New from Chicago

[jeromechicago]

Howdy! Started using the Android app a few weeks ago, thought I'd say Hi! 46 year old guy in Chicago, moderately fit but could stand to lose a bit of weight and tone up. Good luck everyone!

Jerome

[Deviation]

Welcome to the site!

[jeromechicago]

Welcome to the site!

Thanks for the welcome! I've enjoyed reading your posts and blog

[flowe128]

Hey there,

46 must be a lucky number, so let us old guys show everyone how it is done. I am in the same boat although I have found myself over the last few months losing endurance due to daily stresses (i.e. work, etc.,) And I find myself falling behind so I am trying a couple of cool concepts that I'd like to bounce around with guys in the social media stratosphere.

One thing I have tried with my 22 year old son for a while but I found myself making some gains, in terms of definition, is a HIIT variation. I use weights and my sets are time measured and not rep measured. It's a workout where you need a spot, a good spot. My son liked, well at least partially when he didn't think I was demented, but his school load at college has kicked in and we often don't find time anymore.

I would do 2-3 sets of 2-3 minute intervals. I would start out pretty heavy and go to where I needed help or a forced rep then I would drop the set down and go until the end of the time period. I based it off of boxing rounds and made it endurance and strength intensive. At our age, I found myself with a little joint soreness, well ok a bit more than a little, but it wasn't bad. It's harder to keep up and I found myself struggling to hit everything within a respective amount of time.

Another thing, that I tried was something I stole from a guy on youtube. I started strapping bands to hammer strength machines and anything else you could put weight on (i.e. barbell, dumbell, you name it) and I'd add weight, sometimes as much as I could lift and I would do the same with that. The bands kill the dead period you feel when you get past a certain point and it forces you to work all the muscles, it makes a negative a true challenge. The problem is that when you need a spot, it means now and not after you scratch your nose.

Both of methods seemed to yield some results but, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew. Primarily because of time (working full time and doing everything us old guys do just doesn't leave enough time to take 2 hours 4-6 days a week in the gym), and I found myself literally exhausted. I went into this in decent shape but I felt literally exhausted afterwards, so I am working back up to this with some modifications. I still train my abs sets this way, although I do cut the sets short when I get abdominal cramps or my abs completely sieze, yes that has happened and the little girl in Xsport thought I was seriously hurt.

Right now I am mixing in a bunch of old school core exercises along with some iso exercises to hit all of my body parts. I started out with a month or two of full body workouts which actually weren't as bad as I thought, albeit exhausting, then I started giant sets with core lifting exercises and isolation moves --who would have thought that at 46 I would love the muscle snatch so much. I have to say that has to be the most taxing exercise for anyone and I think for guys at our lively age, it's a good way to maintain core strength and get some endurance --if done with the right reps.

[Deviation]

If you're time strapped, don't feel like you need a 5+ day a week workout to get the job done. Most of the time 3 days of focused work are all you need. HIIT is great for cardio. I don't like it with weights since the chance for injury is a bit higher (focused on time; not form).

[jeromechicago]

Interesting to see a reply to this old thread. Just letting everyone know I'm still around, just got tired of updating my log. I've been concentrating on Leangains and an RPT program for a bit lately, I've been out of commission for a while with a shoulder injury.