i'm soo weak!!!

i tried to go on a run yesterday- i ran for 1 minute. i walked 10. we had to run suicides in basketball (after 1 hour of a game, however) and i was the LAST one. i cant do a pushup, and i cant do a pull up (i can almost do one though!) my coach was advising me to just jog for 10 minutes- but i cant even do THAT! when i train, i probably an 8 minute mile, but i can barely run farther.

i was working with 5 lb weights, and now i can do 10 lbs! but, thats still basically NOTHING!

why dont i have more stamina??

any tips to building it up?? i'm so sick of being weak!

how can you build up endurance for running?

also- my knees have been hurting really badly when i run- is that normal for beginners or should i get it checked out?

I could never run either.  I played tennis all the time.  I was always a sprinter and then I would be so tired after only two minutes of running.  I still can only run about 20 minutes straight and then I have to walk a bit to catch my breath, then I go back to running again.  You have to just start working on your stamina and stick with a plan, which is tough.  My suggestion, run for a minute, walk for 3 minutes, run for one minute, walk for three minutes.  Then continue to decrease the time between your running sessions, run for a minute walk for 2, and so on....  Eventually, you will be able to run the full 10 minutes but it may take a few weeks?

For your upper body strength, you probably need to do three to four sets of weights and increase the weight each set.  By your third or fourth set, you should be maxing out at 8 reps or so.  You shouldnt increase your weights until you feel comfortable with all three or four sets.  If you are looking for power, that is what I would suggest.  I was trying to tone more than anything and this did increase my strength just by building more muscle.  For toning, I do 4 sets of twelve with lower weights.  I do not max out on my fourth set. 

 If your knees are hurting, you may be doing too much high impact exercise (running is one of these).  If you have access to a stationary bike or an elliptical machine, these are lower impact but still increase your stamina.  Make sure you have really good shock absorbing shoes.  Shoes really do help a bunch.   (Running suicides is not going to help your knees).    If you see any swelling or if you experience major stiffness in your knees, go get them checked out! 

 

You aren't getting enough calories each day, is my guess.  You were able to do these things before you decided to cut your calories..but now you can't - seems like a direct link.  In particular, you're probably not getting enough calories from protein.  If you're weak enough that you can't run for 10 minutes, and can't do a pushup, then you're body doesn't have enough muscle mass and is trying to conserve energy so that you don't lose more.  Up your calories if you want to be able to do these things. 

I don't know about your knees.  It's never normal, but it may or may not be a bad thing.  Definitely have that checked out just in case. 

Speaking as you're at a dangerously low weight for your height and are RESTRICTING calories of all things, I'd say you should just worry about eating more and trying to gain weight than to do all this exercise....

i'm getting enough calories now though! i'm eating from 1700 to 2000 calories a day :)

Lighterrose - my friend, you are 14 years old? You do not need to be concerned about your weight yet. That's good news, right?

Listen, your body is still forming. You need to learn to eat healthy (we all do), and learn to listen to your body.

Aches and pains are our bodies way of getting us to slow down.

I am glad that you filled out your profile, otherwise, I would be giving you very different suggestions.

So - do not worry about your weight, you are only young once - enjoy your life.

You can eat most anything in moderation. I am sure any sports you participate in will give you plenty of exercise.

Post up any questions, we all hope that you are doing well.

i think lighterrose wasn't asking about how to lose weight, but how to build up her endurance.

do lots of weight training. start with light weights. i'm not an expert on this myself but i've slowly been able to build up from 10lbs to 35lbs. do three sets each time and just keep increasing the reps until you hit 15 reps per set. then move on to the next weight and start over. as for endurance for running, i'm struggling with that too. all i can say is that you have to push yourself everytime you run. keep increasing the time by 1 min (or whatever's comfortable for you. even 15 seconds is okay too!). eventually you'll be able to run for longer periods of time.

No amount of weight training is going to add an ounce of endurance as long as you are undereating.  1700 to 2000 is a good start, I think that's more than you were eating a few weeks ago, but it's not enough for your age, your height, and all of the activities you are doing in gym and in basketball.  Use the CC tools to find out how many calories you need for maintenance, and then eat a little MORE than your maintenace calories to add on muscle. 

You need to know that if you can't solve this problem you risk being cut from your basketball team.  I expect that you really enjoy basketball, right?  If you want your coach to keep you on the team, get your calories up.  More than 2000 a day. 

