Working out

[Radbird]

Completely understand, jim. I had to realize that at my age there are limitations.

I've been focused on cardio with a little weight thrown in (and I mean little - a few curls and lifts with 5KG dumbbells - really more like stretching than lifting). I'm generally doing cardio 3-4x per week with the weights about half that. Probably should increase the weight although I can feel the improved muscle tone.

It's slow but steady progress but I feel like I can keep it up while minimizing injury risk.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I don't get peoples motives sometimes. There is this guy at my place who works out 5x a week with a personal trainer, he's probably in his low 50's and is kind of short with a bit of a gut - one of those solid keg like guts if you know what I mean. Anyway, I don't get him. He's a strong guy, and he's throwing around alot of weight doing cleans, dead lifts, squats, etc... This is stuff I'd expect to see a guy 18 or so doing to increase explosiveness for football or whatever, and I fully expect this guy to just throw his back out completely. One of these days I'm going to get hurt just watching him. His trainer is attentive, and makes sure his form and all of that is good, but I don't buy that crap about perfect form means no injury. You know what? When you are my age or older, it doesn't matter. You are going to screw something up if you push it that hard. I'm still in good shape, I can still throw some weight around, but I also know that I have some limits that need to be respected simply because I'm old. I can feel something going on in my left shoulder, which is not the shoulder I hurt before, and I'm backing off immediately. I think I know the exercise that is causing it, and I'm just done with it. There is no way I'm pushing that.

What he needs, imo, is some cardio work for his heart and some toning. I just don't get what he is doing at all. I don't think he's much healthier because of his workouts.

Couple different things.

1. That guy sounds like he's uninformed. I'm not quite sure what his goals are, so maybe he's accomplishing them, but it sounds like even if that is the case, his goals are misguided. For me, my heart is my number 1 concern. Everything else is a pretty distant second. Concentrating on core muscles is good too, but you don't need that much weight. And, he could at a minimum be combining his efforts to get cardio results while lifting.

2. This is just more of a humblebrag than anything. But I just had PRP done on my shoulder to hopefully get rid of a slap tear. After it was finished, the dr. took my pulse and told me to lay down because my heart rate had slowed too much. I said I felt fine; he looked at the chart and said never mind. Apparently my pulse was 52 which he just assumed was too low, but it was 52 before the procedure as well.

[lukethedrifter]

sometimes running makes my nipples hurt

[IMADreamer]

I like the idea of working out, I just hate doing it. First as a fat guy people seem to always yell things at me when I'm jogging. I've even had a soda thrown at me. I don't get it but whatever. Secondly For football I pretty much worked out from the time I was 12 until I was 23 and when that stopped it was soooooo nice.

However I realize I'm going to die in the not too distant future if I don't get less fat so I've been walking/jogging. Less jogging and more walking but it's better then nothing I hope. I had someone tell me I should hit the weights at some point but since I'm pretty strong I don't see the point. It seems like focusing on heart health is best for me. Then again I have no clue what I'm actually doing.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

This a thread somewhere around that has a lot of good stuff in it. If you're serious about getting back into shape, or even about preventing death, you should seriously look into weight training of some sort. Off the top of my head, the benefits at a minimum include decreased blood pressure (the bottom number at least), increased metabolism and an in general healthier functioning metabolic system and there are obviously benefits to the heart by simply doing anything other than sitting on a couch. From there, you can find just about anything that suggests weight training is helpful if done properly. Better brain activity, immune system, range or motion, etc.

Simply put, it is likely a good idea to include some form of weight training. That doesn't mean benching 225 as many times as you can and going home.

[jim]

A full week+ of doing nothing but eating and drinking whatever I want in whatever amount I want is going to come to a halt here as soon as I find the motivation to go out for a run. Taking a break is good, but it's very difficult to get back. I'm one of those people that if I have all sorts of free time (like vacation) I won't do something like go to the gym. Pack my schedule with work etc.. and I'll carve out an hour to make sure I get there.

edit - and I'm back from a 4.5 mile run and I about died. I went straight into my garden and weeded for a good hour, and now sittingo n the patio soaked in sweat eating a salad (good) with Ranch dressing (bad) with cheese curds (really bad) and drinking a Lake Louie Scotch Ale (really really really good).