I feel accomplished doing a 10% incline! All that exercise is keeping her of sound body and able to drive those 22 miles each way.
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“National Quitters Day” is January 10, 2025.
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This is my first time posting on the fitness thread. I’m a 67 year old stroke survivor. That was 16 years ago and I’ve come a long way since, to the point that if you met me you’d have no idea what I’ve been through.
I’m actually in pretty good shape for my age, but recently had a setback. I injured my IT band and didn’t give it enough time to heal, got back on the rowing machine, and re-aggravated it.
Bottom line, I couldn’t do my regular exercise routine for over three months and kind of went into couch potato mode.
But now I’m back. I ran a half mile, then a mile, and today ran a mile and half. I alternate between running and rowing, and I’ve been rowing for 30 minutes.
One of the gyms I frequent has some pretty cool machines that test your strength and tell you your “bioage”, which purportedly represents how your strength compares to the general population. A few years ago it pegged my bioage at 58, and with regular exercise it dropped and dropped, finally getting down to 28 years old!!!
A low bioage doesn’t necessarily equate to having bulky muscles; I’m a pretty normal looking 6’, 170 pound guy.
So I went back today and tested my atrophied body again, and my bioage had shot to 50. Not bad for a 67 year old, but I’m going to get it back down. I’ll post again in a month or so and hopefully can report I’m back to my early 40’s or better.
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Good for you on this health come back after such a major health event. Keep participating here!
That machine sounds interesting- anyone else use one? I think it might be addicting to keep checking!
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I’m 20 years younger and aspire to reach her daily goal!
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Welcome to the thread @sherpa ! I’m impressed by your commitment after your stroke and by your getting back after the IT band setback.
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Welcome @sherpa. Sounds like you’re pretty motivated. Keep up the good work, and feel free to share your successes (and the not so good moments too if you’d like).
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So I was 8.5lbs from goal on 12/21/24. Normally I weigh every 2 weeks but since I was in Cancun over the holidays I spread it out to 3 weeks. Tomorrow is weigh day. I know I won’t it goal, but will have 28 days from tomorrow to hit the goal I set for 1 year.
Can’t wait to reach goal so I can move from so much cardio to more weights.
Although I did get some swim goggles. I will get into the pool some as well. Thankfully I never got rid of my training snorkel. I never could quite get the breathing down right.
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Familiar name from other threads… glad to have you here too. I imagine you’ll have some good, inspirational tips for the group.
Yea, being away from the regime can be an issue. Even after just a few weeks of London vacation, with lots of walking but none of my regular fitness videos, I noticed the decline. Had to reduce my hand weights (don’t laugh) from 6lb back to 5. And I had trouble again doing my weird low impact burpee adaptation (one leg at a time, just to prove I still have mobility to do so).
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If we are admitting our faults, I had way too much alcohol, See’s candy, and ice cream/other desserts in December (we were on vacation 2 weeks, which didn’t help). We have now finished the See’s candy, and I’m back to my normal 2 pints a week of ice cream.
Now I have a month to get myself shaped up for bathing suit weather.
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The “struggle” (not a big deal in the scheme of things) for me is that if I overdo the cardio, my lean muscle mass/bodyweight drops a lot.
And if go overboard on weightlifting and powerlifting, and do less cardio, then I gain muscle and weight, but lose lean muscle mass.
I’ve played with the “right” ratio of cardo vs. weights for years and years. And I’m still screwing around with it.
And on that note, I ran the Bay trail yesterday for 6+ miles. Back to the gym today for a combo strength and conditioning (CF) workout.
At some point, I may get a fitness tracker, but I’m always worried about “The Cloud” knowing about health (or lack thereof) status. 
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OK, me too. Mea culpa time.
During the Holidays, one of the gym’s owners, who’s from Italy, offered me a small Italian chocolate candy, which had liquid expresso inside. I needed a quick pick me up at that moment, so I ate it. 
Please don’t tell anyone. Shhh!
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It’s called EGYM. It’s actually a series of machines, similar to a Nautilus circuit. There are 13 stations; chest press, leg curl, lat pull-down, shoulder press, etc.
Initially, a trainer sets you up on each machine. You’re given a rubber wrist band you use to log into each machine, and the machine memorizes all your settings; it adjusts the seating and arm and leg settings to accommodate different sized people. Your initial weights are set based on a “strength test”, where you push as hard as you can, and the machine sets and remembers the weight for you. You can manually adjust the weights and the machine will remember it.
Every 10 workouts or so it’ll ask if you want to do another strength test, and readjust your weights. Or you can ask for an updated strength test at any time.
After doing a strength test on all 13 stations it’ll calculate your updated “bioage”.
The coolest thing is all 13 machines are synchronized and are timed on a one minute work/50 seconds rest cycle, so that even if all 13 are in use, all the patrons rotate on the same schedule. So you do a slow, controlled one minute exercise, are given 50 seconds to rest and move to the next machine, and so on.
It works wonderfully. It’s rare that more than more than half the stations are in use at any given time, but even if it’s crowded, everyone moves along at the same pace. Most customers are roughly my age, primarily 50-75, at least when I go midday.
Another cool thing is the machine gives you a visual display of when to push the weight and let it return, so you do an exact number of perfectly modulated repetitions, either 15 or 20 in one minute.
People often compare notes about their “bioage”, as in “I hit my age”, or “cool, it says I’m 5 years younger than my real age”.
At the gym I’m reluctant to tell people I test at decades under my true age, but I don’t mind bragging about it here.
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Livin on the edge - go you!
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As for admitting things… I almost admitted this this morning, but I didn’t… but here goes. I got dressed this morning and was depressed that my tights were just tighter. They didn’t have near enough room in the butt. Oh well. It’s January. Time to start anew. Go out for my hour run and then get to the gym and I look in the mirror. Yup. I ran for an hour with my pants on backwards. Sheesh. At least they fit better afterwards!!!
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Laughing with you, not at you! 
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Not fitness related, but I’ve been known to wear two colors of the same shoe to work, and nobody even noticed! (Some would have definitely let me know).
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I’ve done that too! It’s been awhile though since I now only buy black shoes for work!
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I toured a AL facility with dh, and their machines have some of those same features – you have a code or a bar code or something, and the machine knows who you are and automatically sets the weights and adjusts the machine for your height, etc. I thought that was brilliant. And, of course, the staff can monitor your progress and note changes to the nursing staff or whoever.
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Years ago I went to fitness center at work. Lost about 20lb (lol, before having to loose it again 15 years later). Was disgusted how tight my navy shorts (similar to cycling shorts fit) were. My legs looked like sausages. Checked size… yikes, 10/12. What the heck? Eventually I figured out they were the navy bottoms from son’s boys size 10/12 shorty PJ set.
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