Fitness

Bluefoam

I have an ongoing issue with my fitness & have reached the point where I want to seek professional help.

I have have tried posting in the fitness forum, but they seem to have difficulty with comprehending a simple question.

Should I go to a GP, or a fitness trainer, or a specialist sports/medical type person or another? Bearing in mind, I don't want to be told to 'feel the burn' or just 'get out and do more', because these highly scientific and popular methods don't seem to work for me.

Lumen

mike12

Hi,
What do u mean by fitness, taking ages to recover from training, cant get your breath when training. Played sport all my life and always really struggled with stamina training went to the doctor about something else and asked him about it he did a test for asthma and it turns out I was only using 80% lung capacity he put me on a inhaler and I rarely get out of breath since sorry I didn’t go sooner just though I was never as fit as everyone else.
Mike

Morgan

Bluefoam wrote: »

Should I go to a GP, or a fitness trainer, or a specialist sports/medical type person or another?

I guess that depends on what your "ongoing issue" is.

Lumen

It's worth remembering that it takes a few years to reach your full fitness potential. Patience, focus and consistency are the key.

The human body is not designed to metamorphosise in a few days. We are not maggots.

Captain Havoc

Lumen wrote: »

We are not maggots.

Well, most of us aren't

Bluefoam

mike12 wrote: »

Hi,What do u mean by fitness, taking ages to recover from training, cant get your breath when training. Played sport all my life and always really struggled with stamina training went to the doctor about something else and asked him about it he did a test for asthma and it turns out I was only using 80% lung capacity he put me on a inhaler and I rarely get out of breath since sorry I didn’t go sooner just though I was never as fit as everyone else.
Mike

I do have asthma & it effects me in the first 20 mins of a cycle. Inhalers don't do much, but a short rest helps. I get a burn in my diaphragm particularly on uphill sections. TBH, I stuggle with uphills & my legs go to jelly fairly quickly. I have had asthma tests in the past and was told by two seperate doctors that I have above average lung capacity (although that is many years ago now).

This is a problem since I was a kid & I'd like to seek professional advice now. My GP has proven incompetant over the years, so my choice is to seek a new GP to help me with this or to seek some sort of soprts professional.

Which should I look at? Some sort of sports clinic would be great, but I don't know if they even exist.

Morgan

Well it certainly sounds like you should get medical advice. I'm surprised you keep going to the same GP if he's been unsatisfactory for years. I don't have a recommendation for a good practitioner but Google turns up this wondrous place:

http://www.sportssurgeryclinic.com/

Bluefoam

Thanks Morgan, this looks ideal.

In fairness I abandoned the local GP many years ago & did find a new doctor while I live on DNS, but that is no longer practical.

AMS2010

Hey Bluefoam,
In agreement with Morgan- it sounds like you need some proper medical advice - physiotherapists or doctors who have a special interest in sports medicine are probably best placed to advise.

From what you've said - which isn't a lot - I'd wonder if you've got an inefficient breathing pattern (which btw would never cause you any difficulties in daily life or testing but starts to tell when endurance comes into the equation).
Here’s a simple test - put one hand on the bottom of your rib cage and the other hand over/near your collarbone. Take a deep breath in. You should feel your rib-cage hand move outwards. Your collarbone hand should hardly move at all. Even on normal breaths your rib-cage hand should move more.
What happened?
If the rib-cage hand seemed to move up or inwards while the collarbone hand seemed to move more than the one over your ribcage... you have an inefficient breathing style.
Like I said this will give you no bother day-to-day, but when you really need efficiency in getting fuel (ie oxygen) to your muscles it can leave you heaving for air (+/- stitch) with legs of jelly.

It can be trained to be more efficient.
It's just a thought... and could be completely wrong as there are many other reasons you're having trouble - diet, sleep, stress, sub-optimal fitness etc etc.
And you are right, you shouldn't have to 'feel the burn' in order to improve your fitness.

Hope this helps.