<p>Stretch/strength/core</p>
<p>Cat was very interested the first time I added the resistance band to planks. Now she’s blase about it, slacking on her supervision duties.</p>
<p>Poor notrichenough, you must be living in fear. Perhaps you should carry around some pepper spray to protect your “Rip Curl Secret Sauce Men’s Walk Shorts”.</p>
<p>Am I right to be concerned about this? My husband, who is very fit, exercises at above his max heart range (195-200). He’s 49, so the charts say even an athlete should keep their heart below 171. After this last athletic event, his heart rate was 140 ten minutes after the event ended. I don’t think it’s that his recovery rate is poor, it’s probably that his heart rate was too high during the event. That scares me, and I think it’s dangerous. Am I off base on this?</p>
<p>busdriver:</p>
<p>I’ve never seen any recommendation that a healthy fit person avoid exercising at or near their max heart rates. If you husband’s max heart rate is 195 to 200, there’s no reason he should keep it below 171. In fact, that would be just about impossible if he does any kind of high intensity exercise.</p>
<p>The max heart rate charts based on age are simple a rough “guess” as to what someone’s actual max heart rate may be. Those charts are notoriously in accurate.</p>
<p>You wouldn’t want to exercise to max heart rate day after day after day after day, because you’d probably run yourself into the ground. But, almost nobody can train that hard. Pushing yourself to those kinds of heart rates a couple of times a week is probably a net benefit as far as fitness goes.</p>
<p>That’s good to know, idad. I was afraid he could overdo it to the point of giving himself heart failure, by being able to push himself too hard. I don’t want to be a widow at 50.</p>
<p>Treadmill walking at 15 degree incline for the first time tonight. 4 mph for 45 minutes. Glutes are crying.</p>
<p>Assuming you haven’t had a heart attack or some other diagnosed issue with cardiologist restrictions, I would think that high intensity exercise at high heart rates (from time to time), is generally a good thing and should probably be something most of us strive to do.</p>
<p>I’ve backed off lately, but when I was an ol’ fat guy trying to lose weight, I hit 90% of my max heart rate five or six days a week – because even my hilly walks to the local park would drive it up there on the half mile hill and, early on, I did five minutes of Airdyne intervals at the end of most workouts.</p>
<p>Now, it’s more like just once or twice a week – not so much because I exercise less intensely, but more just that a lot of stuff that used to drive my heart rate up that high no longer does. For example, my little Burpee Fusion workout (alternating sets of burpees and kettlebell swings) used to be good for 95% of my max. Now, it’s likely to top out right around 90%.</p>
<p>I don’t think I ever suffered any ill-effects from exercising near my max heart rate – other than the fact that it is miserably uncomfortable while you are actually doing it.</p>
Rest day for me. I’m surprisingly free of soreness after yesterday’s outing, but I’m definitely tired and appreciative of a recovery day before heading back to the basement!
<p>My legs are trashed today from yesterday’s run and the kettle bell workout. 4 1/2 miles after work in snow flurries. I honestly don’t know if I could have gotten myself out there if I wasn’t doing this streak. So there’s that! </p>
<p>Bus- If he is over his max heart rate, then that number isn’t his max! 
