We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It is true that if you jog a mile three times/wk for a month you can add another mile the next month, and so on until you hit your limit (or the limit of available time). That's fine, but far from efficient endurance training.
It's good to see that the media is finally catching up with what exercise physiologists have known for decades: Mild-moderate aerobic cardiorespiratory/cardiovascular ("Cardio") exercising does not lead to much improvement (but it's better than sitting):
At the ordinary gym, you will see many people diligently, virtuously, monotonously, putting in their 45-60 minutes on treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, rowers. You will see joggers doing the same outdoors. They will not lose weight by doing that, they will not get stronger doing that, and it can only benefit (and then, only slightly) a damaged heart in cardiac rehab.
The American Heart Association doesn't tell you that. It's not their narrative. They are still telling people to avoid fats, so that tells you how out of touch they are.
Squats are among the Big Five or Big Six essential multi-muscle strength conditioning exercises. Contrary to what this lady implies, it's not for "toning." It's for functional strength and general endurance (but I guess it can cure Saggy Butt Syndrome too).
I found that I had to work up to barbell squats by using the leg press machine, doing plain squats, and doing goblet squats or heavy ball squats. Now I can do barbell squats. I did 5 sets of 6-10 this morning of increasing weights, and man do I feel it.
Her form is perfect. Get that butt back, chest out, head up, and go low. Perhaps lower than she goes if you can. This gal is strong and fit:
I only do the Conventional, because I do deads mainly to sturdy-up my "posterior chain," ie neck to back to calf to ankle. It has done a lot for my posture and my overall power. See recent pic of me, below (actually, not me but I self-identify as that so you have to accept it - and if you do not you may not use my bathroom):
It's all the rage these days, and rightly so. "Over the hill" is just a state of mind. There is a 92 year-old dude who does weights at my gym. Use it or lose it.
That good old guy must love life to pursue it so vigorously.
The reason for strength conditioning is to build or maintain functionality. That means preventing the muscle and bone loss of inertia and age, strengthening joints, improving posture, improving balance, enhancing nerve-to-muscle reactivity, and building or maintaining power and energy for daily life and for sports and recreation.
Strength training is not the same as "body-building." Normal strength-training by ordinary people like us is not meant to build bulging muscles. However, with each increment of improvement and with proper diet your naked self will look and feel a bit less like a weak slob with flab and sagging things, and that is a nice side benefit.
Should a healthy adult male be able to do a minimum of ten push ups and ten pull-ups? Of course. Sturdy males can do far more.
A comment about time efficiency in strength conditioning - and fitness in general - below the fold -
I find Deadlifts and Squats to be the most strenuous exercises. It makes sense, because these two are strength-builders - not calisthenics - and engage so many muscle groups at once. (In the Calisthenics category, I find Burpees the most strenuous.)
Squats are a fundamental, functional, whole-body exercise. As it is wrong to say that Deads can hurt your back, it is wrong to claim that squats can harm your knees. The contrary is true for both.
I focus on the squat today as I have begun to introduce weighted squats into my basic strength-building routine. I need them. Barbell on my shoulders works best for me, but to each his own. Kettlebell held on chest is good for a start.
He is focusing on carb metabolism and other health-related issues. Those issues aside, I think general conditioning, or training as he terms it, calls for both strength and cardio-endurance efforts. Of course intensity is key, which is why walking has no fitness benefit for those under age 80. If he has arguments against burpees, heavy rope games, stepping routines, and jump rope, I'd listen to them because those calisthenics are strenuous, difficult, and basically unpleasant.
My simple theory is that if physical efforts are stressful and difficult to the point of pain and failure, they will make you better (as long as you are not truly injuring yourself). It has to be hard as heck.
People got tired of, or by, my work-out posts, so I gave it a rest until tonight.
For cardio conditioning, it's the intensity - not the time spent.
"Runnin' man is a great conditioning tool to integrate rhythm, timing, and footwork into your routine. As a double bonus there is a big decrease in impact compared to traditional jogging." Properly done, jump rope games are almost zero joint impact other than toes. Lately, I see more and more people incorporating it into their cardio routines. Often, three one-minute sets of rope mixed with some other stuff.
