its socket or otherwise injure myself. and I've done a lot of push-ups so it's not like I have no muscle or anything, and I'm not overweight at all
yeah, idk what to do about it. maybe a proper pull-up bar would help, but I don't really want to drop a bunch of money on that kind of thing... I must develop my pulling muscles though
Half the time I just do lateral pullups with a chair that's a couple feet away so it's more of a horizontal bodyweight row with feet supported. You can also do lateral pullups with a bar in a rack at a gym or just be lazy to the max and put the chair directly underneath you and distribute your weight at will.
You can get a removable door frame pullup bar from any sporting goods store for about 50 bucks Something like this https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/stamina-doorway-trainer-plus-16smpudrgymplsxxxeac/16smpudrgymplsxxxeac where you just put it together and then can slide it into place whenever
Speaking from a decade further out on ya, 30 is totally the age where everything starts falling apart on you, but if your shin hurts that bad you may wanna get an xray. Like I still get shin splints pretty regularly but nothing that makes me feel like anythings broken. Might wanna space out your run days as well, I personally do mwf with the goal of starting some more intense strength training in between.
30 is totally the age where everything starts falling apart on you
why though? that seems pretty young still
Idk, it just seems to be about the age that things stop healing back to 100%. Don't get me wrong, I'm 40+ and still active, but I've got plenty of aches and twinges I can trace back years.
If the main thing is shin splints, there are exercises for them. Shin splints are weak lower leg muscles and having muscles unbalanced. Other issues are just ones of working out sensibly.
Seconding the alternating and joints chorus. Also do something that works on posture, flexibility, and movement. Pilates, Ballet (though advanced ballet is pretty terrible for health and I'd recommend Baroque instead) Yoga. Anything stretchy and that provides intermediate-level standing lessons.
Probably rest days would help a lot. Also how many pushups is a lot just outta curiosity
Yeah take a week or two off running for shin splints, keep doing squats, calf raises, wall sits, and hip-strength work, if you have access to a gym or bands, leg extensions and leg curls (do them daily if it's just bodyweight, will hurt the first week or two but you'll get through it). When you come back to running stick to soft surfaces (hard to find in the winter, if you can't its okay to run on pavement) for a while. Treadmill or elliptical if you have gym access. Also only run like every other day for like a month, maybe even slightly less often. Once you've done that, then increase mileage slowly but still only go 4 days a week. Once you can run 3 or so miles comfortably then start running more often and consecutive days. If you have access to a bike or any other 0 impact cardio do that on your days off and you'll get into shape quicker.
Don't forget to ice either.
