Advice needed for doing morning jogs

L31mr0d

Ok i'm thinking of starting some morning jogs before work to burn off these winter pounds i'm piling on but I need to get some facts straight first.

Ok heres my questions:

1. Should I eat breakfast before or after I go jogging? I usually feel fairly weak from not eating in the morning so I don't want to jog on an empty stomach, but i've also been told to leave off exercise until an hour after eating which I don't have the liberty of. So should I eat or not? If so what do you recommend as a good breakfast before exercising right away

2. How long should I be aiming to jog for to make it worth while. I'm about 16 stone.

3. Some people have told me to wear more clothes when jogging to increase how much I sweat to burn more calories, other people have told to reduce the amount of clothes I wear as my body will get tired faster if its overheated. So what should I do?

4. I'm planning on doing some situps and pushups when I finish my jog. Should I? I've been told to not do any exercises that put strain on your back in the morning because your spine fills with fluid when you are asleep. Will it be ok to do situps after going for a jog?

All help is greatly appreciated.

Vegeta

Hey Dude

firstly o/ Hail BAPS

Secondly fat loss is very very diet dependant so get that right first before worrying about exercise. Read the stickies at the top of this forum they are really well done.

1. Should I eat breakfast before or after I go jogging? I usually feel fairly weak from not eating in the morning so I don't want to jog on an empty stomach, but i've also been told to leave off exercise until an hour after eating which I don't have the liberty of. So should I eat or not? If so what do you recommend as a good breakfast before exercising right away

Which ever makes it easier to run. If you can run on an empty stomach and don't feel faint or sick, then do. If you cant then no big deal, have your breakfast and then go. Read the stickies to get an idea of what to eat.

If you find you cant run without breakfast as you feel faint but you cant run with breakfast because you feel like you'll puke your breakfast up, prepare something the night before, set the alarm, get up an hour early and wolf it down.

If you have a blender something like porridge oats, some powder whey protein, milk and whatever suits your needs would be very quick

also if you run on an empty stomach make sure to eat breakfast staright away after wards

2. How long should I be aiming to jog for to make it worth while. I'm about 16 stone.

If you can hack it about 25 to 45 mins obviously working towards the 45. Don't go mad on the pace either, a nice brisk pace but the idea for fat loss is a lower sustainable pace.

3. Some people have told me to wear more clothes when jogging to increase how much I sweat to burn more calories, other people have told to reduce the amount of clothes I wear as my body will get tired faster if its overheated. So what should I do?

Run in what you are comfortable in, you don't want to overheat/dehydrate yourself and not be able to continue. The act of sweating will probably not lose you very man pounds in fat, sure you'll be lighter on a scales due to losing water but that's a false economy. So run in what you are comfortable in

4. I'm planning on doing some situps and pushups when I finish my jog. Should I? I've been told to not do any exercises that put strain on your back in the morning because your spine fills with fluid when you are asleep. Will it be ok to do situps after going for a jog?

Who told you that, loads of people lift heavy weights in the morning before work. That's complete toss.

Ok firstly try and do any weights type exercises before the cardio and secondly try and do exercises like push ups, squats, chin/pull ups, dips etc. Sit ups wont reduce the amount of fat on your stomach. Ideally if you could a full set of compound lifts like weighted squats, bench pressing, deadlifts and various shoulder presses would be great for you but that needs a gym or the purchase of equipment.

So that is a lot to think about for you

but get diet sorted first (most important)

see which way the morning exercise is easier, with or without food

do any weights type (push ups etc) exercise before running

Pherekydes

L31mr0d wrote: »

Ok i'm thinking of starting some morning jogs before work to burn off these winter pounds i'm piling on but I need to get some facts straight first.

Ok heres my questions:

1. Should I eat breakfast before or after I go jogging? I usually feel fairly weak from not eating in the morning so I don't want to jog on an empty stomach, but i've also been told to leave off exercise until an hour after eating which I don't have the liberty of. So should I eat or not? If so what do you recommend as a good breakfast before exercising right away

Cup of coffee. Nowt else. Training on an empty stomach and first thing is tough, but it could be the best.

2. How long should I be aiming to jog for to make it worth while. I'm about 16 stone.

You should be aiming to raise your heart rate to 60% approx*. Very fast walking might be enough to do it, especially if you're overweight to start off with. Start off with 20 minutes and add time regularly to bring it to 60 mins.

3. Some people have told me to wear more clothes when jogging to increase
how much I sweat to burn more calories, other people have told to reduce the amount of clothes I wear as my body will get tired faster if its overheated. So what should I do?

You should avoid these experts. You need to wear as much clothing as required to ensure your comfort. Not too cold, not too hot. Any sweat you lose is not real weight loss, just dehydration. You will also lose critical salts in your sweat. You need to replace salts and water loss soon after exercising.

4. I'm planning on doing some situps and pushups when I finish my jog. Should I? I've been told to not do any exercises that put strain on your back in the morning because your spine fills with fluid when you are asleep. Will it be ok to do situps after going for a jog?

Maybe the other guys have heard of this, but not me.


*Heart rate calculation:

220 less your age = Max rate = 100%

HR on waking = Min rate = 0%

The range max minus min is your range. 60% of this is about right for the type of training to maximise weight loss and fat burn.

