Welcome to the Get Fit Guys quick and dirty tips to get moving and shape up.

My name is Brock Armstrong and I am the Get Fit Guy.

You know, everybody wants to get a beach body right now or maybe run a 10K next month.

But can you really get fit that fast? Well, that is what we are going

to look at today. So yeah, everybody wants to get fit fast, but, well, should you? Looking back

at my early coaching career, I specialized in marathon and triathlon coaching. I eventually

branched out to work with everyone from fitness models to previously sedentary seniors, but consistently

throughout my career, people would email or call and ask a seemingly innocent question like,

How long do I need to train to complete a marathon?

Now, my answer generally alternated between either as long as possible or it depends.

Now, obviously, neither of these were the answers that people wanted to hear.

Now, more concretely, for someone who's going from the couch to a marathon,

I would recommend 10 to 12 months of training.

If you already have a solid running background, which I would quantify as being three or more years of consistent running,

or you simply want to improve your finishing time, well, then 16 to 20 weeks

could really do the trick. But, okay, keep in mind that training for a marathon, well, it isn't

the same as training for overall fitness. This equation changes when the question is, how long do I

need to train to get fit? Now, okay, let's start with

what is getting fit. The elusive condition of being fit is something that I've written about,

well, numerous times, and yet I still feel like the definition of fitness is open to discussion,

but for the sake of this

conversation, I'm going to define fitness as activities relating to keeping healthy and

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