4 weeks of progress..not quite zero to hero :)

Unlike what I think maybe 90% of the members here, I'm not fit and shaped.

Nope. At 6'3" and 20.5 stone, with a 50" waist and a BMI of 36 (apparently), I had difficulty walking a mile. 4 weeks ago.

I'd sat on my butt for over a year, with too much drink, food and internet.

What did it take to reverse this?

A 3 yr old and a 5 yr old. My niece and nephew to be precise. They decided having not seen Uncle for 9 months to get 9 months of beating me up in 2 hours. Sweating badly and in pain from trying to move so much I realised I've screwed it up.

For years I've been on and off training really. I used to get discouraged by a belly that won't leave-regardless of effort. Get discourage by always finding a mile run way over the top in terms of pain. Get discouraged by stupidly comparing myself to other guys who find keeping a 6 pack either very easy or simply possible.

Stupid eh?

First mistake,comparing myself. Second mistake, not looking for my own unique fitness qualities.

In 4 weeks, I cut down drinking to near teetotal, changed the diet to something resembling healthy, took walks (with good hills!) from 1 mile to 4 miles a day, stopped sitting in a chair and use a gym ball instead* and then back into my garage for a daily session.

My targets were very modest. I just wanted to be fit enough to keep up with my niece and nephew without being in pain.

I succeeded despite having a cold on Xmas day when I went to see them. I was able to roll around, duck dodge, pick up kids and throw without faltering. I'm really chuffed.

Today I find that I *could* pass one particular Army corps fitness test for under 30's.

My current routine is nothing like the scientifically sculpted highly researched efforts of proper bodybuilders. Instead it's simply a mix of kickboxing type stuff on a punchbag, weapons work on said punchbag (I have a 6 foot heavy steel bar, used like a bo), chinups and some side lifts. I "rest" with some light dual knife kata nonsense which keeps my feet and hands moving.

The chinups I require to be dead slow, and have my legs at 90 degrees in front. I reached the landmark of 7 in the first set.

The whole routine is about 45 minutes and the walk takes an hour.

I'm determined to keep the time under an hour for the home routine because in the past, I tried letting it grow-and I end up quitting because it's too big a mountain to climb each day. The plateaux gets too difficult to get out of. Purely because I was too focussed on comparing my strength, stamina etc with people who ARE athletes.

Instead, I should be happy with progress that is measured against only myself and what it is I really want to do. Which is really to function easily when I need to be physical-play fighting, light sparring or simply walking hills.

I'm pleased to find that the weights I have (which i haven't started using properly again) are actually feeling "normal" to me now-whereas originally I had taken months to work up to them. I think there is some truth to the idea that once you've built muscle, it just needs reawakening!