Tennis, Squash or Running

amy.cartright

Hi All,


I'm a 25 year old female who is slim and eats well (on most occasions).
However, I took my nephew to the park on the weekend and he had me going crazy. I had to stop running around because I kept running out of breath. What I'm looking to do is build up my stamina but am not sure whether to take up something like tennis, squash or running.


Please advice on what I should do and where I can get the best sports equipment around Birmingham or online.


Thanks

Amy

adelight

Tennis is good fun and I know there are quite a few tennis courts around Birmingham (and birmingham has excellent council gyms! the membership is so cheap with so many classes anf facilities, and you can use any leisure centre in the whole city!!) if you have a partner.
Sports direct are good for cheap clothes/kit.
If you want something you can do alone and at any time, then try running. You could start running (get some cheap asics shoes from sports direct) and do tennis on occasions as I personally find tennis is more sociable.

Wootball

For stamina, running. Start off light and increase the distance each time.

the_cat

Deffo agree that if it is stamina you want, then running is the best bet. You can download a podcast by the NHS (free)to get you started. It's an 8 week programme which gradually builds from walk/run combinations until you can run for the whole session. I got it on itunes but prob available elsewhere

I find it difficult to motivate myself though as I find running boring. Tennis though, thats another matter! I play between 10 and 20 hours a week now as I got hooked and started playing competitively. It is a very stop/start type of sport and once you get better at it you will have a good workout as well as lots of fun but be aware you will spend a lot of time retrieving your ball rather than playing to start with:D

If it appeals lots of private clubs have lessons as well as those big expensive places (often free for a first time trial) ..... look for those in your area on the LTA website

Kit - sports direct, decathlon, jjb are all reasonable. Ideally though running shoes for running, specialist tennis shoes for tennis. They are specifically designed to cope with the twists/turns/changes of direction in a way which running shoes don't

melancholly

i'm sure someone told me that they got fit to play squash, rather than playing squash to get fit!

running sounds like a good and cheap option to start with! there's a thread on here of couch to 5K running that might help inspire you off the sofa (as i sit on the sofa and type myself )

jenniewb

Variation is key when your trying to better your fitness- do all of them (though not at the same time...!)

Linda32

Hi,

Another vote here for council gyms, I live in Leicester, but I expect your area offers a similar scheme.

The cost here works like this - £12.00 a year as a member, then £25.00 per month NO Direct Debit just pay-as-you-go, great if you go away on holiday so miss a week or two weeks. Say if I was to pay today, that would end on 8th March, when I would pay again, or pay per session which is £3.20 or £2.80 depending on when you go. Evening are more expensive than Sunday Morning for example.

I only used the gym, where you can stay for as long as you like, its not per hour or anything like that.

Regarding Tennis, Squash or Running, I prefer to be on my own and loved running when I did it. Did the Race-4-Life a couple of years ago.

Thanks to whoever mentioned the podcast from NHS thats a brilliant idea, you do need this.
Also another vote for running shoes, these are really important. They cost abit in the first place, I paid around £45.00 but after that running is obviously free.
Also, I'd advise a water proof spray that you spray on your trainers, they are not water proof otherwise

If you do go for running, try to run on grass, I would not recommend pavements, the very thought of it on your joints :eek:

Clothes wise, I've always been happy with M&S sports wear, you do need this, normal clothes are horrible to wear.

You've inspired me actually, to start again, I used to go to the gym, but unfortunately I am redundant at the moment, so I let the gym go

Wootball

jenniewb wrote: »

Variation is key when your trying to better your fitness- do all of them (though not at the same time...!)

Not when trying to increase stamina it's not.

As well as running, try and integrate some leg weight excercises into your routine - the muscles need to gain strength as well as your cardiovascular system.

Gorgeous_Sharon

Hiya,

I also vote council gyms. They are excellent and you can use them as many times as you want (obviously within the time restrictions).

My boyfriends mate does a lot of running and he is now physically fit and has plenty of stamina. Before he used to huff and puff! So i would certainly recommend running. He buys he's sports equipment from a shop in Birmingham called Sportsco. It's based in Sutton Coldfield. He was told of that shop from by his gym instructor. I now use it too as i regularly go to the gym. They always have discount prices on equipment and always have sales on. Might be worth looking at their site.

But yea, running sounds good. Don't forget to take your ipod with you :-)
The gym can get boring for some. My mate joined with me but after a few weeks she dropped out.

Sharon

amy.cartright

Thank you soo much for your advice everyone.

I have decided to take up running and play badminton with my work col. I've brought my running shoes from Sports Direct and badminton stuff from Sportsco (it's a really good site in my opinion).

Now all I have to do is stay focused and determined!

Thanks for mentioning the NHS podcast. It's brilliant :-)

tara747

Does anyone have a link to the podcast? TIA.