My right foot.

RonanP77

Sex - Male
Age - 38
Height - 5' 6"
Weight 150lbs (ish)

I got very lazy through my late 20s up to mid 30s and put on a good bit of weight. I decided about 2 years ago that I needed to get in shape and dropped two stone in the first few months, dropped a bit more last summer so I'm down about 35lbs overall.

I walked, ran, cycled and swam so cardio was pretty good. I tore ankle ligaments so missed a good bit of time running but got back in action early last year and built up to doing a few half marathons over the summer. Hip injuries and other niggles have kept me from running since.

This year I'm taking a new approach. I started martial arts training in December, it's not quite MMA because there's no ground work but it's a mixture of striking arts (TKD, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing). I started BJJ in January. I intend keeping those going, doing some cycling, a little walking, the occasional run (if possible) and some weights.

After a good start to the year I've had a disastrous March, first I had the flu then it developed into a lung infection (pleurisy and a touch of pneumonia) so I've spent the month on the couch stuffing my face with junk. I'm starting to come good so hopefully April will see me fully back in action.

My plan/aims/targets.

1. Stick with the martial arts. The striking is something I'll only do rarely, at 38 it's not great for me but I enjoy it, head kicks or spinning kicks are just not gonna happen with the way my hips are. My style would have to be boxing, leg kicks and then the ground work that I'm learning at BJJ.
BJJ is class, it's the best workout of anything I've done, it's the most fun too. It's something you can do into old age because even though it's full contact, it's low impact. When fit I'm currently doing 2 days a week BJJ, one of those is a double class, increase that to 3 days in the next month or two.

2. I have 2 good bikes, a road bike and a hybrid so I intend to make good use of them. I need to cycle at least one day a week, probably Sundays, nothing serious, maybe 30k-50k on the road or 10k-15k on trails.

3. Pick a day for a short walk on the way home from work and if I'm feeling good, add in a bit of a run on those days. Keep the running to a few km for the first while so the injuries stay away.

4. Lower my body fat % considerably, I'm currently low to mid 20s I'd imagine, get that to mid teens. I'll need to sort my diet out again for that to happen. I don't really want to lose much more weight or build up too much muscle, just tighten up a bit so I look better and improve my strength to help with BJJ. Anywhere from 147lbs-153lbs and I'll be happy enough.

5. If I get injured at one thing and need to lay off it for a while, replace it with something else to keep the fitness up. Swimming is always a good option. Don't just lay about if I have a problem, which is what I did the last two years when running was my main exercise.

So that'll eventually be 5 days a week covering very different exercises. I need to make sure there are rest days in there, at 38 I need them. Last summer I worked out 7 days a week and I wasn't able for it. I picked up too many little injuries because I wasn't giving myself time to recover.

I'll not be doing daily updates with lots of figures like the weight lifting guys or my old running log, I'll update it weekly with a general rundown of what I've done and how I think it's going.

RonanP77

Well we're into April now and as I mentioned, March was a comolete write off. I'm not much better now, still some pain in the right lung and I'm still very low on energy and as weak as a kitten.

I did think I was coming good last week so did a little, there was a short 30 min cycle around the block, a handy stroll around the town lake, some light work with resistance bands and very light weights then a BJJ class the last two Saturdays. At BJJ I did the easier part of the warm-up and some technique but not much else, I didn't want to push it. No full rolling or tumbles/falls.

Turns out that was way too much and now I'm suffering again. The plan for April is to keep going to BJJ on Saturdays but mainly just to watch and learn, if I start feeling better I can get involved a little. I have to build myself back up slowly.

I've started eating a lot healthier this week. Cut out the sliced pan and switch to home made brown bread and the odd wholemeal wrap (prepared at home so I know the ingredients). Cut out the goodies and start earing more fruit and veg. I need to stop eating a big bowl of cereal covered in Sugar at 8:30 every night. After a month of very little activity and a lot of eating junk, my weight is up to around 156 lbs.

If I stick to that then April should see me get my strength and energy back so I can build back to full training again in May.