As I understand it, there are two types of muscle fibers: slow twitch and fast twitch muscles.
Slow twitch muscles are endurance muscles. They are best able to convert oxygen into energy in a continuous fasion over time, as in distance running. This is aerobic exercise.
Fast twitch muscles are power/strength muscles. They operate in very short bursts of power that cannot be sustained: sprinting, weight lifting, jumping, etc. This is anaerobic exercise. Because it is not possible to supply sufficient oxygen, the muscles start burning very quickly.
The type of exercise you do will tend to build up one or the other. Distance training will, by necessity, require training below the “anaerobic” threshold where it is possible to continuously supply enough oxygen. As I understand it, this tends to produce gains in the capillaries and other stuff required to deliver oxygenated blood to the muscles. High intensity exericise (squats, short hard intervals, jumping, etc.) tends to improve the anaerobic threshold, i.e. go a little longer before the legs start burning.
Sewhappy, in my 20s I mostly jogged for exercise and did a couple of 10K races. I used to run 2 to 2.5 miles 3 days a week and 4 or 5 miles one day of the weekend. So about 10 to 12 miles. That seems like a good starting point to me anyway.
<p>4.75 miles, 9:06 pace. Worked pretty hard but it felt quite good. I did not feel like doing weights afterwards. It looks like I should be able to get to 20 miles this week with a split of 4.25 miles between Friday and Saturday - the only question is whether to run before tennis or after tennis.</p>
<p>Hit the 70 club today. I was rather shocked as I’ve been in plateau mode for about three weeks.</p>
<p>Joined that running forum.</p>
<p>It’s a bit intimidating when the first page has a form for your running goals and the defaults list running the Boston Marathon in 3:07.</p>
<p>Congrats on the 8 pounds Pizzagirl! Is the “70 club” 70 pounds lost, BCEagle? If so, that’s great.</p>
<p>Got the go ahead from my doctor to start working out again. My ankle wound is closed and presumably healed. It’s been about 5 months since I’ve been in the gym, so I figure I need to move ahead slowly as my ankle (even without the hardware) is still not particularly flexible. Don’t think I can do jumping jacks or burpees anytime soon, but at least I can get back to spinning and weight training in the gym. I’m going to see how it goes without a trainer–I really know what to do. Before my injury, I worked with the trainer 2x a week and did spinning 2x a week and a TRX class and a kettlebell class and a long walk. Started back with a 5 mile walk today–was OK except for a few hills. Looking forward to getting active again. The good news is that I didn’t gain back any of the 40 pounds I’ve lost.</p>
<p>That’s really good maintenance through an injury.</p>
<p>I think that jumping jacks as an exercise should be tossed - I can be perfectly healthy and do jumping jacks and I’m pretty sure that they will injure my knee. The star-jacks variant is far safer - you get almost as much of the workout at much less impact cost. You’ve already been quite active so getting back to it shouldn’t be too hard.</p>
Congratulations, BC! That means that it’s Five Pound Party time. 14 of them. That’s sweet. I keep swinging through a 3 pound range, several weeks going up , several weeks going back down.
<hr>
Bromfeld:
What a relief. That ankle as been an incredible ordeal. Here’s a very simple ankle flexibilty drill that be adjusted just by moving the foot farther from the wall. With the foot near the wall, it’s no strain at all. Move it back an inch and it gets a little harder. You can touch the wall with the knee straight ahead, or out over the little toe or in over the big toe.
<p>I know about the range thing - I call it a plateau - but you might be at your optimal weight now. Ever think of doing the tank or calipers thing? I’d like to try one of those at some point.</p>
<p>Bromfield: So impressed by your patience through this injury – and not regaining is a tremendous accomplishment when you can so easily feel sabotaged by not being able to work out.</p>
<p>Day 1 of the new workouts for the month. Regular instructor will be on vacation the entire month (not mentioned when it was time to sign up :() New instructor looks about 12.</p>
<p>2 rounds
45 sec each side, side plank (happy to say these are a piece of cake these days)
90 seconds squats
90 seconds jump rope double unders (which just were not happening for me today, total klutz time, it was actually comical)</p>
<p>20 minutes go until time stops
OH med ball slams 8 lb. (too easy)
20 front squats cook bar on Keiser machine 15%
10 rows with cook bar same resistance
5 over head presses see above</p>
CJane – My dentist’s office has a new dentist who is, oh, about twenty-two. Or at least looks it. Yikes. OTOH, he’s likely to be around long after some of the others have retired. The dentist who is the main partner in the practice and the next senior dentist both serve on the examiners committee for Dental Boards, so I have some confidence that the younger dentist is in fact quite competent. He’s just so …young.
Bromfield – congrats on getting the exercise okay. You’ve been unbelievably persistent throughout all of this – I’m glad the ankle finally healed.
My dentist is a bit older than I am so that he can explain the procedures as someone that’s gone through them himself. He also works out quite a bit (he goes to the gym that I go to in town and he plays tennis though at another club).
<p>Thanks, mathmom. Your description of your running regimen seems something I might actually manage but certainly be challenged by.</p>
<p>Moderation in all things, right? Even good things, like exercise.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing a lot of weights in the basement on the crazy hoist and my old frozen shoulder that finally thawed is starting freeze up on me. Hurts to drive. Yuck. Advil tonight, I think.</p>
Starting every minute on the minute for six minutes. Then rest, second set, rest, third set.
