Ok heres the situation... I train mma students.Most of them love the training and have no desire whatsoever to get in the ring or cage.
The other day I read that running one hour, jogging one hour or walking one hour burns the exactly the same amount of calories.
Now i know High intensity cardio has the benefit of continuing to burn calories long after the training is over but heres the thing.......
I have a few guys that are really overweight. I have always personally struggled with my owm weight and running is always a sure fire training mode to drop fat. But after a while the idea of topping your last hellish expeience of high intensity so quitting gets to look easier and easier
IF walking will burn enuff calories to get them to drop the weight Im sure they will be more consisten and not so prone to quit. My question...will it work?30 - 60 min 3- 5 days a week with a good diet...will you drop anything considerable in terms of fat??
thanks for the help
Troy
I was overweight, 267 lbs. 6', and starrted walking 2x-3x/day. First in the morning about 2 1/2 miles. I did this for 2 years and never lost any weight but improved my cardio and felt better. Then I started BJJ 5x/week and didn't lose any weight for 2 months until I decided to start running. I ran everyday for 4 months and then stopped running. I weigh today the amount, 1 year later, after I stopped running. Walking is great for overweight people. I started running around the outside of the inside of a baseball field because the ground is level and the grass is soft on the knee joints. I've lost 50 lbs. and I like to eat.
You'd have to be running pretty damn slow - or walking pretty fast - to burn the same number of calories. Not actually impossible in either way, but you might encounter a lot of resistance to trying to get your guys to do that ridiculous looking "arm-swinging" power-walking.
That much being said, if you've got overweight guys, running a hour initially just plain isn't going to happen (at least, not very long). Nor is high-speed interval training (which might actually be just plain old dangerous for these guys, too). So walking is a lot more feasible. I actually noticed a change in my overall fitness level (which is pretty good at any rate) when I was doing two half-hour walks (to and from campus) per day - usually rushing my ass on in the morning, too.
I think your plan is a lot more reasonable (at least to start with) than a lot of the "do intervals until you puke" advice I see floating around.
Well depends how over weight these guys are and HOW THEIR KNEES ARE. If their knees CAN TAKE IT then I would get them to do some 'lighter interval stuff'. Nothing hardcore yet and get them to do some 'LIGHT JOGGING' that is barely past walking fast.
They should have some sort of fitness since they do mma type of training with you.
Walking is a start but if they go too easy it is almost not worth doing. FAST walking is a different matter though.
Running isn´t nice to jour joints if you don´t have excellent technice and the additional weight makes the impact much bigger. If the surrounding allows it walking up mountains would probably great for them. It´s also pretty motivating. Running upwards is also softer on knees and ankles. Swimming is great since gravity doesn´t strike into your joints and allows for great spine decompression. But many will probably not like to expose their out of shape figure in public.
There´s also no reason they have to do the same kind of exercise every day. Talk with them what they like. Rowing, trekking, cycling... there are many ways.