What is wrong with my cario workout? I never seem to make progress

Parent Cafe
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<p>If you’re picking up airline chatter on your I-Pod, you’ve gone too high!</p>

<p>What moves are you doing, Missypie? If you aren’t doing triceps work (which is the flabby part) you won’t see a change. If you are using 2 lbs, go up to 5. The object is to do a small number of repetitions with a not-too heavy weight…when you feel like you can’t do even one more and keep from shaking, then you’ve done enough. And you may not get ‘cut’ (I’m no Angela Basset!) but you won’t cause those big seismic reactions when you wave bye-bye either.</p>

<p>Most women won’t get ‘big and bulky’ because we don’t produce enough testosterone to build those kinds of muscles. The women who do (lady body-builders) work very very hard for a very long time to change that and Heaven knows what some of them must take.</p>

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<p>I swear that I was born without muscle where my triceps should be…there’s just flab. Twenty years ago when I was working out 6 days a week, doing weights every other day (and weighed 10 lbs less than I do now) I could not get firmness or definition in my triceps.</p>

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<p>I guess it’s good that I’m not a litigator. There was a study a few years back that said that trial lawyers have higher levels of testosterone than transactional lawyers - even the women.</p>

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<p>There was another study recently that discovered that the people with the most testosterone of those studies made more money as Wall Street Traders, even the women. Weird.</p>

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<p>Probably why they go bald at 30…</p>

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<p>There’s your problem. Weight training is all about progressive resistance. You always want to either lift more weight or do more reps than during your last workout. (and there’s really no point in doing a ton of reps if you’re trying to firm up. 12 reps max or else you’re just training for endurance)</p>

<p>Think about tanning. You’re not going to get a nice tan by sitting in the sun for 10 minutes every day. You might get darker at first, but eventually you’ll plateau. Only by going out for progressively longer intervals will your skin adjust to the sun by getting darker.</p>

<p>Its the same with weights. Your muscle fibers will only grow if you keep increasing your resistance (and don’t let this fact scare you. You’re not going to ever look bulky like the Governator no matter how hard you work out.) Women shouldn’t worry about getting “bulky” by lifting heavier weights. 98% of them have nowhere near the testosterone needed to ever have highly striated muscles. LeAnn Rhymes bench presses her bodyweight, and she looks in shape and still feminine.</p>

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<p>^^LeAnn works out at the gym I go to. She looks great. She’s also in her 20s.</p>

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<p>I have finally achieved solid triceps, but it has taken three years of swimming (four times a week for 80 minutes with a coach setting hard intervals, and 2 times per week weight-lifting: pull-downs, tricep and bicep curls, and bench press plus shoulder, leg, stomach stuff.) Vyse is right, the best way to remold the average sedentary body into something different is through weight-lifting, steadily increasing the weights and limiting the diet… but for climbing the Grand Canyon, stairs and strength training (legs and core) would be the best preparation.</p>

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<p>I have a lot of definition everywhere in my arms and shoulders except my triceps. Sculpting class does lots of reps, which forces me to go with relatively light weights to comlete the sets. Most of the instructors are strong, but not cut. I lift on my own, doing fewer reps and taking it to failure with more weight to get the definition, but I haven’t been as diligent on the triceps area (still using the same weight I was months ago). Thanks to Momof2inca’s inspiration, I’m going to make sure not to short change that area anymore. I was swimming a couple times a week, but worried about what the chlorine was doing to my hair.</p>

<p>My other challenge is tight shoulders, which may be exacerbated by the lifting but messes up my yoga postures. I have been adding daily shoulder stretches at home since I’m tired of not making any progress in terms of flexibility.</p>

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<p>This thread is painful to read but I admire all of your energy and dedication. Back in my “yute” I was an athlete (ran track, played tennis), stayed active til my mid-30’s, then most of my weight work for the next ten years was carrying the kids and their stuff. Very little cardio. When I reached 60, the “kids” were telling me (and my wife) we’d better get into shape “or else.” So we did.</p>

<p>It was a big motivator to work out together, i.e., at the same time, even if we were doing different routines. Since then it’s been 3 to 5 times per week of cardio and weight work. We have avoided all high-impact stuff. But it’s treadmill/elliptical at least 3 times per week for 25-30 minutes, and on those days plus 1 or 2 others another half hour of weight work. As others have described, rotating through muscle groups on different days: legs-shoulders, back-biceps, chest-triceps + abs (2-3 times per week). </p>