Original Post by lighterrose:

i'm getting enough calories now though! i'm eating from 1700 to 2000 calories a day :)

 You're 14 years old. It's just not enough. Don't even bother counting seeing as you don't have weight to lose.

i know- but its more than i was eating before. i'm not even counting exactly anymore-  i just have a rough estimate. i'm working on upping my calories more!

thanks for all the advice! and no, i dont think i'll be cut from the team :) thank god- i love it. my coach was just advising me to go jogging after i asked him for advice.

and no i'm not trying to lose weight anymore- just tone :)

what are some exercises i could do with dumbbells that would be really effective? thanks everybody

I think you've done a great job on getting your calories up - you're definitely doing much better than you were a few weeks ago, so you should be proud of your improvement!  But the weakness you feel is your body telling you that you're not up to enough, so keep working on it until you are able to do as much as the other girls on your team :)   When you are feeling stronger, ask your coach to help you out with dumbell exercises. 

ok...but, how much more? that seems like way to much to me at the moment, but i'll try. but if you do eat excessive calories and DONT exercise wont you gain fat? (just wondering)

i mean, i'm in fairly good shape, but its endurance thats really my issue.

Hey Lighterrose, I just plugged your stats into the expenditure calculator and it says that you are using 2,300 calories a day.  If you want to maintain your weight, that is how many calories you need.  That also means that at 1700-2000 you are losing weight, and since your body is out of bodyfat to consume...it's using up your muscle mass instead.  Since you have lost muscle over the past month while you were restricting your calories too much, you need to eat a little bit more than your maintenance calories to get that muscle back.  I'd say that if you got up to 2,500 calories a day, then you can start to build that muscle back up.  I think you'll start to feel the difference soon and be able to get back to doing pushups and running for more than a minute at a time. 

Don't think that's too many calories.  I'm a lot older than you, so in theory I need a lot fewer calories...but I work out pretty hard and need to keep my calories up to 2,000 a day even to LOSE weight!! 

whoa...how did you get 2300 calories?? i get 1700!!! did you put me in as moderately or really active or something? because i'm not THAT active....

I put you in as "moderately" because I think "sedentary" is for people who are pretty much on bed-rest, and "lightly" is for people who sit all day and maybe walk the length of the driveway to check the mail.  If you have gym AND go to basketball practice, then you are at least moderately active, if not very active.  You may not think you are that active, but remember that most of our society are couch potatoes, so comparatively you are pretty active!! 

haha ok :D but collectively, gyms only like 2 hours a week, basketball's maybe 4 hours a week. then like, walking around school and stuff, and running on my own...i guess that would be moderately active...

p.s. I sobbed at the end of HP7!! 

Moderately active is working out an hour a day, more or less.

Very active is being on the school team for a sport and practicing multiple times per week.

 You work out on your own in addition to being on the basket team - you're Very Active at the least. Just put yourself at Sedentary and log all your workouts for one day, and compare that to the calorie burn for Very Active - it'll be about the same.

 To grow muscle efficiently you need to eat at least 250-500 calories over maintenance. For you, that could easily run into the 2500-2750 range if you do weights in addition to basketball.

 Get your diet straight and train like Krista of Stumptuous.com shows you, and you'll grow stronger in no time at all - at your age the body is very resilient.

2750...?!?! that seems like.... sooooooooo much. i cant imagine eating that much!!! but it doesnt seem like i'm that active! i'm...lazy :D

You're at 2300-2400 already with what you do - add in weights and you'll be burning 300-600 calories on top of what you're already using.

 You'll have to eat that back, and then on top of that you'll add 250-500 calories extra so your body has something to work with when building muscle.

2750 is probably in the low range, come to think of it - you could easily wind up having to eat 3000 calories just to maintain and 3500 to gain. This would mean going on the "see-food" diet - you see food, you eat food :)

 I know that sounds scary to you, but you really do need to feed your body properly to have it work right - and you're not anywhere near the levels of the pros. I'm pretty sure the women on Rutger's baskeball team eat 4500 calories a day, to take a random example.
 I'm not suggesting you try the jump at once, but you will need to increase calories steadily over a period of time - try adding 100/day per week until you reach at least 2300 - 2500 if you start with weights.