Low Impact Workouts

So...at 45 years old there are a lot of things to consider when working out. Part of me wants to get huge by lifting heavy weights and the other part wants to minimize the impact on my old bones. My chiro is a fan of the latter. Anyways, I put my weight bench away during the holidays and decided to try something different. My current work out strategy goes like this; Monday I do push ups, pull ups etc. a complete body workout with minimal weights for curls, flies, tris and forearms, using just barbells. I do two sets of 15 for each muscle group, but not in a row. Tuesday I do 30 min speed walking on the treadmill. Wednesday I do Wii Fit for 30 min. mostly core workouts and balance games. Thursday I do the treadmill again. Friday I do weights unless I had to take a day off and everything slid a day. On the weekends I try to do a swim, run and indoor bike. I don't know if it is better or worse, but I think you can see how each exercise is beneficial. I guess mixing it up occasionally is the best message here. Perhaps I will feel the need to bulk up once the sweaters come off, which is soon I hope.

Update

I have been busy working on my Barefoot Run, living Primal and Intermittent Fasting. First, the run is now set for July 17th at Gallup Park. We are working on shirts, sponsors, advertising and volunteers.  I am concentrating on eating more meat and vegetables, less rice and fruit and no carbs. My work outs are Mon-Arms, Tues-Chest, Wed-Legs and Thursday-back. I take Friday off. I try to swim bike and run on the weekends with a couple of runs during the week. The week runs are usually two miles for distance and the weekend runs are one mile warm ups and hard sprints. The philosophy is lift heavy things and sprint. In the past I usually worked on mileage, but now it's just speed. My eating routine is now Mon/Wed/Fri-Lunch and snacks at night, Tue/Thur-Breakfast, shake for lunch and Dinner. The weekends are not structured, but I try to eat brunch and Dinner. I weighed in at 186 today after being at 190 at the beginning of the month! I should be at 175 by August. I actually think 170 is ideal, but figure I will plateau once first.

Training Philosophy

I just read a great blog on Primal Muse called Training Philosophy. It has motivated me to change my whole work out program. While this information is nothing new in the Primal world, it has a direct correlation to my triathlon training and bike riding specifically. Please go to his link for the scientific verbiage, but for the laymen I will spell out what I have done and will change. The CV has always been to put in the base miles during the winter and to train with light to medium weights with higher reps for us endurance athletes. I always considered myself an endurance athlete, but Olympic distance triathlons aren't really that long. Now that I have been reading Mark's blog and following Primal I have begun sprint workouts, lifting heavy things etc., but still worried about the distance. Jamie recommends getting the speed and the power base and throw in the endurance at the end. Naturally, the opposite of CV. But why should I be surprised? If I have learned one thing in the last 6 months, it's that everything I thought I knew, and was so smug about, was wrong. So, it's time to up the weights, shorten the distances, increase the sprints and plan on kicking some butt next year. I move into a new age group next year, 45-49, so I'm pretty excited about that. On the other hand, I have found that the guys my age doing triathlons tend to be pretty serious, so it's no easy task kicking their butts. I am going to set my goal of top 20% in my age group. That would differ from the usual middle of the pack.

Lift Heavy Things

So far this week I have done arms on Monday, chest on Tuesday and legs today. My arm workout currently consists on 3 X 8 reps of dumbbells, chin ups, curl bar, and dumbbell triceps and wrist curls front and back. I also am starting doing pull ups the Mark Sisson way. The chest work out consists of 3 X 8 reps of push ups with my feet on the second stair, bench press, push ups using push up bars, incline dumbbell press with a band for extra difficulty and overhead press with dumbbells. I also began doing jack knifes the Sisson way. For legs I do 3 X 8 reps of leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, squats and finally step leaps, where I jump with both feet onto a stump about 1.5 feet high.