March 31st, 2010 
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I’m a 47 year old male. I’m 6’5" and 320lbs and haven’t excercised regularly for awhile. I recently started a martial arts class to try to get fit. The class does a lot of exercises like situps, knee bends, pushups, etc.
I’ve been going three times a week for about 7 weeks now. But the class is still making me huff and puff and be short of breath.
My question is: At my age, weight, and fitness level how long will it take before I start seeing improvements in my aerobic fitness level?
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I think you are on the right track, but you are not doing enough.
Essentially, you are doing mid level aerobic activity 3 hours a week.
This is a good start on exercise, but more importantly, you need to change your diet.
See if you can ride a bike, or a stationary bike on the days you don’t do martial arts. Even walking for an hour an your non martial arts days will really help bridge the gap.
If your knees and joints are holding up, you can try doing "Two a days", that means two workouts per day.
I know it’s hard to find the time, it doenst have to be in 1 hour increments.
So you need to workout more days per week and continue to build up your exercise capacity. I cannot emphasize how important your diet is, as well as drinking massive amounts of water, try to get 96oz to a gallon of water per day.
I disagree with "Firefly" on building anaerobic fitness. Conventional wisdom is to build a strong aeorboic base before you do anaerobic activity. Especially at your age and weight, anaerobic activity will put too much stress on your heart and could be catastrophic if you don’t build your cardio base first.
Most importantly, you’ve taken a step in the right direction. Don’t give up, and believe you can do it. You will inspire others to do the same. It’s a long and tough road, and you will have failures along the way, but keep on moving in the right direction and you’ll get there!
James
I’d say at that rate it’ll be several more months. In December I was at 233, I’m now at 210, I skied 5 days a week, and at 64, the weight came off slowly. You’ll breathe better as the weight comes off and the conditioning of your body improves.
It will probably take quite a while before you see any major improvements. Don’t think too long-term. Look at how much you have improved already!
There has to be something you are better at now compared to when you started!
Getting into shape is a very gradual process, it doesn’t happen overnight, or even over a week or two. There are going to be set-backs but you have to keep on going. The only thing holding you back from your goals is yourself.
It will take awhile, but when you finally reach your goals, you can look back and see how strong you were to overcome all the obstacles you hit along the way.
Getting into shape is just as much a mental battle as it is a physical one. If you’ve been out of shape for a long while, odds are you have lots of self-defeating behaviors that you might not even realize. Martial arts is great for this because it builds confidence and puts you back in control of your mind and your body.
I’m about to turn 54. I’ve been active all my life. Even so I find it difficult to keep aerobic fitness at the level I’d like.
As for martial arts, it is not about being flexible and fit. It is about Learning self-defense. Since most self-defense situations last only a few seconds fitness being fit is not that important.
That being said, Don’t get discouraged. Keep working at it and you will see results. Since everyone is different it is hard to tell how long it will take to get to the level of fitness you want.
You may have heard the old saying… "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". Look at it this way. You are doing what you can to improve. Many other aren’t even trying. While trying to reach your goal you might want to focus on how much you have improved rather than how far from your goal you still are. Like the 1,000 mile journey, if we keep focusing on the destination we become discouraged. Instead keep looking back at how far you have come. Before you know it you will be where you wish to be.
Just as they say "You are what you eat". It is also true that, "You are what you believe you are". Stay focused on your accomplishes and keep going.
Best of luck!
never with what you are doing. You need anaerobic exercises like a stair machine or a jogging machine so as to increase your heart rate, then you will start to build your endurance and breathing will be much deeper as your able to have more muscle function. This will give your body more oxygen and thus a more wind. Your exercise base currently is for muscle fiber, not endurance. You need repetition , like in line skates do, thru In Lines you can also learn the splits, ( full ) , as well as balance – coordination and so much more. In Lines have been a road to building in ways I had problems, I am a senior and I workout 2 to 6 hours a day every day .
Improvements in fitness are gradual, so I’m sure you have already come a long way and may not realize it.
Age is not really factor as I work with a couple of 58 year old men with physiques that make men half their age green with envy.
To measure your progress, monitor your resting heart rate and/or count how many repetitions of a particular exercise you are able to perform. For example perform situps or pushups until failure and measure how well you do the following week.
