Looking Great

Back at It

Getting back into my routine after a 10 day hiatus due to holidays and a cold. While I expected to be starting over again, time under load, weight and the  number of reps until muscle failure were increased from my last workout. Wednesday, I did a lower body workout and by Friday, I was a bit sore. Friday, I did an upper body workout and again noted increases in weight and the number of reps I was able to do. While the time off did not do much for endurance, it seems to allowed a bit longer for healing and the resultant increase in muscle mass. About another week, then I recheck the lipid panel.

Week 4

I've just completed Week 4. Last week, I managed only one workout as I was speaking at a conference in Alabama. I arrived at LA Fitness, feeling that a week away from my program would set me back. After about 15 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, I worked on a few upper body exercises until the trainer arrived - the preacher curl, the slanted press and chest press. We focused on lower body extremities with leg extensions,leg press and those darn abdominal crunches. The machine was set at 65% of my maximum capability with muscle failure at 8-12 reps. Between sets, I spent roughly 2 minutes doing flexibility exercises. Then back for another set. This alternated for a total of three sets on each machine. By the end of this workout, the muscles were truly jelly. It took me a few minutes before I was able to safely navigate to my car. I waited a few minutes before driving home.Friday focused on upper body again with inside and outside pull ups, and preacher curls.

I've noticed that each week, I am able to do a bit more cardio, a few more reps, and the weight I manage increases slightly. A pound a week doesn't seem like much, but I am feeling better and hoping that some of the weight loss is being offset by muscle gain.

A additional benefit of investing energy into an intensive workout regimen is that I've come to have an increased respect for my body and the types of food I shovel into my mouth. My semi-Vegan daughter is home, and turning us on to some great tasting food. We've visited Soul Vegetarian N. Highland near Ponce and had a great dinner last night. She had McFake Ribs and I tried the Garvey Burger....both come highly recommended. The sauce on the Vegan Ribs, reminded me of my first and last taste of a McRib sandwich. But, I had to wonder why, if you are vegan, you would want to eat something that looked or tasted like meat.

Week 3

It's now week three and I'm feeling pretty good. I've lost about 5 pounds and dropped 1% body fat. This past weekend, I attended a party and learned that a good friend has been doing LV-HIIT for many years and enjoys the once a week workout. And, I don't think I'd want to get on her bad side. So let me share with you how I've adopted the workout to meet my needs and some of the physiology behind this approach.

Like most of you, I thought that in order to "protect" my heart I needed to buy spandex workout clothing and jump up and down on an elliptical for a few hours per week. Guess I was not alone in that assumption. In fact, rows of machines are filled with people mindlessly bouncing back and forth. I even noticed one woman who stood there and read her book, not moving at all. So you're asking why am I down on "cardio"?

• LOSS OF MUSCLE MASS - Although "cardio" can increase endurance, most practitioners will, over time, lose muscle mass. So while you might burn 350 calories working out for an hour, if you ultimately lose 5 pounds of muscle mass, your body will basal metabolic rate will drop and you will need 350 calories less each day. The net effect, you won't lose weight.
• CARDIO PROTECTIVE BENEFITS - This is little evidence to suggest that raising your heart rate does anything to protect the heart!
• INJURY - When you get as old as I am, you've got to do everything possible to avoid injury. Hips, knees, feet and just about everything else does not benefit from impact. Our body parts wear out and building muscle can help reduce the stress on our joints, running, jogging and such simply increase the risk of injury. 
• TIME - My week is generally quite full. If I have to find time three or four times per week to stay healthy, I'm just more likely to put other things first.

The alternative is low volume high intensity interval training. LV-HIIT. The advantages of this approach are listed below:

• TIME - You can get better results and improve overall metabolic function with a single 20 minute work out once a week. 
• ENHANCED METABOLISM - By reducing glycogen stores in both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, LV-HIIT reduces insulin resistance. Lower insulin levels can affect a dramatic drop in LDL cholersterol and triglycerides and an improvement in cardioprotective HDL cholesterol. In women, high insulin levels result in polycystic ovary syndrome, [PCOS] which can interfere with menses and fertility. So LV-HIIT can reduce ovarian androgen production and restore normal menses.
• REDUCED INJURY RISK
• REDUCED CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS
• LOOK AND FEEL BETTER - This is the promised. I hope eventually to post before and after pictures, but I've been advised to hold off until results are demonstrable. 