If you can do Running Man for longer than a minute without getting winded, let us know.
How does Running Man work? Clearly there is a moment in this fast jogging in which neither foot is on the ground - but one is not aware of that when doing it. Seems like magic. By the way, this guy is stepping a bit too high and his arms are too wide for correct technique, but he has good speed:
My trainer is moving me into a new phase, a new program today. Says it's almost Spring, so it's time to build a Beach Body so the gals will notice me again (being facetious, of course). Plus I have been at this now for 10 months, 5-6 days/week, so my muscles are as awake as they will ever be.
He plans each work-out in advance. He is programmatic, systematic.
Today was a 3-min elliptical warm-up, then
- 3 sets leg press, medium-rep - 3 sets weighted squats, low rep - 3 sets of approx 100 singles jump rope - 3 sets skull-crushers, hi-rep - 3 sets military press, medium rep - 2 sets standing curls, one hi rep and one low rep - 2 sets each of leg extension, leg curl, leg adduction, leg abduction - all high-rep to burn
No pain, no gain. (reps refers to weight and intensity - high rep means you can pull out 12-15 max, low rep means you can pull out 2-8. If you can do more than 15, need to increase the resistance)
All of that leg stuff should have been condensed into 20 mins of dead lifts, but I need a bit more leg work to advance my deads. Not stable enough at higher weights due to skinny legs and skinny white ass. Deads on Friday morning I think. The goal remains to reach just a handful of heavy strength-building exercises 2 days/wk (half of them each time so each muscle group is pushed to the max weekly), plus heavy calisthenic days or cardio days between for general fitness.
He gave me a new cardio program too, for my off days. Will describe that in another post.
I keep thinking that, if I were a furniture mover, I'd get paid for this toil.
Do people outside the US pursue this sort of thing?
Over the past six months or so, in our posts about physical fitness, we have always made a distinction between strength training and the other useful activities which build strength minimally or not at all but are more maintenance-oriented and endurance-oriented such as cardio intervals, calisthenics, heavy calisthenics, high-rep weights, isometrics, pliometrics, recreational sports, or mucking out the barn. In other words, activities which use your muscles - or "tone" your muscles, but do not build them.
The latter activities so not require any more protein than one's usual diet.
Strength training is ideally part of any fitness program, but most people don't do much of it because it hurts. I am not talking about "body-building" in the extreme sense, just strength-building. Strength-building entails moving heavy things in order to break down, damage, muscle tissue. Generally-speaking, if you can do more than 12 reps you are doing a warm-up or working on endurance, not so much muscle-building so it's time to raise the weight. The strength-building part occurs during several days afterwards, the recovery phase. As with bone fractures, your body's repair leaves it stronger than it was before you broke it down.
Muscle repair and building requires more protein than the average diet, but probably not a whole lot more. There is a lot of wacky advice out there, but for those who move heavy weight two or three times/week, I think this article is reasonable: Are You Eating Enough Protein To Build Muscle?
The article claims that, for a male, a serious muscle-building program with heavy weight, 2-3 times/week, needs up to 1 gm protein/lb body weight daily. (On average, non-pregnant women have about half the dietary needs of men). It's all approximate, of course. And who knows how many grams of protein there are in my particular hamburger anyway? With a whey powder, you know what you're getting if you like that sort of thing.
(FYI, an average burger has around 20-30 gms, an egg 6 gms, a glass of whole milk about 8 gms. You can Google all food numbers. Whey powder is labeled by gms per scoop.)
Saturday is Cardio Fun Day for us. After doing my "Eights," ie cardio intervals, yesterday morning, I spent 40 minutes working on my jump rope drills while Mrs. BD did her assigned routines. Stay fit and strong for your spouse, if not for yourself. Need each other to be fit for a long life. You do not want to crap out or fat out on him or her.
Man, jump is fatiguing as heck but there is little to no joint impact, done properly. Just a light tap on the balls of the feet. I did lots of singles speed rope (sets of 100+) and worked on one-footed and then worked on Running Man. I can do one-footed jumps sort of ok for a bit, but I find it tough to coordinate running with the rope. It looks easy but is not until you get the hang of it. Brain is the problem - it gets mixed up.
