I was having a bout of dizzy spells recently. It turned out to be fluid building up in my inner right ear, but my doctor in a fit of extreme caution sent me to a cardiologist anyway.
It was kinda neat; he used a standard android tablet and this thing that looked a little like a mouse with a USB connector plugged into it, and was able to get a fairly high-resolution sonogram of my heart on a battery-powered, man-portable device. He said there was absolutely nothing wrong, no sign of any buildup or blockage, and the velocities of blood flowing through it were quite excellent for a guy my age. He also said I had surprisingly large aortic valve. (Actually, he said, "Wow, that's a big valve.") I asked if that was good or bad. He said, "Doesn't make a difference." (Actually, apparently it does make some difference: a larger valve means my heart requires less effort to move blood around.)
I explained that I bicycled eight miles a day, three to five days a week, as well as going to the gym two to three times a week, and my diet, while "American," had a lot less processed food than average. My food journal says that I eat about 20% processed food; the average American gets half their calories from processed foods. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it," he said.
Far be it for me to be anyone's workout guru, although my doctor says that at 53, with all the bad habits that I do indulge in, I have a body ten years younger than my chronological age. So there's that.
Anyway, my current workout record can be found at twitter, but the gist of it is simple:
Three times a week, do a full-body workout. Full body workouts are more effective than targeted workouts at building resilient, dense muscles, the kind that may not be huge, suns-out-guns-out popular, but the kind that you can use to climb walls, lift wheelbarrows, and generally ensure that you'll never be the sort of person who has to shout, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" That article above includes a chart of a five-days-a-week workout. Pick three for each week, and rotate them as necessary to keep your interest. Go ahead and buy a popular fitness annual, like Men's Workout or something like that; add some abs exercises, some light trapezius work, some stretching as needed. Just freakin' exercise like you mean it.
Two other days a week, work on balance. Do the sorts of yoga that require one-legged stands, hand stands, and other poses that challenge your core and your ability to stay up when the world is rocking. Ride a bicycle and practice staying upright at traffic lights.
And here's the twonky part, the part not covered by the general consensus: vary the weight-to-rep ratio on different weeks according to your lift volume. Vary it by a lot. Your volume is the weight times the number of lifts you can do in a given circuit. For example, in one circuit I can do 12 reps of 25 pounds of a single standard dumbbell bicep curl, so my volume is 12 x 25, or 300 pounds.
Next week, I will halve the weight but double the reps, to 24 reps at 12.5 pounds.
The week after that, I will halve the reps but increase the weight by 1.25, or 31.25 pounds (or just 30 pounds, if I can't find my damn 1.25lb adjusters).
The third week, go back to the standard training regimen of 10 to 12 reps. If that's too easy, the fourth week do a standard regimen going up a weight category (2.5 or 5 pounds, depending on what you're exercising), and use that as a new volume, going to the light/heavy/standard rotation. If you can't level up, just go straight into the rotation, and keep working at it.
The idea is to consistently present challenges in both duration and capacity to your muscles. Train them to build them up, and don't be too merciful on them. As always, if something hurts, stop doing it, ya maroon. And if my system doesn't work for you, try something else. I'm not a guru. I'm just a guy trying to die at the slowest rate possible.
It was kinda neat; he used a standard android tablet and this thing that looked a little like a mouse with a USB connector plugged into it, and was able to get a fairly high-resolution sonogram of my heart on a battery-powered, man-portable device. He said there was absolutely nothing wrong, no sign of any buildup or blockage, and the velocities of blood flowing through it were quite excellent for a guy my age. He also said I had surprisingly large aortic valve. (Actually, he said, "Wow, that's a big valve.") I asked if that was good or bad. He said, "Doesn't make a difference." (Actually, apparently it does make some difference: a larger valve means my heart requires less effort to move blood around.)
I explained that I bicycled eight miles a day, three to five days a week, as well as going to the gym two to three times a week, and my diet, while "American," had a lot less processed food than average. My food journal says that I eat about 20% processed food; the average American gets half their calories from processed foods. "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it," he said.
Far be it for me to be anyone's workout guru, although my doctor says that at 53, with all the bad habits that I do indulge in, I have a body ten years younger than my chronological age. So there's that.
Anyway, my current workout record can be found at twitter, but the gist of it is simple:
Three times a week, do a full-body workout. Full body workouts are more effective than targeted workouts at building resilient, dense muscles, the kind that may not be huge, suns-out-guns-out popular, but the kind that you can use to climb walls, lift wheelbarrows, and generally ensure that you'll never be the sort of person who has to shout, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" That article above includes a chart of a five-days-a-week workout. Pick three for each week, and rotate them as necessary to keep your interest. Go ahead and buy a popular fitness annual, like Men's Workout or something like that; add some abs exercises, some light trapezius work, some stretching as needed. Just freakin' exercise like you mean it.
Two other days a week, work on balance. Do the sorts of yoga that require one-legged stands, hand stands, and other poses that challenge your core and your ability to stay up when the world is rocking. Ride a bicycle and practice staying upright at traffic lights.
And here's the twonky part, the part not covered by the general consensus: vary the weight-to-rep ratio on different weeks according to your lift volume. Vary it by a lot. Your volume is the weight times the number of lifts you can do in a given circuit. For example, in one circuit I can do 12 reps of 25 pounds of a single standard dumbbell bicep curl, so my volume is 12 x 25, or 300 pounds.
Next week, I will halve the weight but double the reps, to 24 reps at 12.5 pounds.
The week after that, I will halve the reps but increase the weight by 1.25, or 31.25 pounds (or just 30 pounds, if I can't find my damn 1.25lb adjusters).
The third week, go back to the standard training regimen of 10 to 12 reps. If that's too easy, the fourth week do a standard regimen going up a weight category (2.5 or 5 pounds, depending on what you're exercising), and use that as a new volume, going to the light/heavy/standard rotation. If you can't level up, just go straight into the rotation, and keep working at it.
The idea is to consistently present challenges in both duration and capacity to your muscles. Train them to build them up, and don't be too merciful on them. As always, if something hurts, stop doing it, ya maroon. And if my system doesn't work for you, try something else. I'm not a guru. I'm just a guy trying to die at the slowest rate possible.
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