For best results, I recommend including a solid nutrition plan and higher intensity resistance training. Good nutrition will make you feel and perform better overall, while resistance training will help you burn fat while you are not exercising. Seek out a professional trainer for help with this.
In any case, you have already taken the most important step which is action!
Congratulations and happy training!
Well that will depend on a few different factors, because it’s different for everyone. lets assume that your training 3 hrs a week in your class, that equals about 21 hours over the course of those 7 weeks. That’s doesn’t even equal one day if your think about it. In order for any exercise to show results it must be consistent and progressive. Plus you have to factor your age and eating habits into the mix. Now training in martial arts is strenuous enough even if your in your 20′s, so to supplement your MA training you might want to consider maybe walking or bike riding as a lower impact exercise that will increase your cardio fitness and help you to lose the extra pounds, and also include light higher repetition strength training to keep your body’s metabolism high. Then you need to consider the things your eating. Chugging down a few beers and pizza after training is not the way to go. But you don’t have to go on any crazy diet either. Just watch your portions and the times when you eat. Being a 40 something myself I fully understand what your going through. You have to understand that as we get older our bodies change in how efficiently they work. Which means it just takes longer to get back in shape. I’m sorry that I can’t give you an exact time as to how long it will take, really no one here can legitimately tell you on Yahoo without seeing you and knowing exactly what your habits are. Don’t be afraid to ask a true professional. The best advise I can give you is to stick to it and be patient. Good luck to you.
I started Taekwando at 50 yrs and was 305lbs and 5’5".
The first month was the hardest. I lost a lot of weight about 15lbs. I recall not being happy about that. The next month I lost nearly 20lbs. That was the best feeling I had before I made my first black belt rank. I continued to loose weight and gain stamina for the next year until at around 18 months I started to level off at about 190lbs.
I can only do 5 sets of twenty military pushups without being winded and can run a mile in 12.3 min. Not bad for a pudgy 63 year old guy.
Hang in there it took you a while to get to 320 it will take a while to get it off.
Make sure you stay away from soft drinks even diet drinks. Go to class well hydrated.
Don’t sugar up before class. It will cause you to tank before middle of your class.
Practice deep breathing exercises. Do them before class.
Remember to breathe deep during class. The extra O@ helps keep you going.
Do remmber that because you are carrying all that weight you are weight training at the same time. Think of it as a plus you will be replacing a lot of fat with muscle.
You should see gradual improvement in your stamina in 6 to 8 weeks. Hang tough and work hard its coming. I promise. I have been were you are. It has changed my life in so many positive ways to long to list. The changes are gradual. And you will not notice a lot day to day and every time you miss a couple classes it is like two steps forward and one back.
your on the right track the main thing is to take it slowly.the quicker you get fit and lose weight the quicker you reverse it.youve started excersising now you need to look at your diet.you also need to work on your breathing.
My friend joined a Muay Thai class with me.. is 6’4 and well over you weight… the firstmonth he lost 12 pounds… and he thought that wasnt enough for as hard as he was training… so he changed his diet… stopped drinking "carbonated" soda whether it is sugar or diet…. and started eating more vegtables (and he’s a big guy, so a lot of them), and the next month he lost 28 lbs… and the next month 25 more… it is tough for someone to completely change the way they have been living for many years… but if it something you REALLY want to do, you can and you will…. good luck
Well, we have to look at several factors.
Your diet
Your Cardiovascular health
Your Cardiorespiratory health
and you muscular fitness
You’re a pretty tall person so I’d assume that you’d get down to 200lbs at the minimum unless you’ve got small bones. but a comfortable weight would be like 220-230.
If you change your diet to a healthier one (unless you did that) that would help. Don’t forget to hydrate…resting days 8-10 8oz H2O
workout days 12-14 8oz H2O
As well as your aerobic workouts should be stressful then relaxed…repeat
Talk with your instructor about breathing techniques while performing kata or anything of the like, as there is a way to do it efficiently. That will help out your respiratory issues significantly.
If you continue, you should notice a change in another 5 weeks for the better. This big change will be the cardio fitness levels getting back into the green. That said I would give you about 21 weeks before you really begin to notice the biggest changes in your overall fitness.
You’re still quite young so keep that chin up and don’t doubt yourself.
GOOD LUCK!!
Do Tai Chi after every hard workout.