<p>If you don’t do muscle work you will continue to lose muscle mass and bone mass as you age. If you do muscle work, you will still lose it but at a lower rate.</p>

<p>This has worked well for us, except for occasional strains and vacation breaks. But it makes a huge difference in our ability just to walk, to climb stairs, to lift things. And I’m still getting stronger.</p>

<p>I am a firm believer in having a trainer (at our local community center), to do an assessment of your needs, devise a workout program for you, help you to use the equipment safely and correctly. We see the trainer once per week – we each take 30 minutes of her time in a single session ($50 – senior discount!). Well worth it. That’s enough with the trainer. She helped to provide us with routines. She changes things up when we get bored or want to try a new machine. She spots us when we’re using free weights (mainly not using them). You can really screw yourself up badly if you don’t use some of these things in the right way. Even doing crunches improperly can mess up your neck.</p>

<p>So don’t try to develop a set of routines on your own, even though there are some useful books to refer to. You need somebody knowledgable to watch you, to make sure you’re doing things correctly. </p>

<p>Watch what others are doing – but don’t just mimic them because often they are doing things wrong. Look for help from those who are very experienced and know what they’re doing.</p>

<p>Get massages or stretches from a trainer now and then, too. This will help you to work out knots and ultimately to break through some plateus in your weight work.</p>

<p>Now at my age (64) I’m not about to climb up to the rim of the Grand Canyon, and I am uncomfortable at very high altitudes (above 10,000 feet). But it doesn’t bother me to climb a long set of stairs to the cupola of a cathedral when I’m on vacation. I have the stamina to walk long distances and climb small mountains in vacation in Maine. At this age I can’t afford to stop staying in shape.</p>

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<p>Mackinaw, I’m sure you didn’t mean your post to be depressing, but it certainly was! We all know that physical decline is inevitable, but when I think of you doing all that you are doing, just to slow the decline a bit, it sort of makes me want to quit working out as soon as I return from the GC. My husband’s grandmother lived a pretty sedentary life and lived to be 94. Is an inactive old ladyhood so bad?</p>

<p>I’m sure I should be working out at a place where I don’t dislike/distrust the employees, but as I’ve said, it’s the closest place to my house. I never see any employees roving around to help members figure out how to do weights or machines. There are the guys in front who sell memberships, then there are the guys who give your “free fitness assessment” which is an extended sales pitch to hire a personal trainer. The idea of some 21 year old guy “helping” me get fit while smirking to himself the whole time that *he’ll *never get old and out of shape like me just makes me hostile.</p>

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<p>Missy: it’s not just to slow the decline. I am much, much stronger now than I was 4 years ago. In much better condition overall. I am far more limber. But there is that underlying thing called aging going on, and in the long run, well in the long run, as John Maynard Keynes said. . . .</p>

<p>As for places to work out, I’m not a fan of the fancy gyms but they have their purposes (and clients). Check YMCA’s, community centers, schools that cater to, um, “older” people or shall I say a range of people; find a trainer there or elsewhere who isn’t mainly hustling for a buck or to sign up members. Such people do exist, but you may have to look a bit harder to find them (and they do need to be paid).</p>

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<p>Husband belongs to a gym connected to a hospital. I used to go there, too, until I stopped and he finally stopped paying the family membership. It’s great-very low pressure-lots of elderly people there. (Lots of old folks who work out for a few minutes then chat for hours over coffee.) But I can only go after work during the week and there’s a terrible evening traffic bottleneck to get there. There are LOTS of options, but if I don’t go the closest place to my house, I’ll never go.</p>

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<p>I don’t agree that you have to sign up with a personal trainer. It’s OK to do some research on your own and test out what works for you. I do a combination of yoga (twice per week), cardio (on a treadmill), and walking (with my H and dog!). I’m also starting to lift weights. Of course, it does make sense to check in with your doctor before starting up any major routine.<br>
My MIL is in her mid 90s and has been very inactive. She has mobility problems (not surprising given her age) but is quite weak and is sleepy most of the day. I think physical activity would help her body and mind but she’s not interested. Her generation did not grow up with fitness as a goal. She’s amused that I work out on a treadmill with an IPOD. Seems weird to her…</p>