Supposedly doubles come next but I have to master Running Man first, and for somebody for whom walking while chewing gum is challenging, it's a bitch, but there is some fun it in.
Jump games are excellent high-intensity cardio-endurance drills, cost next to nothing, zero joint impact, and can be done anywhere. Why not? Boxers and tennis pros think it's the best endurance drill. Maybe stairs can compare, but demand less moving balance.
(nb: Lots of people have the idea that you can lose fat via exercise. No way. De minimus. Cardio-endurance exercises - "calisthenics" - can keep you energetic and mobile, though. Lucky for me, fat not a problem. Keeping my weight up is my problem. That's where the mashed taters come in.)
I think this guy is exactly right about cardio and endurance. 30-second heart rate peaks are the efficient way to go. He is right that all of those people doing routine, monotonous aerobics for 40 minutes are wasting their time.
Dr. Mercola is also good on muscle-maintenance, but has a bit too much emphasis on machines instead of free weight work. Our theory is that the machines are only to help us build up to more complex, multi-muscle group functional strength exercises we have listed in past posts. It's the latter that are most life-useful.
Overall, though, a good message. No pain, no gain.
We're convinced it is the single most comprehensive strength exercise that exists, stressing every muscle in the posterior chain from your heels to your neck - but including your core and forearms too. The large number of muscles engaged is why it is so difficult and fatiguing when pushing the weight.
It's especially valuable for those over age 45.
I've heard people say that you can injure yourself doing them. Not at all, if done right. In fact, not doing deadlifts is more of an invitation to back problems, overall weakness, and sloppy posture. I hate doing them so much I call them Dreadlifts. (Mrs. BD loves the challenge of Deads, but I dread it.) When you hate an exercise, it tells you that you need it because YOU'RE WEAK. Happily, after 9 months I am approaching my final, realistic weight goal for Deads after which I will stay with that, trying to increase my reps. I do not have a weight-lifting physique - a runner's build - but I give it my all. The alternative is to get weaker and, eventually, frail with fragile bones. Postpone that.
Deadlift is not about building conspicuous muscle for the beach or for sleeveless dresses - it's about building and maintaining functionality and agility. It's really just "Picking things up off the floor."
(Fitness in middle age and beyond = Strength, Balance, Cardio, and General Endurance. Most efficient and simple exercises for the Strength component are Deads, Barbell squats, Pull-ups, Bench press, Rows, Planks, Push-Ups, maybe military presses too. Doing sets of those once a week, pushing towards realistic goals, will postpone physical frailty until some disease gets you. Pull-ups are my weakest, just not there yet, dammit. I am disgusted by any of my weaknesses, physical or mental. Mens sana in corpore sano.)
In our posts on calisthenic fitness exercises (ie cardio + body-weight exertion - not muscle-building) we have always included jump-roping. I have been working on it. There is a technique to be mastered, and the ballistic nature of it is quickly fatiguing for me. I have tried to do doubles, but can not do them yet.
Block out any association you have with jump ropes and school children—the jump rope is an incredibly efficient, versatile workout tool. Carry it in your backpack or briefcase, bring it with you on vacations and weekend trips for work because this is one of the easiest ways to build cardio fitness, agility, and strength on the go.
This fellow goes through 6 tips for your beginning jump-roping (the 6 videos should run sequentially but if they do not, here they are:
Since we have so many guys and gals here getting on the heavy-duty fitness bandwagon, here's my update. Friday is mostly Heavy Calisthenics Day for me - moving day - and each time it is different to prevent habituation. This morning 5 am:
- 3-minute elliptical warm-up - Four sets of leg press, just 340 lbs, 15 reps each after an 100 lb. warm up of 20 reps. I can do it. I can do more. Barely. Grunting. - A four set rotation of heavy rope variations, step-and-press with heavy ball, and big ball wobbly planks - Four sets of jump (speed) rope alternating with variations of heavy ball slams. (I am working towards 100 jumps without slip-ups). How is your jump-rope coming along? It is a tough calisthenic exercise. - 3 sets of hamstring curl with big ball to balance the leg presses
Yes, that is mostly intense cardio/general fitness, not strength, on Fridays. One hour, more or less, with minimal breaks for a sip of water or coffee. I can feel my heart pound for about an hour afterwards and I can not climb the stairs. That is the good sign that I have exerted myself to my max. One hard-boiled egg with salt for breakfast is enough for repair.