Example:
Age 40
Resting HR: 60

220-40 = 180

180 - 60 = 120

120 * 0.6 = 72

72 + 60 =132

So 132 is 60% for this guy.

Vegeta

Slow coach wrote: »

Cup of coffee

keep it black

Milk has a nice bit of sugar in it

L31mr0d

Vegeta wrote: »

Who told you that, loads of people lift heavy weights in the morning before work. That's complete toss.

I read it in "Mens Health" a few months back. Heres the study in question.

http://www.fitfaq.com/2004/11/when-not-to-work-your-abs.html

and a quote of the relevant information:

You’re taller when you wake up in the morning than when you go to bed at night. That's because the discs in your back are hydrophilic (pronounced high-dro-fill-ick). In other words, they suck up water while you sleep. First thing in the morning, these discs are like a balloon full of water. And, if you do a lot of bending (like sit-ups or touching your toes), there's a lot of stress on those discs. In fact, the stresses are three times higher than when you perform the same exercise two or three hours later. That's one reason why putting on your socks in the morning feels a lot harder than taking them off at night.

thanks for all the info. Plenty of food for thought. I used do go to the gym quite regularly before, but my appetite increased with my workout schedule, then I quit the gym due to moving and getting a cushy desk job but my appetite didn't wain. I was recently over in Canada and a mountain I had hiked back in 2000 I did again but could barely make it all the way as I was so out of breath so it sort of slapped me back to my senses about getting fit again. I'm not really looking to put on a lot of muscle mass. Endurance and stamina are more important to me so I want to start with a few weeks of jogging to get my weight down a bit.

Vegeta

Thanks for the link but I wouldn't let it put you off. Do you have a bad back??

Anyway after running for up to an hour you spine will have probably gone back to its normal shape.

Weights would really really help but if you want to concentrate on the cardio then that's cool

Sort the diet though, its the number one factor in fat loss. It can be quite difficult to out train a bad biet

t-ha

Hey L31mrOd,

There's alot of different theories floating around regarding the minutia of the morning jog, but they are just that - minutia*. Eat or not depending on what you prefer yourself, the difference is negligable. Bananas are supposedly very easy on the stomach if that's an issue (I wouldn't know myself 'cos I can't stand them) and/or the aforementioned cup of coffee. Wear whatever you're comfortable in (and at 16st make sure that that includes a good pair of running trainers).

Regarding the sit-ups and press-ups thing, I wouldn't do sit-ups without a good thick gym-mat for starters anyway. Here's a little routine I like to do sometimes that doesn't require any equipment or even much space;
Do 15 press-ups, then 15 squats & then 15 burpees. Then do 14 press-ups, 14 squats & 14 burpees. Then do 13, then 12 etc. right the way down to 1. The aim is to do the whole lot without stopping, and as you get fitter to make the movements more explosive. Once you're putting a bit of welly into that it should ramp up the aul' metabolism a fair bit.
BTW, on the squat make sure you get your bum right down on each one. A burpee, just in case you're not sure, is when you drop from a standing postition almost to a press-up position but with your feet sprawled right out behind you, then tuck your knees back to your chest and spring up into the air - possibly in a star jumping fashion**.

*I hope I have the right word.
**I hope I have the right exercise!

thirtyfoot

1 On eating, whenever I do early morning run I don't eat because I can't run after eating. Because of this performance in my run suffers. Because of this I don't ever do a serious session first thing in the morning. Only time I would is when down the country in my parents house when I can get up to the hills as sun is coming up, which for me is the main benefit of early morning running. You can't beat the feeling of running early morning with a bit of frost on the grass or fog in the air.

2 - start small and build up slowly. Trying too much too soon from scratch could leave you demotivated and packing it in.

3 - clothes - best advice is light clothes and layers. Shorts in spring-autumn, tights in winter. Dry fit tops, gloves, hat and you'll be laughing. Don't see the point of overheating but weightloss isn't my goal. Sweating and losing too much fluid leads again to poor performance.

4 - don't know about the fluid theory but if you believe that you shouldn't even run in the morning as the load on your body from running will put more pressure on your spine than you think. I do situps/pushups/plyos etc before and after runs (and sometimes during)

In general, not a morning person and it usually takes a coffee to get me going so a lot will depend on whether you are a morning person.

L31mr0d

jeez... cheers for all the help guys. That routine t-ha sounds good.

My back is usually quite tight in the morning so I don't think i'll be doing the sit ups right away. Also one other question wouldn't drinking a coffee dehydrate me?

2Scoops

L31mr0d wrote: »

Also one other question wouldn't drinking a coffee dehydrate me?

Although coffee can act as a diuretic, one cup will not dehydrate you - remember also that there's a whole lot of water in coffee too!

thirtyfoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExYyZ2pSPc

This is what my early morning runs are like in the depths of winter! Everytime I watch it I feel like getting up the next morning for an early gallop.

LDB

I tried so many things in terms of food and I finally found that 1/2 a banana about 20 mins - 30 mins before a 30/40minute the run did the trick. If the run was longer I'd have a whole banana. in addition to the banana I have a v.large mug of herbal tea e.g. peppermint.

I used to have terrible trouble with cramps even if I only had a spoon of cereal but the banana never gives me trouble and stops me from feeling weak.

When I retrun from my jog I just have a normal breakfast.

~L