I’ve managed to get my heart rate settings all fouled up in the Garmin so it’s giving me basically no rest between sets (my heart rate is still pounding when it makes me start the next set). So, this was a helluva sweaty workout. I know what I did to foul up the heart rate recovery, but I haven’t managed to get it fixed yet. This is the second workout in a row with too little recovery between sets.
Off to Washington to visit daughter tomorrow. I managed to screw up my flights as badly as my Garmin! I checked the wrong box on Jet Blue reservations and booked myself to fly into Dulles instead of Reagan National (which is on the same subway line as my daughter’s place). So I’m flying out of Logan instead of Manchester, because Logan has the flights to Reagan, and I’m not even flying to the airport I meant to fly to!
Oh, well. I have this to look forward to Sunday night (this was on a BBC broadcast from Abbey Road studios last week):
<p>Shoulders bother a lot of people, especially us geezers. General recommendation is to avoid “flies” – lifts where your arms are out to the sides, lifting up to your shoulders. Also, limit pressing weights overhead. A lot of people are sensitive to that. Pressing weights out from your chest (as in lying down in bench pressing) seens to cause fewer problems. No dips. Those are horrible for shoulders.</p>
<p>I don’t have any shoulder issues, but I had to take it really slowly and not overdo it</p>
<p>Bromfield- glad that you are healed. What an ordeal!</p>
<p>iDad- have a good trip and have fun at the concert. Enjoy the travel (not).</p>
<p>Managed to get myself out of the warm bed this morning for 3 miles before work. Tried out a headlamp (even though it wasn’t really dark enough to need it) instead of my handheld flashlight and I liked it! Tried it again this evening for another 3 (didn’t need it until the turnaround). It definitely casts more light for me. I have bad night vision and am paranoid about falling (which I do anyway…). It was 26 this morning but got up to 52 today.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I was diagnosed with PCOS at 23. Once I got on fertility drugs to get pregnant, weight started falling off of me.</p>
<p>So, I have a question – any suggestions on what I can do to help my skin regain some elasticity? I have blown through my plateau after several months and have now lost 29, and I noticed tonight I am developing some loose skin in places where it didn’t exist before! Exercises? Vitamin E? Lotions? </p>
<p>Want to drop another 35 before we go to Israel later in the spring. I intend to climb Masada. :)</p>
<p>sewhappy: I’ve been doing shoulder-protective exercises for nearly ten months, and along the way I’ve learned a few things: 1. If it hurts, stop. Even middle of a set. 2. Ignore exercise instructions to put your hands behind your head. Crossed over your chest works just as nicely with a whole lot less stress on the shoulders. 3. Warm up the shoulder joint before trying to strengthen it. It behaves a lot better. Gentle “window washing” and doorway stretches seem to help too.I don’t ever do shoulder stuff at the start of a workout anymore. 4. Compound exercises that involve movement through the painful arc are not feasible for me. But I can often do an exercise piecemeal, just not as one continuous motion. 5. A good trainer can do wonders figuring out adaptations that accomplish what you’re looking to do without putting stress on the shoulder. 6 Sometimes changing angles just a bit makes all the difference in the world. I can’t do lifts of anything with my arms flying up from the side, but I can do many things with a similar movement when my arms are pointed such that they’re about 90 degrees apart rather than 180. The fundamental issue for me isn’t really going to resolve until I have some surgery, but a careful strengthening program has made a real difference – and the orthopod told me that 3-6 months of strengthening before surgery was highly recommended.</p>
<p>Congratulations on the big weight loss. PCOS is apparently completely intertwined with insulin resistance. As for loose skin, I’m just hoping that the passage of time will keep having an positive effect, but I’m realistic. At age 57, loose skin is probably something I should learn to appreciate!</p>
<p>arabrab:</p>
<p>The shoulder thing that bothered me was transitioning from loaded to unloaded. For example, doing t-pushups, where my weight is compressing the shoulder in the pushup position then I pick up the dumbbell, pulling on the shoulder. That would give me a little stab of pain. If I shifted my weight to the other arm first (so the arm with the DB wasn’t in compression to start), it didn’t hurt.</p>
<p>I just took it slowly, didn’t do stuff that hurt, and let the tendons and ligaments strengthen along with the muscles.</p>
<p>I’m a tennis player so I know many that have had shoulder problems and those that still do. Some play through the issues changing their strokes to compensate; some have given up the game; some switched arms (not easy to do); some have surgery to permanently correct the problem.</p>
<p>I definitely would try everything in my rotator cuff book to resolve the problem and then look at surgery for the permanent fix.</p>
My exercise tonight: farmer’s walk through the mall with a set of All-Clad pots, a set of bath towels plus a large robe, and 2 large crystal vases. I’m not even counting the 5 pairs of H’s dress pants I picked up from Nordstrom’s alterations. :eek: When the Macy’s sales person asked if I wanted the pans sent to Will Call, I told her that I could not possibly pass up this chance to incorporate weight lifting exercise into my shopping routine.
Bromfield, Congrats on beating this nasty bug and its consequences.
Great job, everyone, as usual! Please stay healthy and injury-free.
