There is always room for improvement! šŸ’ŖšŸ¼

adluginb said:
Well today was my first, hell I donā€™t want to go to the gym dayā€¦. Tomorrow is already full since that was suppose to be my rest day. Looks like Iā€™m getting 2 days off.
Click to expand...
I donā€™t think two days off ever hurt anybody. YMMV. Any more than that gets to be a problem IMO. And a week+ is a big problem. In my experience anyway
 
Found out that trying to do 30 consecutive squats with the 140lb weight vest without any pauses is quite a bit harder than expected.

First try, I did 24 reps. Week after that, still 24 reps. 3rd week, hit 26 reps but that last rep was killer. Almost didnā€™t get it. 4th week still 26 reps. 5th week, 27 reps.

My quads start burning by the 20th-21st rep, and the burning increases with each successive rep lol.

Oh well, gonna keep pushing.
 
Still havenā€™t made the Murph attempt yet. Tweaked the same old shoulder injury again. Not too badly, though.

Biggest difference, though, is the huge boost to my cardio, since specifically focusing on it more since the beginning of the year.

Set some new records (well, PRs for this go around at this age, anyway. Comparing myself now to ~3 decades ago might be unrealistic).

I workout fasted upon waking (after my usual bathroom ritual), and do my cardio/HIIT session after lifting (following the principles of using biology, to prioritize using the glycogen stores for the lifting, before burning the stored glycogen for the cardio).

Hit a new maximum HR of 178, and was able to stay in Zone 5 (153+bpm) for 82% of the 30-minute HIIT session, with an average HR of 162 bpm for the session (the last ~25 minutes of the session consistently stayed above 160+ bpm, offset by the lower HR in the initial 5 minute warmup).

I usually progressively warmup for the first 5 minutes before beginning the alternating cycles of High Intensity.

I use both a Garmin watch (which measures HR with an optical sensor akin to a pulse oximeter), as well as a Fourth Frontier X2 chest strap HR monitor that measures HR through the weak electrical impulses measured from the chest strap mounted device (The X2 also takes a continuous ECG and will alert with buzzes and beeps if it detects abnormal cardiac activity; something I figured was important for pushing myself in my 50s).

Iā€™m both surprised and pleased at how well my body is adapting and accommodating to the pushing.

Being completely honest, the HIIT session earlier today, could probably have put me in the hospital if Iā€™d attempted to push this hard in January-February.

Oh, another new record: the post-workout assessment by the Garmin watch recommends a 92-hour recovery period šŸ˜…

Amazingly, within 30-minutes after the workout, I felt normal. Still going about my day as usual. Even if it hadnā€™t caused a heart attack pushing this hard earlier in the year, it wouldā€™ve wiped me out for days, just months ago.

Another interesting side effect I noted, that hadnā€™t even occurred to me; as my cardio/endurance has increased by a huge margin, so has my heat tolerance, despite the fact that most of my HIIT/cardio training has been indoors in air conditioning.

On reflection, this shouldā€™ve been pretty obvious. Sweating is the bodyā€™s thermoregulatory response to all the heat generated by prolonged intense activity. Stands to reason that as this has improved, so has my ability to tolerate environmental heat.

Doing yardwork in mid-80s last summer, sucked. This year, itā€™s ā€œMehā€. If my body could talk, that seems to be exactly what it would say, ā€œCompared to the stupid workouts youā€™ve been subjecting me to, dealing with these temps, is just ā€œmehā€ ā€œ. šŸ˜…
 
bluemax_1 said:
Still havenā€™t made the Murph attempt yet. Tweaked the same old shoulder injury again. Not too badly, though.

Biggest difference, though, is the huge boost to my cardio, since specifically focusing on it more since the beginning of the year.

Set some new records (well, PRs for this go around at this age, anyway. Comparing myself now to ~3 decades ago might be unrealistic).

I workout fasted upon waking (after my usual bathroom ritual), and do my cardio/HIIT session after lifting (following the principles of using biology, to prioritize using the glycogen stores for the lifting, before burning the stored glycogen for the cardio).

Hit a new maximum HR of 178, and was able to stay in Zone 5 (153+bpm) for 82% of the 30-minute HIIT session, with an average HR of 162 bpm for the session (the last ~25 minutes of the session consistently stayed above 160+ bpm, offset by the lower HR in the initial 5 minute warmup).

I usually progressively warmup for the first 5 minutes before beginning the alternating cycles of High Intensity.

I use both a Garmin watch (which measures HR with an optical sensor akin to a pulse oximeter), as well as a Fourth Frontier X2 chest strap HR monitor that measures HR through the weak electrical impulses measured from the chest strap mounted device (The X2 also takes a continuous ECG and will alert with buzzes and beeps if it detects abnormal cardiac activity; something I figured was important for pushing myself in my 50s).

Iā€™m both surprised and pleased at how well my body is adapting and accommodating to the pushing.

Being completely honest, the HIIT session earlier today, could probably have put me in the hospital if Iā€™d attempted to push this hard in January-February.

Oh, another new record: the post-workout assessment by the Garmin watch recommends a 92-hour recovery period šŸ˜…

Amazingly, within 30-minutes after the workout, I felt normal. Still going about my day as usual. Even if it hadnā€™t caused a heart attack pushing this hard earlier in the year, it wouldā€™ve wiped me out for days, just months ago.

Another interesting side effect I noted, that hadnā€™t even occurred to me; as my cardio/endurance has increased by a huge margin, so has my heat tolerance, despite the fact that most of my HIIT/cardio training has been indoors in air conditioning.