Tomorrow is my normal cardio day regardless of global cooling: 5 minutes stair machine intervals, 10-20 minutes elliptical intervals, 25 minutes treadmill intervals (while watching the Food Channel), with plank variations plus calf lifts with 20-30 lb. weights between each item. Could do more, but the trick is to find the right amount and be done with it. No point in over-doing it but a good point to doing it.
Sedentary people like me without manual labor jobs need to move with intensity - or face decay. Mrs. BD's knee problems were solved by some weight loss plus weight- lifting and other leg-strengthening exercises. Bad knees need weight loss and muscular compensation. It is a vulnerable joint, like the shoulder. These joints were just built to get us past breeding age.
After almost 8 months, I am getting to the point where I can truly begin to work hard, and all of the aches and pains in the first 6 months have resolved by building strength and endurance. Remarkable adaptation of the middle-age body, but nothing ever gets possible before the bar gets raised. Goals! 10 reps of 200 lb. deads!
nb: I am no expert; just an 11-month beginner, sharing what I am discovering. I have been fairly athletic most of my life, but never especially strong. A runner's body.
We've said that physical fitness consists of 1. muscle strength, 2. cardio fitness, 3. physical power (strength X speed), and 4. muscle+cardio (ie calisthenic endurance) - plus minimal flab and sag.
We've asserted that beach muscles are not necessary at all for fitness, but that strength-building and maintenance are required for best efforts in all of the above to prevent physical deterioration and to maintain vigorous functionality after 40.
Strength is just one, but the key, component of fitness (unless you need diet too). Regarding the strength component, for efficient strength-building and maintenance, traditional Compound (multi-joint) exercises are best (their recommended program is ridiculous, tho, I think, because it is all strength). For many of us, it may take months of Isolation muscle work to be able to make the most of Compound efforts. For example, lots of men and women can't do enough pull-ups to make it useful at all and so have to work up to it. (Compound vs. Isolation strength exercises)
The King of Compound exercise is the essential Deadlift, aka picking up heavy things off the floor and then putting them down. I don't think any other exercise stresses as many muscle groups at once. Thus the efficiency. Some say the King is the Barbell Squat, but I disagree. Doesn't matter much.
Cosmetically, Deads are also the best thing for your posture. Mentally, Deads (and Barbell Squats) can be the greatest tests of will-power, of mind over matter. Proper technique is absolutely necessary for effect and to prevent injury. Man, these things are heavy - dead lifts = dead weight - and as soon as you can do 5 reps, they raise you 10 lbs.
Friday is calisthenics day which means general fitness and agility, with no heavy weight.
Kettleball swings Ladder footwork drills and ladder hands and toes drills Floor planks Heavy rope slams Kettleball Farmer Walks (aka Costco Walks) Heavy ball smashes Heavy ball wall slams Burpees Mountain-climbers Bench dips Step-ups Lunges Body-weight squats Jump rope Inclined pull-ups Jumping jacks Hammie curls with Big Ball Pull-ups or Jumping pull-ups
3 sets of an assortment of those over an hour works up a decent sweat and creates some good total body fatigue.
(As I have reported, my fitness program is currently one hour of heavy push, one hour of heavy pull, one hour of calisthenics, and 2 or 3 days with mostly cardio/endurance work.)
Exercise tip: ALWAYS stretch calves before jump rope. And get the technique right. Can learn it on Youtube. Tougher than you might think.
Another: Muscle hypertrophy and strength are not equivalent. Olympic lifters do not look like The Hulk. Sometimes hypertrophy is more cosmetic than functional, eg bicep hypertrophy. That's body-sculpting, not functional strength. We aim for overall strength of the wiry type, but are not entirely free of vanity either.
For our foreign readers, a question: Do you folks in Euroland and Asia do this sort of stuff to stay young and strong? Or is it just us crazy Americans who try to cling to youthfulness and vigor?
