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how can i become stronger without making it harder to run cause i heard muscles take up more oxygen

Well firstly what part are you trying to make stronger? Say if it were your biceps then it won't really affect your running unless you use them… and as you don’t really use arms to a large degree they won’t require oxygen which in tern means you won’t loose running fitness.

ok thanks i am trying to make my arms stronger

If you mean in terms of weight lifting try to do 3 sets of 10-15 repitions, the weight should be enough to make you struggle on the last one. Remember not to work the same muscle group twice in 48 hours. Split sessions into Upper Body, Middle and Lower. Body Builders lift huge weights in lower reps in order to tear their muscles, however, becoming cosmetically large won't neccessarily make you strong.

Swimming is an exellent way of developing support muscles that you will use everyday, and will definately help your running because it is non impact. It will also help increase the limits of physical exertion due to its cardiovascular nature. Hope this helps.

Mark

Devil, try contacting Felias and ask about his training programme.

He is one of the fittest guys on the forum!

He can bang out hundreds of pressups and still run close to world record times!! He really is truly amazing!!

Cheers
James_m

If it's only the muscles taking up oxygen you worried about, because the heart is also a muscle, the more exercise you do, the more stronger and efficent it will become so more oxygen will be pumped around the body anyway.

ok thx for all the advice

oh and can u get stronger without using weights bydoing situps,pullups and press ups

Hey megadevil,

Yeh, you can certainly build strength without weights. In fact, I have been able to build muslce and definition (read ripped) without the need for weights. Although weights are the most ideal for building muscle, strength and getting ripped, you will certainly find that you can achieve some of this, whilst 'enhancing' your stamina and endurance by doing circuits instead.

Every day, I alternate between doing lower body circuits (burpees, squats and squat thrusts) and upper body circuits (press-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. I spend at least 30 minutes just banging them out constantly, generally starting with a few high rep circuits (60s) going down to lower reps as I get tired (20s). Like a weight session, you want to be doing it to failure, hence the alternating the days you training.

Hope this has been of benefit to you

Ayrey

Would you recommend putting on weight in the form of muscle though?

I'm a wannabe and my idea is that I'd rather not put muscle on because it means you have to carry your heavy arse across hills and such with more weight on your back! More prone to injury etc.

So instead of doing heavy weights and low reps/sets I've been sticking to a low weight - high repetition routine.

Oh and hi my first post

Your head weighs about 5.4kg, the same as a light bowling
ball. But ofcourse it feels almost weightless. Simply by getting used to it, I'm sure you'll get used to carrying your own weight around after a while so I wouldn't worry about it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I hear what your saying ( I think!) From what im gathering your asking how to increase strength without compromising your ability to run (fast) from A to B. Simple, if its all round fitness carry on with your aerobic fitness like running, cycling, swimming etc and bung in bodyweight strength exercises such as press ups, pull ups and plenty of core body (abdominal/lower back) exercises. If you are wanting to have a dramatic increase in strength then you are going to have to hit the weights, in the form of compound exercises which target the major muscles of the body such as chest, shoulders, back and legs - thats 4 body parts therefore 1 compound exercise for each. The key is to keep the amount of sets per body part to about 2-3 sets but lift (your) medium to (your) heavy weight. A good rep range for an all round standard of fitness would be between 10-12, meaning you would have increased strength to compliment your running. A lower rep range you would be dwelving into the power lifting area and any higher, well in my opinion your better off just doing press ups and pull ups etc with your own body weight!

Is this forum only contributed to by wannabee security guards and bouncers! Don't worry about being too strong or too fast Just get selected and the PTI's will do the rest. 90% of all training(any corps, regiment, service) is mental, if you don't want it , you won't get it.
As long as you have two arms, two legs...etc you can do it, but you have to want to.
My prc(1988) was full of older, fitter, harder men but out of 29 only 14 passed out of those I believe less than 10 joined(and less passed out), not because they weren't hard enough or strong enough, but because they didn't want it enough.
It is so true that(at least when I joined) the training team will bring you up or down to the same fitness level as everyone else, the rest is up to you.
You could be the the UK black belt origami champion, it wouldn't matter, the tests have been the same since WW2, it's all in the mind.

Positive Mental Attitude

Without it you will never earn your Green Lid.

Artist

Why didnt you put this in the general fitness forum?