On reflection, this shouldā€™ve been pretty obvious. Sweating is the bodyā€™s thermoregulatory response to all the heat generated by prolonged intense activity. Stands to reason that as this has improved, so has my ability to tolerate environmental heat.

Doing yardwork in mid-80s last summer, sucked. This year, itā€™s ā€œMehā€. If my body could talk, that seems to be exactly what it would say, ā€œCompared to the stupid workouts youā€™ve been subjecting me to, dealing with these temps, is just ā€œmehā€ ā€œ. šŸ˜…
Click to expand...

Way to go B bluemax_1 šŸ‘

What you have accomplished is an incredible feat at our age, and wonderful encouragement to prove it can be done with verifiable results.

While each person is physically different, your determination, and the end improvement, as of now is fantastic, as is your documentation of it too.

Thank you for your post šŸ™šŸ»ā¤ļø
 
Retired UPS Driver said:
Way to go B bluemax_1 šŸ‘

What you have accomplished is an incredible feat at our age, and wonderful encouragement to prove it can be done with verifiable results.

While each person is physically different, your determination, and the end improvement, as of now is fantastic, as is your documentation of it too.

Thank you for your post šŸ™šŸ»ā¤ļø
Click to expand...
Thanks!

That was one of my motivations for posting in this thread, to share my journey, and hopefully provide encouragement and motivation to more folks to join in.

Every journey starts with a single step.
 
So let's see.... I have slowed down on the big kettlebells, but doing lighter LCC&J mostly, as well as the steel club complex. I also bought a bigger club a few months ago, two sizes up from the old one, so the old one is still part of the warm up, but the bigger one is much more challenging and I have yet to hit double digit reps per exercise on it. Farmer's walks with 90 lb per hand around the yard. Been meaning to get back into hill sprints, but I haven't made myself do it yet.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Not hurting, but stability is still a bit iffy.
Click to expand...

Shoulders are tough to heal. Iā€™ve been through 3 Rotator Cuff repairs, (largest tear 13mm x 10mm) and Bicep Tendon, with Meniscus removal. Averaging 9 months apiece, and I really believe going to PT set me back. Once healed enough, hard use worked best for me.

I feel for you and can relate, sorry buddy.

Itā€™s never healed correctly and ROM is definitely affected, however strength has come back to what I believe is normal as before.

Actually, hand shoveling snow turned out to be my best overall PT.
 
I see some folks talking about days off being bad, but it is really important to de-load and take recovery days and also to take two weeks off every few months. Exercise, and especially resistance training, causes an accumulation of micro tears and other damage, and your body needs time off to fully recover and heal. I take one to two full weeks off every two months or so, and a full month every January (avoiding newbies at the gym on their new year resolution).

Time off from the gym is vital to recovery, avoiding injury, and reaching new PRs.

You wonā€™t lose strength or cardio conditioning from 2 weeks off, unless you smoke cigarettes and drink whiskey for those two weeks (not that there is anything wrong with that).
 
Last edited:
kod said:
That video's hilarious, but turkish getups were one of the few things that actually helped my shoulder post-injury.
Click to expand...
Iā€™d chalk it up to different approaches for different goals. His goals are size and strength.

Some of those exercises tend to be more for rehab and stability.

If you know your specific goals (I try to tell people to stop and consider their PRIMARY and secondary goals), it allows you to get better results by doing things that are better optimized for those specific goals.

If someoneā€™s primary goal is cutting bodyfat, why recommend something like 5-3-1?

Conversely, if someoneā€™s primary goal is to get bigger and a whole lot stronger, why tell them to do a minimum of 60 minutes on a treadmill every day?
 
Wishfulthinker580 said:
video
Click to expand...

Didn't take long for me to decide not to watch to the end. But I see he conveniently gave a cheat sheet in the comments:

0:00 The Bosu Ball
Agreed, except possible rehab applications. But not for conditioning exercises, definitely not for strength exercises, and skill exercises need to be performed in as close to the environment of the actual event as possible.


1:31 Kettle Bell Swing
If he's talking about training for hypertrophy, as Bluemax_1 stated, agreed. Kettlebell swings are a convenient movement for cardiovascular training, and a great deload from heavy loaded hip hinges. And heavy kettlebell swings can do a lot for the posterior chain that deadlifts at a heavier weight can do. Not the exact same things. Similar. It's not "either, or" in my opinion. Both exercises are good.

I assume he is singling out the two hand kettlebell swing. There are a lot of other kettlebell exercises that have great effects, depending on one's goals. Not everyone wants to have as much muscle mass as their genetics will allow. I sure don't. All the eating!!

3:40 Heavy Carries
Completely disagree, again unless he is talking strictly hypertrophy. For that, you want to load a movement as heavy as you can for your rep range and perform it through about as full a range of motion as possible for your own body. But some athletes need to train mental toughness and overall unified work capacity, and loaded carries fit the bill very well. Wouldn't want to program them too often though, I think. I've only dabbled with them myself, nothing out of this world. 180 lb farmer walks. Hey that's heavy enough, for me.

6:30 Bicycle Abs
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That is the guffaw of hearty agreement, full stop.

7:48 Turkish Get-Up
Completely disagree, for the same reason as with heavy carries, and with the same caveats. TGUs are not a "staple". They are an accessory, and a fun one. Can't remember the last time I did one, though.

kod said:
turkish getups were one of the few things that actually helped my shoulder post-injury.
Click to expand...

My shoulders always felt great when I was doing these "heavy".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top