Another new face who could do with help!

G

gyLo

0
Hey guys, I'm another new guy, glad to be here - heres my story!

I am a 20 year old university student, weighing 10 stones (64 kg) and standing at about 172cm, which I believe is exactly 5"8.

However, I am horribly unfit :)

4 months ago I quit smoking tobacco, but I still smoke cannabis on a fairly regular basis (read weekly), giving that up is obviously the next step towards achieving my goals, but that will be very difficult because I really do enjoy cannabis (please try not to focus on the cannabis too much in replies, if you are anti-drugs I respect that, but also please understand I have been educated differently and so am not).

Like I mentioned, I am a student, so I am quite social, and at university, sociable = drinking, but I am making a good deal of progress in limiting drinking with a view to cutting it out almost completely.

The reason I come to a forum such as this is I want to start taking my football very seriously, at 20 I know it is very late to start this, but I am lucky enough to have a fair amount of natural talent (not an amazing amount, but definitely more than the average) - the idea is to work hard, get into the University 1st team for next year (I got fairly close to being into one of the squads on natural talent alone - no fitness at all - in this years trials - there are 4 teams, and it is a high standard), and then once I have graduated, in ~July 2009, go to an open football trial and hopefully get picked up by a club - a quick internet search brings up sites such as footballcv.com, which would be helpful in such an aim.

Obviously for technical football skills etc. I need to go elsewhere but I am hoping for fitness advice with the aim of working out a daily routine. Unfortunately at the moment I have limited space and (being a student) cannot afford the gym fees till at the very earliest when I get my next student loan installment in mid to late January.

I am therefore hoping someone here can provide me with some ideas of what to do in my situation, and if anyone knows of any fitness exercises that do not require a large amount of space to be done in.

Thanks very much to everyone who takes the time to read this long and most probably highly boring post. Cheers!
 
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I am guessing that you are skinny rather than fat (64kg). If this is the case then don't worry, you can be in good cardio shape withing 10 weeks. Just start running.
I would advise 3 miles to start with at around 8 miles an hour pace. If you can do this easily then step it up until you find it difficult (very out of breath and just waiting until you are finished). I would suggest upping the distance rather than speed at the beginning. In about ten weeks there will be a big jump and you will find that you are much fitter. After this just keep increasing speed and distance. HIIT (check stickies for more info) is also a good variation but you may find it hard after smoking so leave that until a month or two. The first two/three weeks will be horrible if you are doing it properly but KEEP GOING. Try to run 5 days a week if possible but 3 is okay.

As for strength I would search around this site and maybe wait for some real experts but many people (me included) who are new to lifteing find a upper/lower split a very good idea.
e.g. Monday - upper Tuesday - Lower Thurs- upper fri - lower sun -upper etc.
It would be helpful if after looking at the sticky Weight Training 101 you write down the schedule you plan to do or are already doing do that you can get advice.

Just remember that getting in shape is worth it.
 
Hey man, thanks for replying. I suppose while I outlined my eventual goals, I wasn't overly specific.

My goals are (in a slight order of preference, but they are all very important, not much to choose between them): to have vastly improved stamina (so I can keep running at a high intensity for a full football match), improve my pace (ideally I would be hoping to run the 100m in about 12.50s, I don't know what my time is atm but an educated guess from previous times is it would be about 13.50-14.50), and improve my strength (I'm not overly bothered about muscle that looks good, I just want to be strong enough so I can hold others off when they try to tackle, my slender frame doesn't quite hack it at the moment, but it's not awful)
 
For stamina, you need to run long and hard - not short stuff.

For speed, you need sprints or HIIT, but you can't do this until you have been working out enought to develop a base.

For strength, you need more muscle. Pure and simple. Hit the weights. If you have no access to weights, start doing pushups and pullups and lots of them. Dips too.
 
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