You can learn more about LV-HIIT from the experts at Body by Science or by watching the videos on this site. But in a nutshell, it involves using Nautilus or HammerStrength for large muscle groups. The first step is to identify your maximum weight, then setting the weight to 60% [seniors] to 70% of that weight for others. At that level, I can do 10-12 reps before muscle failure. After the muscle starts burning and twitching, I hold the muscle under load for an additional 10-20 seconds before releasing. Following a two minute break, I return and exercise again to muscle failure. This approach utilizes the glycogen that is stored in the muscle cells for all types of muscle fibers. The additional time under load switches the muscle to anerobic metabolism where fat becomes the major energy source. This is repeated for up to five different muscle groups. Then the workout is complete and you take a break for an entire week. Consider rowing, overhead press, pull down, biceps, leg press, leg flexion and extension machines. I prefer the machines over free weights, as the machines are set to vary the load depending on the degree of muscle flexion or extension, while the weight on the muscle is constant using free weights. The machines are thus less likely to overstress the muscle. I've added 15 minutes of aerobic type exercise at the start to warm up, improve blood supply to the muscle and improve stamina.

So while this sounds easy, be aware that 48-72 hours later, you will suffer the consequence. Soreness can be expected, but know that this leads to muscle growth and the improvements noted above.

WHY a blog? WHY exercise?

I've been working out for three weeks now doing my take on Body by Science by Doug McGriff and Jon Little; more on specifics in future posts and by clicking on the videos and links on this page. Mary suggested that I might write a blog to document my efforts and to start the blog with that explores or more specifically to share why at sixty years old, I am going to start a rather rigorous exercise regimen after forty years of limiting exercise to what I could do with a remote control and a computer keyboard. So let's get started.

You can save a bunch of time and quit now because I certainly don't think I can commit to a single  explanation for why I decided to undertake what my trainer says is a grueling exercise regimen. Although I'm not entirely clear on the why, that won't stop me from sharing my thoughts on why . I'm going to list them as the come, but not necessarily according to importance.  As time passes and hopefully I progress, the priorities that motivate me are likely to change. In fact, I think what is drawing me to this process is already changing.

• I COULD BE HEALTHIER: My cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL are higher than they ought to be and I've not enjoying the muscle discomfort that statins have caused. After discussion with my internist, I completed an insulin-glucose tolerance test and my two hour insulin level was higher than most that I've seen. My blood pressure was also creeping upwards. 
• STAMINA: They say that 60 is the new 40, but while that may be the case, the next day you feel like your 80.
• I SIGNED UP FOR A HEALTH CLUB & TRAINER: I've exercised many years ago, but dropped off after a short while. I thought that a financial commitment might create an incentive to continue. 
• DID YOU KNOW YOU GET CAN ALL THE BENEFITS FROM EXERCISE IN ONLY 20 MINUTES? Doug McGuff and Jon Little have published clinical trials comparing the benefits of a 20 minute low volume high intensity interval training with daily "cardio" for over an hour five days per week. While "cardio" helps improve endurance, it does little to improve cardiac health. They note a direct link between building muscle mass and the metabolic improvement that reduces cardiovascular risk. So, 20 minutes seems to enough. 
• WEIGHT & MAN BOOBS: While my BMI is at the borderline of being overweight, love handles and man boobs, are not a pretty picture.
• ENERGY: I'd like both to have more energy and improved endurance.
• SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: The published research looking at exercise protocols do not support that "cardio" is in fact cardio-protective. Building muscle mass through high intensity resistance training has the greatest cardio-protective benefit. Let's see. I'll be a guinea pig, check out The Trail of the Screaming Forehead .
• JC: I've hooked up with a great trainer at LA Fitness who is  encouraging, understanding and interested in learning more about the physiology of exercise and nutrition. It's great to share this educational process with someone so supportive.

Have you started working out? Do you have a specific regimen? What motivates you to work out?