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<p>Remember the Dennis Quaid/Ellen Barkin movie The Big Easy, set in New Orleans? Quaid was the New Orleans-native cop and Barkin was the lawyer from out of town. When Quaid explained to an older woman from NO that Barkin had gone running, she looked at him like he had said something totally outrageous and said, “Running???”</p>

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<p>Missy, as I mentioned we work out at a community center (former school). Nobody who goes there just stands around, even the ultra elderly. They go to work out. No coffee bars, no juice bars. Since we live in a university town, the people who go there range in age from 18 to 80, I would say. So it’s not a pressure type situation at all.</p>

<p>Also while I recommend getting a trainer to help to evaluate you and set up some programs/routines, you don’t have to meet her/him as often as we do. But for folks who haven’t been especially active or who want to start using weight machines or freeweights, I think some advice from a professional is very important at the start as well as periodically.</p>

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<p>Mackinaw, I didn’t think your post was depressing at all. 45 minutes four or five days a week seems about right.</p>

<p>Missypie: here’s what I’ve learned about working out in the last year and a half. Now, I’ve been working out regularly for almost ten years. I do cardio, I do weights, I do stretching. A year and a half ago I had surgery to remove a bone cancer in my knee. It was major surgery–remove the cancer, put in a bone graft and twelve-inch mending plate. Immediately after the surgery, the nurse wanted me to get up to go to the bathroom and start walking around (much less likely to get pneumonia that way). Well, I had the upper body strength to use a walker right away. By twelve hours after surgery, I could walk using only a cane. By 6 weeks after the surgery I was back to my daily walks with my dogs, slowly, but moving. I had the plate taken out two weeks ago, and I’m already back to regular walks. Fitness really helped. </p>

<p>Six months later a friend fell on the ice and broke her ankle. She didn’t have the upper body strength to use crutches, so she stayed in the hospital for almost a week. Pricey! Then she went home with a health aide, because she couldn’t manage on her own. Even more pricey! It’s been a year, and she’s still not entirely back to her routine. That one accident cost her a lot of what little fitness she had.</p>

<p>20% of women who fall and break a hip NEVER walk again. They’re usually the ones who don’t have muscle and bone strength.</p>

<p>As for trainers, there are lots of middle-aged women out there who are fitness trainers. My trainer is a 30-year-old guy who weighed sixty pounds more when he was in high school, had a brain cancer removed at 17, and who has spinal tumors now. He doesn’t smirk a whole lot, but he sure makes certain I’m not slacking off.</p>

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<p>I really need a psychologist before I need a trainer. I have such serious autonomy issues that even that statement makes me feel hostile. Why should anyone tell me that I’m slacking off, and why would I pay someone to tell me I’m slacking off?</p>

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<p>Missypie: my trainer has never told me “you’re slacking off”; it’s more “I think if you push, you can break through that plateau and go that little bit faster.” </p>

<p>I pay him to use his judgement as an exercise expert to:</p>

<p>*make sure I’m maximizing return for the time I spend working out
*make sure I’m not overdoing it and courting an injury or two
*make sure I’m doing exercises correctly (I work with free weights)
*make sure I keep everything in balance–strength AND flexibility; core strength and balance (that’s been really important lately!); left side and right side</p>

<p>A good trainer is NOT a cheerleader; s/he is a partner in maximizing return on your time investment.</p>

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<p>Sorry, but I could not possibly hire someone to watch me work out. Even if someone else was paying for it, I could not subject myself to the experience.</p>

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<p>Missypie: I felt much the same way nine years ago… then my husband developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and suddenly I was faced with the need to be the strong one. My response was to hire a trainer–and my first trainer was a very sympathetic older woman–because I wanted to get as fit as possible as fast as possible. It was an emergency, to my mind. It took about two years for me of regular workouts to go from “soft and weak” to wanting to be that little bit better. </p>

<p>Do you hire experts in other areas of your life? I routinely hire experts to help me learn more effective ways of doing things. My accountant has saved me a fortune in wasted taxes… those cooking classes made home-cooked dinners a lot more appealing… this is just another expert, to my mind. (My grandfather was an efficiency expert–worked with Galbraith of Cheaper by the Dozen fame–and I was raised to always look for the fastest, easiest way of doing anything.)</p>