First, let me say I am just an amateur when it comes to all things workout-wise.
I used to enjoy lifting heavy weights when I was young.
During those days of youth I also started running on the non-lifting days.
It was healthy, rewarding and full of positive results.
Back then, my recovery days were typically Saturday and Sunday–when I was on a schedule at all.
I never heard of active recovery until relatively recently.
I just pushed through in those early days, as many of us did, who did not know of anything except if you’re feeling no pain then you’re experiencing no gain.
Fast forward a few decades and the body started its daily morning dialogue with me.
“Bob, why are you trying to jump out of bed?”
“Bob, get up more slowly please.”
“What’s that snap, crackle, pop sound emanating from your knees?”
“You don’t have to do push-ups first thing in the morning after you’ve gone to the bathroom?”
In fact, you don’t have to do them at all.
Who knew?
Not me, that’s for sure.
Knowledge is power
Even when it comes to working out.
I never paid attention to any literature on fitness until relatively recently.
Now that I’m officially older, I’m always in search of the sensible edge when it comes to working out.
At my age there are no secret potions or strategies.
I do understand that I couldn’t continue to run and lift at my younger day levels.
Running at all would hurt my knees and began hurting my hips whenever I did it on treadmills, which I utilized in hotels while traveling for work.
I needed to do something else and joined a gym.
Not one to do uncompensated testimonials, let me just say I opted for a mix of high intensity interval training (HIIT) and strength training.
I get my strength on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. My cardio days are Mondays and Fridays. I take off Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Having Wednesday and Saturday off means I work out five days a week–just like when I was younger.
There are some differences in my gains, though, both on the cardio fitness and strength sides of the equation.
I’m writing about this today because I reached another milestone. I was able to do three sets of bench hopovers without stopping for 35 seconds a set.
No big deal to the younger Bob, but the current Bob definitely needed a period of time to reach this level of workout mastery.
Am I getting stronger? For sure.
Am I feeling like I have more wind? That’s a definite yes as well.
At this age some days are always going to be better than others.
Getting a good night’s sleep has never been more important, especially when it comes to my next day workouts.
The last piece of the puzzle is my diet, which is an ever-evolving work in progress.
I’ve come to terms with no longer having my eat anything I want whenever I want days. I understand that kind of behavior is for the ignorant young.
When I was running regularly, I didn’t care as much about things like my diet. I thought I could run off whatever it was I ate that was bad for me.
This approach seemed to work alright until relatively recently.
These days, while the gains are slower to come by, the plateaus blessedly enough are non-existent.
It’s better to eventually find out you can’t run from your diet at a mature age than not at all.
So, get out there and move!