Maggie's Farm

We have been skimpy about fresh workout posts because I think we have said it all. I  think many of our readers have taken it to heart, at various levels of intensity. We think 5-6 hrs/week is good. Will re-post old ones sometimes, and anything new that comes up.

I stand by our Maggie's Fitness for Life program of a combination of HIIT Cardio, heavy weights, and calisthenics. Approx. 1/3 each. Weights only with proper training. Plus appropriate nutrition to meet fitness goals. 

Plus recreational things like walking, hiking, sports, etc.  Those are the rewards of the program.

Yes, Deadlifts are the best single exercise to maintain vigor.

Photo above is Edith Traina at age 97. A youthful 97 for sure due to many years of fitness pursuits. I think those are 50 lb. plates so she is lifting 145 lbs. Not bad for 97.

You can join that organization AARP at age 50, so I guess that's "mature." Another measure of seriously "mature" is if you remember Jack LaLanne - the Godfather of American Fitness.

Should "mature" people (50-80+) do powerlifts? Of course, and should push the weight as possible.  The Maggie's General Fitness protocol calls for heavy weights only twice weekly but that's partly because it's designed to fit in all of the other aspects of fitness.

However, a group of people, whether mature or youth, male, female or confused, care mostly about building or maintaining strength and physical sturdiness. Getting buff and sexy. Like people who only want to run, they are not after balanced fitness. To each his or her own although I will debate you on the value of the single road (and Mark Rippetoe and Glenn Reynolds might debate me back).

For mature adults who want to focus only on strength, 3 days/week of heavy weights is right with the emphasis on powerlifts. In fact, I can see some value in myself occasionally taking two months to do heavy weights 3/wk to see if I can get past my current plateau. Especially in winter when hiking on ice is not fun or even sensible. Hmmm. I have to mention, though, that I had a pal who climbed Mt. Washington in January. Kudos to him, for sure. Tough SOB, Vietnam vet. Once was enough for him to check that off his bucket list.

 Powerlifting Workout for Old Guys

What Really Happens to Your Body When You Lift Weights Every Day

I do not do real weights daily. But I do some weights 4 days/week, if only lunges with hand weights. 

Besides both exercises being upper-body, I link them because they share the same gym machine. 

To get the benefits of enough reps, many people (me) need the machine support for 10-15 reps/set. Fit guys and slender gals don't need it, but many of us do.

Dips, depending on form, can be either mostly tripceps or a chest+triceps exercise. 

Triceps are the major arm muscle, but to balance tricep stresses it's always good to do some curls or bench presses for balance. 

Dips are good, but pull-ups are one of the basic measures of physical fitness. In my first week of secondary school, we were all tested for our pullups, pushups, and running sprints - 100-yard dash. 

(It's funny/sad to recall, but we were all also tested on our singing ability, math ability, and public speaking ability. Whew. As a 13 year-old nature-boy nerd, I guess, all was deeply humbling. Humbling is good for the soul, mostly.)

With the Maggie's General Fitness protocol (2 hrs of calisthenics, 2 hrs of HIIT and endurance cardio, and 2 hrs of difficult weights), there is no need to do any single exercise twice in a week.

Some examples:

For legs etc, you can do deadlift one day, barbell squats another. Or leg-press.

For HIIT, you can do stairmaster one day, treadmill sprints on another.

For triceps, you can do press-downs one day, skullcrushers on another.

For calisthenics, the list of choices is so long that you always vary what you do.

Varying the things you do reduces boredom, but also keeps your neuromuscular system nimble and adjusting. 

Readers know that we like jump rope as an intense cardio (ie real "cardio") exercise. The heavier the rope, the more challenging. I have used a 1 lb rope a few times and it is brutal.

Speed rope vs. Weighted rope 

About jump ropes in general 

The Perfect Pull-Up

Whether you want to view pull-ups as weight-lfting or as a calisthenic, it is a strength-builder for the entire upper body. The problem is that many middle-aged people have trouble doing reps without assistance. Does assistance really help over time?

