Of those components you mentioned I'd focus a lot on muscular endurance. In my mid-50's I was very active and was pushing myself playing a lot of tennis. Unfortunately pushing that much led to knee injuries and now (at 58) I'd be lucky to hit for 30 min. Core, hip and glute endurance are key and not doing deep lunges for your knees. Listen to your body and don't expect you'll be at the same active level all your life.
Where is your fitness compared to earlier stages of life?
- Thread starter EdwardoCarrachio
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I think that's the hardest part, knowing how and when to modify your approach. It's just so easy to want to try to do things as if you were still a 20-year-old kid when of course I need to do things a little smarter and ditch the pride. Plus, I have to allow myself more rest days sometimes.
You mention the focus on muscular endurance, and I think that may be the way to go as I age. I incorporate that now in my routine to sort of close out each exercise.
My lifts generally start with a warmup set or so (I'm still somewhat warm from the pre-breakfast cardio) and then jump right up to the highest weight that I'm working (although I build up more gradually with heavy squat and deadlift). I like to work muscular strength and power while I have the most in the tank. Then after hitting the highest working weight for each exercise, I like to work higher reps for more sets for muscular endurance.
Another strategy for each workout is starting with compound exercises (movement at multiple joints- squat, deadlift, bench press, shoulder press, single arm snatch, weighted pull ups, seated or weighted inverted row, etc.) before moving on to isolation exercises (movement at only one joint such as leg extension, leg curl, single leg weighted calf raises, triceps extension, biceps curl, back hyperextension, shrugs, front and lateral raises, etc.). Compound exercises are more complex movements that generally can be worked at higher weights than isolation movements.
You also mentioned about pushing that lead to knee injuries. That's what I worry about for my wife still doing marathons. She's in fantastic shape (same weight as HS) but she already complains about her knees some and she takes it easier on downhills to reduce the impact. But I just think running marathons and even halfs are grueling. Over many years, they can really do a job on joints and there are even studies too much running at those longer distances can lead to heart issues. But she loves it and hasn't so far cut back too much on distance, maybe just fewer marathons and more halfs.
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I like to alternate heavy, low reps days (usually my 1st day coming off rest and focusing on the high end strength) with high rep, lower weight days (2nd day hitting that part of the week). Just to illustrate:
Sunday - heavy chest / Triceps
Monday - back / bicep
Tuesday - legs / shoulders
Wednesday - rest day
Thursday - rep chest / bicep / Triceps
Friday - back / shoulders
Saturday - legs or rest day
That's a nice routine and I've used the strategy of heavy day followed by light day for that body part next round. I'll switch back to it on occasion for a few months at a time.
I wouldn't be able to pull off legs and shoulders on the same day though. Legs takes everything out of me. It has to be its own day for me.
Part of the no ice cream, no cake, muffins, pie, etc portion.
At 73 my body can't keep up with my head on the ski slope. Fitness comes much harder and disappears way faster. Had surgery right before the season and it prevented me from doing much of anything for a few weeks. A summers effort down the drain. My doctors official diagnosis was "Gettin old sucks". Truer words were never spoken.
At 73, simply being on the ski slope is pretty amazing.
As the saying goes (for many things):
You don't stop skiing when you get old.
You get old when you stop skiing.
I’ve definitely seen changes in my fitness over the years. In my younger days, I was more into sports and running, but as I got older, I shifted to more weight training and mixed it with cardio to stay balanced. It's been a gradual transition, but I feel stronger now than I ever did back then. I recently used https://www.exercise.com/grow/how-to-make-a-fitness-app/ to track my progress, and it was eye-opening to see how far I've come. It really helped me visualize my growth and stay on track. Overall, I think I’m in the best shape of my life right now, and it's all about being consistent and knowing what works for your body.
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