Building strength, power, and endurance are our goals (along with minimizing disgusting body fat) until we reach a point of satisfaction and can move into fitness-maintenance. The "Body-building" is not a goal per se, but some of that accompanies strength improvement. Vigor and "functional fitness."
I did heavy weights this morning. It is so damn difficult mentally and physically. On several sets I reached muscle failure and pain before meeting my boss' expected goals du jour. There is no way for an amateur to do weight work without a trainer (need a spotter, a constant technique-correcter, and somebody to push you harder and to raise the weights each week). He said "Good, we're breaking down those muscles, tearing those fibers." Indeed. Body feels like jello.
A little liquid carb and protein are supposedly good after heavy weights - and an Advil: Why Bother With Recovery Drinks? I need to do that, but one salted hard-boiled egg is all I can handle in the morning on a normal day. Carbs feel revolting to me before 6 pm unless I am in a diner with a friend. Part of my problem is that I do not really like food very much, however elegant and fancy. It just doesn't do much for me or my soul. Just makes me tired.
"Recovery" time and nutrition do not apply to cardio (aerobic) exercise and conditioning, only to heavy resistance efforts where it can take 3-5 days for recovery and reconstruction of a given muscle group. We only do dead lifts once a week, for example, but we push it to the max - to the point when one asks "Why the hell am I here doing this when I could be in bed instead of lifting this f-ing Volkswagen only to put it down again at 5 a.m.?"
It is interesting to learn that cardio exercises (aerobics), over time, can reduce muscle size and power. Cardio training and strength training do not mix well, in fact, because the body responds to them differently: Controlling Muscle Breakdown
Still, most of us white-collar, sedentary fitness-seekers want improvement in all areas so we have to do the best we can with them. Push them all and hope for the best. If we were peasants in the fields, we'd be in better shape. Over the next four or five months I hope to build towards a simplified work-out of multi-muscle-group exercises: Dead lifts, bench press, chin ups, pull-ups, rows, barbell squats, step-ups with military presses, planks. That will have taken one year in May 2016 to maybe reduce my wonderful trainer from 3 to 1 or 2 days/week.
That, plus combos of jump (speed) rope, stair machine, elliptical, treadmill for the cardio part on my "off" days. In total, moving with maximum exertion and intention 40-60 minutes per day, 5-6 days/week for the indefinite future. I gave myself 12 months to get into half-decent condition for my age, and have approached it with total dedication despite my lazy-ass body yelling "Stop! I don't feel like doing this!"
"I don't feel like it" is the death of decadent Western Civilization and of the human spirit. It is spirit-less. So is gluttony, and all of the other deadly sins. I think Character, like muscle strength, is built through pure, ungratifying, unpleasant effort. I have almost always done my best with that. On occasion, not - to my endless shame.
To look at me with clothes on, no difference is noticeable except for better posture and slight bulging in the shoulders of my old suits. I was never in bad shape, but was beginning to lose fitness and energy over time and to create a small paunch. I am glad to see that some of my pals are getting on board with this pursuit of the fountain of youth.
(At some point in the future, Crossfit (the regular, not the competitive version) might be a good addition to a maintenance work-out program, and more fun with a cohesive random group and lots of exercise variety. Their programs seem to push you to your personal max, whether you are fat or a 95-lb hollow-chested weakling, 18 years old or 80 years old, an athlete or a heart-attack survivor or stroke patient.)
As I have said, general fitness is about five things: Endurance/Stamina, Strength, Flexibility and Balance, Power (Power = Strength X Speed) and a trim, energetic physique. Most exercises have overlap - addressing some aspects of all of the above to varying degrees.
It's possible to have good endurance (eg a distance runner) with poorly-developed strength and power, or to have excellent strength (eg a body-builder) without power or endurance. Perhaps the sport which demands the ultimate balance of the categories is high-level Basketball, but we can argue that all day.
"Functional fitness", as opposed to fitness targeted to a specific use or a specific sport, is aimed towards those four or five goals in a balanced way. For average people like me determined to "get in shape," the limiting factor to developing in all areas is strength (- if it's not being fat). Decent - not extreme - muscle strength is the foundation of everything else.
