Today's Workout Thread

[Mvcrash]

Great idea for thread.

Yesterday, 30 Minutes on Airdyne Bike, about 7 miles. Last week, about 40 miles on a bike over the course of the week including an 18 mile ride into Manhattan,ferry back to NJ.

[ScoutHikerDad]

Carlo-Yeah, I think it's good for us older men to lift weights within reason. I heard a study somewhere that after 35, a man loses 8% of his muscle mass every 10 years. I have found that even at 48, my muscles will respond to as heavy a weight as I can throw at them. My joints, however, force me to be careful in the gym. I wrenched my shoulder trying to do dips.

[JimmyHAD]

I've read that after 60 we begin to lose muscle mass and resistance training can help, if not reverse this, at least slow it down. At 65 I have to be careful. I'm more prone to injury and they don't heal quickly. I did a high ankle sprain in mid June and though it is much improved, it is still bothering me somewhat.

Over a year ago, hadn't done pushups in a couple of years, I suddenly got the urge. Dropped down and began pumping them out. I didn't do enough for a man of my caliber so I insisted on pumping out what I thought was an acceptable amount. Straining to get to the number. (don't even ask what that was)

I didn't feel anything then but when I got up in the morning I felt as if I had a knife blade in my back between my spine and left shoulder blade whenever I internally rotated my left arm. This went on for a few months and finally began to improve with some rehab learned on the net. It is still not 100% but almost.

One thing I learned from that incident is to avoid being a slave to rep numbers, but to listen to my body, and remember that discretion is the better part of valor.

[sinnfein]

no workout today, half marathon race tomorrow morning, so I get to rest today

[mainaman]

I lifted ~2lb chicken from my plate to my mouth yesterday. No rest between sets

[tiddle]

exactly Jimmy, strength training does slow it and in some cases prevent in all ages. main lesson here is work toward a goal at YOUR pace. Hope you stick with it though, and most important is to have fun with it.

[Birnando]

I ran 11 miles today.
Took about 67 minutes.

[ScoutHikerDad]

One thing I learned from that incident is to avoid being a slave to rep numbers, but to listen to my body, and remember that discretion is the better part of valor.

Jimmy-That also rings true for me. When I wrenched my shoulder, I was trying to do some pretty extreme shoulder rotation (low dips); I should have known better-that set me back months. My problem is, half of the guys who work out at the Y where I go, at least the ones under 30, are either current or former students of mine. I probably push it a little beyond sensible trying to keep up with the young bucks (almost always a mistake!).

Still, there is hope. My oldest fishing partner is 57, and will happily do a multi-mile brutal mountain hike to a remote trout stream, I mean an absolute death march, while contentedly smoking on his pipe the whole way, while I (48) and our other frequent partner, 33, huff and puff half a mile behind him. He simply does it a lot, and is very slim. There is another gentleman I talk to at the Y who is 62, and solidly muscular. I mean this guy works out hard, probably has 18" arms. I guess you just have to slowly get your body used to it.

But the hardest part of the equation, at least for me, is diet. They say it's "30% gym, and 70% diet"; I think I've got that backwards. I will eat right all week, high-protein, grains, fruits and veggies, etc., and then blow it all on the weekends with pizza, beer, chocolate, chips, you name it.

I guess we older fellows just have to fight the good fight, one day at a time.

[Mvcrash]

I ran 11 miles today.
Took about 67 minutes.

It would take me twice as long since my legs are half as long....LOL

[carlmaloschneider]

In regards to dips I always go as low as I can; touching my chin to the dip bar. However, when I started doing bench presses a few months ago after not doing them for a while I did feel some pain, so I started with just partial reps for the warm up set (10 reps) and by the 10th rep I was doing the full movement. I always start a weights workout with 35 pushups (touching nose to ground) and in fact i also use pushups (same routine) as a warm up for bouldering, just to warm up my shoulders. I don't do exercises that cause me problems, like upright rows (they hurt my shoulders). I also need to be careful of my knees; I have a tendon missing in one knee (I tore it and they just cut it off and threw it away) and I tore my ACL in the other knee playing touch footy. I also have bone rubbing on bone in my knees and channels worn in the knee cap.