Drink lots of water. All that good natural chemistry requires water.
Free Weights vs Machines vs Cables......
- Thread starter deadeyededric
- Start date
I have an app I downloaded and have been doing some lately. It kicks my ass.
I'd say diet is more than that - 80% plus if you're just talking about body composition. When I lost 100lbs about a year ago, I didn't work out at all. Desk job, no weights, no cardio, no active hobbies. Just diet. And I've kept it off by continuing to eat consistently without consistent exercise.
Now that I'm able to move better I've been trying to get back into exercise. I was an athlete in high school and have really enjoyed working out as an adult when I've done it. Just seems like schedule constantly gets in the way.
Diet is more than that. You can workout all you want but you have to eat right. Myself, I am a eat fairly good but I like to get drinks, eat pizza and tacos and whatever too sometimes. I go to the gym once a day at least and sometimes twice. I workout to enjoy things.
Don't worry about starting at the perfect place. Just pick something where you can get 3-5 sets of 3-15 reps without the movement slowing down much. If the weight slows down a lot, reduce the reps or weight during that set or the next. If you get all the way through, then next time add either a rep or a little weight. Wash rinse repeat. You should see an upward trend even though day-to-day there will be ups and down. Eventually you'll be able to "feel" where your reps/weights should be that day after the first set of each exercise.
Sometimes people have hard days outside the gym and need to manage fatigue, both physically and mentally. Blindly following the numbers on a spreadsheet can add too much fatigue, which leads to regression or injury.
I got the Core Home Fitness adjustable dumbbells and some additional weights for anything over the 50 pounds. I was doing Body Beast and the adjustable weights were a great luxury item.
Lifting over 50 is different, but you absolutely can get results.
Brothers and sisters in the 50+ club.... don't give up the fight!
This is maybe mostly relevant only to old dudes, and by old I don't mean you young 50-somethings. 
Way lean to machines because when I started doing weight stuff so many years ago Nautilus circuits were all the rage and my first club was essentially built around their Nautilus circuit with a smaller free weight area. These days I do a combo platter of machines and cables with a very small bit of free weights tossed in. I have a set of four cable pull exercises that keep my slightly torn rotator cuffs pain at bay. If they get too bad I have some mini weight exercises to do for them. The rehab went well, now it's maintenance with same sets, all from a sports rehab physical therapist **.
Same rotator cuffs limit a lot of things like bench press or military press etc, do not do them at all. Chest press machines where I can keep grip vertical are okay, same for chest flys on some machines. Also have elbow tendonitis, both "golf" and "tennis", that comes and goes and it's easier to find position and tempo on machines that doesn't risk pissing that elbow off. Got a nice routine at local LifeTime where I start with the shoulder rehab stuff and than move over to machines for mostly upper body. Do core floor exercises at home. You could ask me "Bro, do you even do legs?" and I'd mostly have to say only biking.
Do occasionally have to remind myself that I am an elder and to not overdo it. If I don't than rotator cuff and elbow will have a talk with me.
** Note. Do get some guys suggesting how I "should" be doing the cable pulls. Orthopedic I saw is one of the Viking team docs and his main therapist guy works with a lot of pro baseball players. I get it, it looks like pretty small weight on a couple of the sets but he said "DON'T increase the weight. This is the same weight I have pro pitchers do." So, yeah, I'm probably going with what they prescribed and not what the local gym rat thinks.
Way lean to machines because when I started doing weight stuff so many years ago Nautilus circuits were all the rage and my first club was essentially built around their Nautilus circuit with a smaller free weight area. These days I do a combo platter of machines and cables with a very small bit of free weights tossed in. I have a set of four cable pull exercises that keep my slightly torn rotator cuffs pain at bay. If they get too bad I have some mini weight exercises to do for them. The rehab went well, now it's maintenance with same sets, all from a sports rehab physical therapist **.
Same rotator cuffs limit a lot of things like bench press or military press etc, do not do them at all. Chest press machines where I can keep grip vertical are okay, same for chest flys on some machines. Also have elbow tendonitis, both "golf" and "tennis", that comes and goes and it's easier to find position and tempo on machines that doesn't risk pissing that elbow off. Got a nice routine at local LifeTime where I start with the shoulder rehab stuff and than move over to machines for mostly upper body. Do core floor exercises at home. You could ask me "Bro, do you even do legs?" and I'd mostly have to say only biking.
Do occasionally have to remind myself that I am an elder and to not overdo it. If I don't than rotator cuff and elbow will have a talk with me.
** Note. Do get some guys suggesting how I "should" be doing the cable pulls. Orthopedic I saw is one of the Viking team docs and his main therapist guy works with a lot of pro baseball players. I get it, it looks like pretty small weight on a couple of the sets but he said "DON'T increase the weight. This is the same weight I have pro pitchers do." So, yeah, I'm probably going with what they prescribed and not what the local gym rat thinks.
There is no activity on earth that makes me sweat more than yoga.
My first try at yoga was P90X yoga. ******* sucked and threw it into the trash.
My flexibility sucks. Like really really sucks. But I've never recovered from the P90X experience.
Some stretch workouts on Beachbody say stretch, but they sure seem like a yoga-ish experience
Lots of evidence that when diet is dialed in (mainly getting enough protein) and fatigue/recovery is well managed "old folks" can gain muscle mass and strength at the same rate as people in their 20s. These studies include people into their 70s!
If you want to be serious about getting bigger and stronger at any age, make sure you're averaging 1g protein per lb bodyweight per day (noting that 1g of meat is not 1g of protein) and get enough sleep. But anything you can do to move more will benefit your cardiovascular and mental health.
My advice when buying workout equipment is to buy the best quality you can afford. Better quality usually means smoother operation, quieter, more dependable and you’re more likely to continue using it.
I’ve had a Hoist smith machine for years and I can’t recommend it enough. Works just as good now as it did brand new. It has the ability to also use a free weight bar and a 200 pound weight stack with high/low cables and a pec deck.
I’ve also had a Precor treadmill for around two years that works great a set of adjustable dumbbells and a preacher curl bench I picked up years ago from one of the Lied equipment sales.
I’ve had a Hoist smith machine for years and I can’t recommend it enough. Works just as good now as it did brand new. It has the ability to also use a free weight bar and a 200 pound weight stack with high/low cables and a pec deck.
I’ve also had a Precor treadmill for around two years that works great a set of adjustable dumbbells and a preacher curl bench I picked up years ago from one of the Lied equipment sales.
The Downdog app I posted earlier in the thread has different 'boosts' that basically target specific concepts, one being flexibility. There's an emphasis on extending the spine through various poses that can really help. And the sessions can be set for different time limits which I like to just get the target area taken care of.
I'm sure there's other apps/sites but I've found it to be real user friendly and convenient for $36/year.
I did P90x back in the day. All the other days were 60 minutes, but yoga was 90 minutes. ******* brutal.