For example, it even requires strength-development to do effective, intense cardio intervals. Plodding along for hours offers no cardio or other physical benefit at all unless you are 80 years old.
That's why an introductory program to get back in shape will entail devoting plenty of your time with difficult and painful resistance exercises for the upper body, lower body, and core (back and abs). As you approach your personal strength goals (which ought to be modest and realistic because you ain't Arnold), you can back off to a more efficient strength-maintenance mode and focus more time on the other fitness areas - applying and stressing some of that strength by using it in more functional exercise like heavy calisthenics. Of course, that includes sports, recreation, and physical work and not just gym work.
Then, to stay in good shape, you'll have to do some of that forever - or until you give up on physical fitness and vigor and retire to the olde rockin' chair or the La-Z-Boy to decay in comfort.
That's the basic theory for maintaining vigor.
As a middle-aged guy who had not exercised seriously for 20 years, I think it will have taken me a year before reaching half-decent overall strength (eg benching my weight, deading well over my weight, good barbell squats, doing some number of chin-ups). As we get older, strength is more difficult to increase and quicker to disappear when it's not used. A sad fact: In middle age, muscle strength and mass diminishes measurably within 2 weeks unless it is stressed.
It has been fun to learn about exercise physiology. Physiology is interesting it itself, I think. ATP, fast-twitch and slow-twitch, aerobic and anaerobic, glycogen and fat-burning, muscle micro-tears, etc. Our animal body is a miracle.
- Avoid having a workout routine. Even with cardio. Reason is, with routine your body gets too efficient to be properly challenged. So if you run one day, do stairs the next cardio day. Or if you do squats one time, do jumping squats the next time. If you do bench one week, do inclined bench next week. Keep surprising your body with different demands or you will plateau.
- Free weights. Free weights are better than machines because they engage all the accessory muscles. Many machines are just to help people get to the point where they can use free weights without injury.
- Once per week is enough for heavy resistance work for a given muscle group. That's why it's common for people to have one upper body day and one lower body day per week. Or, in my case now, one heavy Push day and one heavy Pull day.
- Drop Setsare cool. By the end, you can hardly pick up a pencil or take a step. You are broken, shredded. That's what makes you stronger.
- It's truly hard. Strength-building under supervision is remarkably difficult mentally and physically. It might be the most difficult thing I have ever done, and the only immediate gratification in it is when the hour is up. That's because, as soon as you can do something, your demands are increased. Progress is slow, measurable in months, not days. It is no wonder that gym memberships and attendance peak after the New Year and dwindle thereafter. Without self-discipline and the right diet, it's a pointless pursuit.
- Technique is key. It's easy to injure a muscle using poor weight technique. You have to be taught. It's not as simple as it looks. (Even jump rope has a proper technique.)
- Make noise. Gotta let yourself grunt and groan. It helps a lot. And let those farts rip during deadlifts. Everybody else does, including the gals.
- Lazy, unfit, and overweight is a rational choice. It must be, because people are not stupid. Worldwide, it seems to suit many or most people very well. It is limiting, though. As I struggle with my program, I grow more sympathetic with their choice.
As I have said, heavy calisthenics is about cardio and general conditioning - stressing and pushing whatever you have under the hood. It's always a different set of routines for me so it's always a surprise. Keeps it interesting, like Crossfit. Here's what he put me through this morning - minimal rests to catch breath:
Four reps of this set:
- high step with heavy ball lift (sheesh, that is a bitch) - kettle ball swing-walk - heavy ball smashes - kettle ball swing-walks again
Then three reps of this set:
- jump rope (he's perfecting my technique - wrist only, snapping the rope down. Difficult to do it correctly when you've done it wrong all your life. Have you jump-roped lately?) - heavy rope slamming in squat position - burpees
Such a relief when the clock strikes 6 am and the hour is over. Drenched with sweat and half-crippled
I view fitness training as having four fundamental components or targets: strength building and maintenance, cardio, general "functional" conditioning/endurance, and weight control. I don't have much fat because I usually don't like eating much and am rarely hungry, so that's not an issue for me. I force-feed myself protein to keep up. Every activity has some of each category, but most activities are mostly one of those categories.