iDad is right that the charts are very seldom accurate. Whatever the highest he has hit so far should be considered about his max. It’s a good sign that it comes back down rapidly.</p>
<p>Back in the gym
5 minute rowing machine intervals-- continuing to improve
Pilates/core stuff
KB swings
deadlifts (165 lb)
bar bell Romanian deadlifts
snatches (pretty light)
Squats
push ups
bent over rows</p>
<p>I am not really in the strength gaining phase of my training at this point. In large part because of my diet. I am trying to keep idad’s words in mind about the goal being keeping the goal the goal. I am primarily interested in shedding these extra pounds of fat, while doing my best to preserve muscle mass through resistance training and adequate protein intake. It’s a little hard to not see a lot of strength gains, on the other hand, if the goal is being a power lifter, then I need to change my physique goal, as well ;)</p>
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<p>love this. Fits in nicely with ohio’s workout today.</p>
<p>1 mile run.</p>
<p>Did a little bit of weights - but only because I finished cleaning the basement and had to move the home gym for cleaning. Now I get to ramp the running back up. I will plan an outdoor run next week if the forecast is correct in 50+ degree weather and if it isn’t too windy out.</p>
<p>Okay, I will stop worrying, thanks for the info MOWC and idad! I thought the max heart rate charts showed what your max should be to stay safe, not your max attainable. I figured if you were going over that point you were overstressing your heart, but I’m glad to be wrong.</p>
<p>Here’s what the National Heart Institute says about cardiac stress tests, which push people to exercise as hard as they possibly can and raise their heart rate as high as it can go.</p>
<p>[What</a> Are the Risks of Stress Testing? - NHLBI, NIH](<a href=“http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/stress/risks.html]What”>http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/stress/risks.html)</p>
<p>Basically, very low risk. They estimate 1 in 5000 people suffer a heart attack during stress testing. Keep in mind that most people don’t even get a stress test unless they are already identified as having cardiac risk.</p>
<p>It’s all very self-limiting. You have to push so hard to even get to your max heart rate that it is immediately impossible to sustain because your muscles aren’t getting enough oxygen to keep doing what you were doing to get there in the first place.</p>
<p>The only times I’ve gotten to 98% to 100% of my max heart rate (and who knows if that’s really my ultimate max?) is when I have pushed on to complete an interval past the point where my muscles are burning, and I’m in complete discomfort trying to catch a breath.</p>
<p>I’ve pretty much quit doing stuff like that because I’m not convinced that is accomplishing anything and it is so miserable. So, now, I tend to do interval workouts that top out in the 90% to 95% range. I’m not worried about my heart; I’m just worried about how awful I feel waiting to catch a breath after I’ve hit 100%.</p>
<p>[Pure</a>, White, and Deadly](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0670808199/ref=oe_popover_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all]Pure”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0670808199/ref=oe_popover_olp?ie=UTF8&condition=all)</p>
<p>I’m finally reading my fuzzy bootleg PDF copy of this long-out-of-print 1972 book on sugar by British professor John Yudkin.</p>
<p>He fingered the rapid increase in sugar consumption as a major cause of coronary disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity 40 years ago. He even fingered the metabolism of too much fructose by the liver as the culprit in poor hormonal regulation (insulin) of blood sugar. I’m a few chapters into it and it could have been written last year.</p>
<p>^ wow, interesting.</p>
<p>T bone steak, protein shake, cafe au lait, panela cheese</p>
<p>Cals 1031
Fat 74 g
Carbs 12 g
Protein 80 g
Sugars 8 g</p>
<p>Yudkin had the misfortune of being the proponent of the competing hypothesis when [Ancel</a> Keys’ fat hypothesis](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys]Ancel”>Ancel Keys - Wikipedia) was taking hold. Yudkin was dismissed as a crackpot, probably in large part because of an effective and unified sugar industry lobby.</p>
<p>It looks like Yudkin did a rat experiments, specifically demonstrating that consumption of sugar increased triglycerides and cholesterol.</p>
<p>I hope Yudkin enjoys the irony, even if its from the great hereafter.</p>
<p>So, this morning I used the micro spikes on the hill and gained a full mph in speed…which of course, shortened my workout. I am a short person, so was surprised to get to 3.3 mph given the hills. It felt a little bit like work, but not like the kind of work those short stints on the air dyne have been. I keep debating a weight vest – am worried about messing with my back. Has anyone used a weight vest on hill hiking or Nordic walking before? If so, please chime in. I enjoy my morning trek now, but do want some resistance out of it for time in.</p>
<p>Speaking of Yudkin and sugar, as I reported to my 2013 cronies, I’ve so far lasted two whole days with mcson’s Easter bag of chocolates sitting on the bar. Normally, I’d be half-way to re-buying it by now ;)</p>
<p>And thanks, idad and sabaray, about the “non-linear” weightloss comment. I’ve actually dropped another 1.5 pounds since carping about it, so clearly there are other variables such as hormone levels (and possibly a metabolic boost from the interval attempt) at work. I won’t change my goal of “always down until content” but I may change my expectations accordingly, or at least my frame of reference ;)</p>
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<p>Yeah, the built-in kind ;)</p>
<p>3.1 mi treadmill run. I’m signed up for my next race. :)</p>