A couple of years ago we had a one-month push-up challenge, and it worked for those who kept with it daily. The goal was 100 push-ups/day by the end of the month (not 100 at once, but 100 daily). Turned out that it was quite do-able with good results even for push-up beginners - and for women. Their reps got longer, and their muscles got tougher.

There are a couple of women I see in the gym doing 20 pull-up reps. They look fit, but neither muscular nor skinny.

A 60-day 100 pull-up challenge might work too,  but I do not know how to begin it for those who cannot do a single one.

Ideas? 

We have posted on this topic in the past:  9 Unexpected Things That Happen When You Abandon Your Workout Routine

Use it or lose it. 

This article applies to heavy weight training, not for the hand-weights typically used in conditioning classes.

Age is a factor. Also, there is an amount which is optimal. More is not always better.  I do heavy weights (powerlifts, etc) twice weekly, but have been slacking off on the nutrition. 

Many of our readers have strong opinions on the topic, so I invite y'all to opine on what I, to whom I refer as a "late middle-aged guy", am doing to maintain fitness and functionality. 

For starters, it is still the Maggie's Fitness for Life Program which is a mix of weights, HIIT and endurance "cardio", and a broad category of Calisthenics with includes plyometric stuff and other misc things.  I'm fairly sure I have a semi-retired pal who is willing to do the Cali days with me - but he won't do 5 AM.

- "Heavy" weights twice/week, with trainer. My current guy pushes me to my limits, unlike my previous guy who was a slow incrementalist. This guy feels as if I am not getting my money's worth without pushing the limits routinely. It's ok. It's powerlifts and accessory lifts, plus abs, and I can't call it fun. Failure doesn't bother me much.

-  "Cardio" days: I use these for endurance and to try to keep my heart in good shape. Might work because I just had my cardiology check-up with all the bells and whistles and it's all good. "No rust in the pipes, or not much, yet," he told me. What I tend to do is a mix of HIIT on the treadmill and the stair machine, 20-30 minutes total. For the rest of the hour I'll do vigorous - no sprints - on elliptical and rower. Great way to begin a day.

- "Calisthenics" days: I use this term as a grab bag of athletic-style exertions which are not all technically calis but which mostly do not include moving any weights much heavier than my own body.  I kinda like doing them in rotations of 3. It's more inspiring to do them in a group or with pals. I put samples of these rotations below the fold:

Is walking a part of your fitness routine?  If so, be aware that ordinary walking is not valuable "cardio" except for the elderly and the infirm. However, walking and hiking can be perfect for a day of active recovery from a week of exercise.

Assuming a person in decent health, an ordinary street walking speed for men and women is around 3 mph (3.2-3.4 for New Yorkers, which is why you get jostled). Below that is a stroll. This applies to more or less level ground. 3 mph walking is not "cardio" because the heart rate is not sufficiently elevated to challenge or strengthen the heart - or to build lower body endurance.

Deliberate hikers like to move at around 3-4 mph on level ground. I can barely hike at 4 mph (15-min/mile), especially when it's beginning to get dark and I want to get back somewhere. It's a difficult pace for me, though, because my legs want to break into a slow jog at over 4 mph instead of maintaining a vigorous walk.  Some fit and experienced hikers hike at 5 mph with a backpack but at 5 I am definitely jogging, not walking, and I break into a run between after that.

Fitness level and body architecture play into this. If curious about this, your phone can give you your average speed of progress during walks and hikes unless you like to pause to look at birds and wildflowers and snakes and toads. After all, exercise is so you can enjoy life so not every hike needs to be a death march. Maybe most of them, but not all.

Best ways to improve your walking and hill-hiking efficiency? Stair machine, elliptical at the higher resistances, and fast-walking or even jogging on a good incline on a treadmill (say whatever incline you can handle if fast-walking).  An hour of that is a good "active recovery" from other exercises, or good for beginners.

* In the US, normal military march is 3.4 mph (17 mins/mile), but for Army Rangers it's 4 mph. 

Also, walking and jogging are not for weight loss. They are for maintaining functioning and for having fun. 

Image shows two things: the difference between half squat and full squat, and terrible form in the second image 

Squats (and deadlifts) are the two most functional muscular exercises.  The former is getting up, and the latter is picking up stuff. 