I am now told I will need to up the intensity of my cardio days with jump rope and stairs. I'll give it the olde college try. It might kill me. My boss tells me to eat more food and protein, but i don't really want it no matter how tasty. Hard exercise reduces appetite.
Come on, you mostly-sedentary middle-aged reader guys and gals, and join me in this challenging journey. We can share notes. All it takes is Advil or Alleve, and self-discipline. Progress is slow, but at 7 months now of a 6-day/wk program (2 days heavy resistance, 3 days cardio intervals, 1 day heavy calisthenics), I can do things I had never dreamed of doing, like dead-lifting those railroad wheel things and almost benching my weight. Getting fit for a full life if not a long one.
At least one reader is interested in the topic, so I'll tell you what I had to do Friday morning at 5 am for my Friday Fun heavy calisthenics day.
After my usual 3-minute elliptical warm-up, my master strapped a 20# weight vest on me (I call it the jihad suicide vest because it might kill me). With that on, I went through cycles of these, repeated until an hour was up, approx 1-2 minutes of each with minimal (30-40 second) but necessary breath-catching time, thus about 6 cycles:
Jumping step-ups Squat-presses Kettle-ball swings Heavy ball smashes Complex agility ladder games Rope smashes Planks
Like Crossfit. I was drenched and incapacitated. But not dead yet. Feeling strong now? Nope. Feeling like a wreck. As you can see, this sequence is more about endurance, explosive effort, and intense cardio than strength-building. It would burn fat too, but I don't have much left to burn. I could not have completed this hour's sequence 5 months ago.
My fitness coach is now adding jump rope to the end of all of my daily morning routines.
I know that boxers and MMA people do a lot of jump rope but I still associate it with girls on the playground. Coach says he wants to add it to ramp up my anaerobic intensity. One article says this:
The jump rope is a powerful workout tool. It builds cardio fitness, balance, agility and bone strength. It's also one of the best go-anywhere fitness accessories, fitting easily into even a crammed carry-on.
It is a core-strengthener too. It's supposed to be a good fat-burner, but I don't need that very much although I guess I could use a physical six-pack. It is harmless to knees because all of the minimal impact is taken on the balls of your feet.
Like all cardio, it won't build muscle and it hurts, is not fun. Weight training/strength-building, on the other hand, is good fun. You get to grunt and groan and to look better in your guinea tees, but it's not real functional fitness. It is just a foundation for a fitness program. (It is fun to listen to the females doing their weight exercises. Their noises are sexual and that is a little bit stimulating/distracting.)
Coach will teach me the various techniques next week. Some of them are here. Jumping rope requires instruction. Who knew?
What are the high-intensity, anaerobic general fitness and cardio exercises (ie tough calisthenics)? Burpees, heavy ball exercises like throws and smashes, jump rope, fast squats with weight, jumping jacks with weight bar, sprints, quick high-stepping, running up stairs, and the like. Things that look easy but are not easy at all after a few minutes.
A couple of years ago, my fatigue on the ski slopes and on a hunt trip in deep snow (backpack, heavy boots, firearm) let me know that I could either shape up or surrender to decay. It took me a while to commit to the effort to shape up. Why? Because it is hard and painful. I do not want to be a quitter in life, until it's time.
- Physical endurance. Young or old, we all want more of that and enjoy more of that. We do not want to feel lazy or tired and we want to look, and be, fit for life and ready for any adventures (eg climbing Mt. Washington on a crisp autumn day). Improvement comes from regular intense, interval cardio work, not from jogging, plain swimming, or walking - or it can come from intense forms of calisthenics. Cardio work is usually done with a mixed interval approach (2 or 3 of: swim, treadmill, running, elliptical, stairs, rower). It's not the time, it's the intensity that counts. That has to be complemented with high-rep resistance and/or body-weight exercises because endurance is a total body affair. Endurance is about high-rep and high stress, but not high resistance.
Normal Crossfit (not the competitive, high-weight form of Crossfit) is about fitness and endurance through intense and varied calisthenics instead of the tedious machines or the tedious pool. Part of the fun people find in Crossfit is that it's a regular group in which people get to know each other and cheer each other on regardless of their level.
It is generally thought that 20 minutes of intense cardio 3-5 days/week is good enough for cardiovascular fitness, but it is not enough for overall endurance improvement. 40-50 minutes of gradually-increasing intervals will increase endurance. Up the intensity of the intervals every week or two until it's enough and we are satisfied with our fitness level (but who can be?)
My Friday program is basically a Crossfit-type hour. It's a killer. Anytime I can do something, he raises the bar until I break. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I do standard cardio intervals on treadmill, elliptical, and stair machine. If I can walk without stumbling, it hasn't been intense enough to be worth the time.
- Strength and power. Good things for life and for bones but only obtainable from making special effort with lower-rep heavy weight resistance exercises. We all want to attain and maintain our good normal strength as we grow up or grow older, but building strength takes special effort for those who do not do daily physical labor. Nature, indeed, wants to kill us after we have bred and ultimately will, but nobody wants to live life with the fitness of the gal behind the desk at the DMV - or of your accountant. Physically lazy is shameful and un-American. Sloth is one of the deadly sins.
It seems to me that most people want to be in good, fit shape but do not really aspire to greater strength and power if it takes blood, sweat, and tears. They want what is called "functional" fitness and endurance. That's basically what I wish to maintain or to improve, too but I need a bit more strength and power to get there. Just a few more months, I think. I do not want to get nutty about it but I would like to inspire others.
- "Toning." It's an aesthetic term, mostly used by females. It is not a physiologic term. It means more muscle, less fat.
- When friends discuss the exercise topic with me, I ask whether their goal is endurance, muscle power, agility, fat removal, mind-body discipline, or just to try to defeat aging. The answer is always "Yes."
- Structure and discipline. As in most areas of life, going to war against over-40 decay requires structure and discipline. Many, like me, need discipline and accountability to do the hard things (eg, paperwork, exercise, hedge-trimming, weeding). Some folks do the hard things automatically. God bless them.
Two or three of our readers are interested in my "boot camp" activities and progress because it is informative about how trainers approach middle-age fitness these days. It's not much different from how they deal with young athletes.
Fridays are my day for general fitness and muscle endurance. Here's what he had me do this morning:
- 3 minutes of elliptical warm-up (and wake-up), then
- 1 minute elbow plank - high-rep chest press machine - high steps - heavy ball smashes - rope slams - low-rep heavy bench press - pull-ups to failure - basic burpees - heavy-hand (kettlebell) farmer's walks to grip failure - dips to muscle failure
(Repeat the circuit of italicized sets 5 times with only 15-25 seconds between)
- cool down (?) with a couple of minutes on stair machine
That's a tough hour or so for me even without the usual squats with light military presses. I keep trying to remind myself that my breaking point is not what I think it is. I think I'll be able to do my end-of-week general fitness hour without his babysitting soon - but without the heavy bench work.
Tomorrow, he encourages me to begin to add stair machine (I call it stairway to heaven because you can die on that thing) to my cardio day routine to intensify it. It's intense already, but I do what I'm told.
Good cardio is about cardio-pulmonary endurance, muscle-maintenance, and slightly about burning fat (but only if on a carb-deprived diet). Intense cardio will not build any strength except maybe in your heart muscle, but everybody needs it to stay fully functional. Apparently non-intense cardio (swimming laps, walking) doesn't do much of anything.
20 minutes of this will do you good if it doesn't kill you.
HII is High Intensity Interval Training.
It's all the rage these days, and rightly so. "Over the hill" is just a state of mind. There is a 92 year-old dude who does weights at my gym. Use it or lose it.
As I have said, general fitness is about five things: Endurance/Stamina, Strength, Flexibility and Balance, Power (Power = Strength X Speed) and a trim, energetic physique. Most exercises have overlap - addressing some aspects of all of the above to varying degrees.
As I have said, heavy calisthenics is about cardio and general conditioning - stressing and pushing whatever you have under the hood. It's always a different set of routines for me so it's always a surprise. Keeps it interesting, like Crossfit. Here's what he put me through this morning - minimal rests to catch breath:
My fitness coach is now adding jump rope to the end of all of my daily morning routines.