Squats are known as "The King of Exercises" because so many muscle groups are stressed. They are also said to be beneficial for knee joints.

Squats come in many forms: the basic barbell back squat (a power lift), and calisthenics like body-weight squats, squat-and press, side squats, squat jumps, heavy ball wall throws, etc.

I have been thinking about how to deepen my barbell squats. With body-weight or hand weights, I can do full squats easily, but with heavier weight I do not go below 45 degrees. It's partly confidence and partly weakness.

To do full squats with barbell weights (instead of half-squats, 90 degrees) I think I need to reset my barbell squat program with the plain bar (45 lbs) or light weights and to try to work up quickly from there. I'm convinced that the full squat is the real deal.

Also,  Squats Are Safe, But You’re Probably Doing Them Wrong

 As a general rule, if the bar is so heavy that you cannot squat below parallel with it and stand back up, it’s too heavy to have on your back.

What about you? 

Below the fold, image depicting all of the muscles engaged in a full squat. She's using dumbells, but it is not as if gals cannot do barbell squats. They sure can, and using the bar makes it more reliable to keep a chest-up posture. On the other hand, dumbell squats get you low if you touch the dumbells to the ground...but on the third hand, barbell back squats let you squat with more weight than your grip is strong.

I'm interested in what our readers do for calisthenics, and whether they do them on separate days or just mix them in with weights days and cardio days. 

I include recreational sports (other than running, biking, or swimming) as calisthenics.

Calisthenics are about agility, endurance, general fitness, athleticism, balance, and things like that. Our list and variety is long. Some of them: Pushups, pullups, planks, heavy ball throws, burpees, body-weight squats, inclined pulls, Farmer walks, sled pushes and pulls, jumping jacks, band walks, step-ups, box jumps, lunges. As we've said often, just 3 hrs of calis/wk, with nothing else, is a lot better than nothing.

What do you do for this aspect of fitness? 

Complex resistance exercises (in contrast to isolation exercises) are the best for strength and fitness. (Complex reistance exercises are those which require multiple muscle groups to work at once.)

There are several reasons, but for me time efficiency comes first. Second, it's more natural in life for different muscle groups to work together.  

No single exercise counts as a full body strength workout, but the deadlift comes closest to that. 

9 essential exercises to include in any full body workout

Why to  Keep away from simple, use complex movements

Deadlifts standards for men and women, by age and weight 

Best summary I have seen on the topic. Deadlift vs Squat – Comparing Strength and Muscles Worked

It is clear that it is worth doing both, but not on the same day. For what it's worth, I do back squats once weekly, deads once weekly, and leg press once weekly for lower body resistance exercises.

It is difficult and slow to build lower body power with my particular physical architecture (runner's build), but I work at it. Just increasing the wts by 5 lbs/month is great.

There's not much data on the topic, so opinions are all over the map. A mix of exercises is good for us. Cardio and Lifting – Cardio won’t hugely impact your gains in the short run, and may be beneficial for strength and size in the long run

My gyms have no dedicated body-builders but I notice that strength-oriented people will do an occasional treatmill run or 10 minutes on the Jacob's Ladder.  They also tend to be the only people, besides me, who jump rope regularly. (Jumping is great HIIT cardio, and almost fun if you mix up your jumps. Takes a little skill and practice, but that's a cool challenge.)

I also notice that some gym regulars do almost entirely weights, some only take daily calisthenics classes at 6 am (30 people in my classes), and some only do "cardio" on the treadmills, ellipticals, or Stairmaster. To each his or her own.  

Because the Maggie's Fitness for Life program is designed for endurance, energy, athleticism, and to stall or reverse the effects of sloth and age (and to look good, too) more than to build intimidating muscle mass, I think general fitness is worth any possible compromise in growth of muscle.

Also, strength and muscle mass are not necessarily equivalents. I know a gal who does deadlift reps at 300 lbs, and does not look "muscular".

That said, no reason not to keep trying to improve one's deads, squats, and benches. Sturdiness. 

Addendum: I have little doubt that training for distance running is a problem for weight training. I was just thinking about gym work. Distance work training (for marathons, +) takes a serious toll.

What do our readers think?