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Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born)

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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1061 » by W. Unseld » Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:54 am

I'll have to kick my wife's stuff out of the garage but the home gym does sound good, just have to create the space.

Induveca--doesn't the testosterone lead to b*tch t*ts, balding & prostrate cancer? I'm willing to pay a price but that seems a tad high, otherwise I'd be very excited to try testosterone therapy & hgh (assuming I can get it legally).

Wish there was a way to do all of this in a week, signed up for a 35 & over league thinking it'd be easy and instead there are a bunch of ex-college & international players plus I'll literally be matched up against Ben Wallace some nights (he hosts the league). Can't wait to get my cr*p swatted by him.


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Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1062 » by Induveca » Mon Sep 29, 2014 3:16 am

WUnseld, there are plenty of clinics who test for hormone deficiencies. If you're over 35 being prescribed testosterone is pretty normal. The side effects you speak of only happen at large, unmonitored doses.

Anti aging regimens typically are made up of low dose T, low dose HGH and an anti-estrogen supplement. As long as you check your hormone levels every 3 months you're good to go. The goal is to get your levels to that of a 20 year old. Not to be Hulk Hogan. :)

But the synergy between HGH, Test and exercise will have fat melting off of you, especially on a Paleo diet! HGH even has the added benefit of having your body burn fat over muscle even at low doses. Test has the same effect, amazing synergies.

Modern western medicine almost NEVER tests for hormonal levels. See how out of whack yours are, you'll feel/look so much better in no time.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1063 » by W. Unseld » Thu Oct 2, 2014 3:31 pm

Induveca, you've got me excited. I can't help but think a little hgh would go a long way towards injury prevention as a supplement to the yoga I recently started.

I did have my hormone levels tested 2 years ago and I was on the low end for normal. Doc said past a certain age your test will decrease, getting married will decrease your test and having daughters will as well (check all three boxes). Not sure if he was right and unfortunately he has since lost his license to practice in Va. Having trouble finding another doc in the Richmond area who does this but I would travel to NOVA if anyone can recommend someone good.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1064 » by dobrojim » Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:33 pm

Tomorrow is the big day for me as I re-enter the world of ultramarathoning for the first
time since my osteotomy with Doc K.

I'll be doing a 50 miler in Mont Co
http://www.stone-mill-50-mile.org/

When you have your morning coffee, your lunch, afternoon snack...pretty much anytime during
daylight hours tomorrow, I'll be outside trying to keep forward momentum going. 'preciate any
positive vibes you might send my way.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1065 » by Zonkerbl » Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:44 pm

Vida built a gym right across the Anacostia from me and I joined and am even going to a personal trainer once a week.

Am in TERRIBLE shape at the moment, weight ballooned above 200 lbs, pecs are concave flabby man-boobs. First time ever I am in a gym that has hammer strength machines, a rowing machine, overhead cross machines (or whatever they're called) and a SAUNA (omg).

Hopefully pouring money into a super expensive gym and a super expensive trainer can help shock me out of my doldrums and get me back on track. Have gone from 205 to 201 over the last few weeks so that's a good sign. Am trying to go sugar and alcohol free Monday through Thursday, although this week I broke the rule to have a glass of red wine.

Also got a fitbit. It helps a little.

Here's the fundamental question - at 44, exactly how far back into shape is it reasonable to expect to get? I spent basically three years trying to get below 170 and it just wouldn't happen. Now that I've let things get so bad I probably can't even expect to get back to where I was (175). Should I be satisfied just getting back down to 190? 180?

Maybe I'll just set small incremental, relatively easy goals. My goal now is to just get back below 200. Once I do that, try to get below 190. If I do that, go for 185. And so on. Also this time I would like to focus less on losing weight and focus more on adding muscle, since the gym has such good equipment. Maybe my first goal should be to turn all my flab back into muscle and forget about my weight for the moment.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1066 » by dobrojim » Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:58 pm

I ran my fastest marathon, triathlon and 10K all at age 45. It's very possible to be in phenomenal
shape at that age.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1067 » by Zonkerbl » Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:03 pm

dobrojim wrote:I ran my fastest marathon, triathlon and 10K all at age 45. It's very possible to be in phenomenal
shape at that age.


Well, but that's assuming you never let yourself get out of shape. As long as you maintain you should be able to maintain a nice low weight into your seventies (like my dad).

I know the physiology of fitness changes significantly once you've allowed yourself to gain a lot of weight. Your body just does not want to let that fat go and plays all sorts of biochemical tricks to force you not to lose it (like lowering the calories you burn while at rest, for example).
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1068 » by dobrojim » Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:17 pm

I went from being in OK, but not really great shape at age 37 to really quite good
shape at age 45 and continued to maintain pretty good condition into my mid 50s.
Actually I would say I'm in pretty decent shape right now at age (almost) 58.

My weight could be 10-20 lb less ideally. I don't look like the typical competitive,
at a recreational level, runner.

Being much less active over the last year has not resulted in a dramatic increase
in my weight FWIW, maybe 5 lbs.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1069 » by dckingsfan » Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:18 pm

Zonkerbl wrote:
dobrojim wrote:I ran my fastest marathon, triathlon and 10K all at age 45. It's very possible to be in phenomenal
shape at that age.


Well, but that's assuming you never let yourself get out of shape. As long as you maintain you should be able to maintain a nice low weight into your seventies (like my dad).

I know the physiology of fitness changes significantly once you've allowed yourself to gain a lot of weight. Your body just does not want to let that fat go and plays all sorts of biochemical tricks to force you not to lose it (like lowering the calories you burn while at rest, for example).


I am coaching a bunch of older dads/moms while I coach juniors. It has been interesting to watch their fitness levels change. Many are clearly in the best shape of their lives in their early 50s. But it has taken them 3 to 4 years to get the "deep fitness" that you are talking about.

The hardest part is ramping up slowly. It is really easy to injure an older athlete. That and diet - hard to give up the deserts, breads and alcohol.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1070 » by Zonkerbl » Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:20 pm

"Deep fitness," that's a good way to put it.

Yeah I've really focused on reducing the intensity of my workouts to 60% and less and being much more aware than I ever was of how tired I am. I'm determined not to push myself to the breaking point like I have so many times before. Kinda how I got into this mess in the first place.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1071 » by nate33 » Fri Nov 14, 2014 4:32 pm

Zonkerbl wrote:Here's the fundamental question - at 44, exactly how far back into shape is it reasonable to expect to get? I spent basically three years trying to get below 170 and it just wouldn't happen. Now that I've let things get so bad I probably can't even expect to get back to where I was (175). Should I be satisfied just getting back down to 190? 180?

Maybe I'll just set small incremental, relatively easy goals. My goal now is to just get back below 200. Once I do that, try to get below 190. If I do that, go for 185. And so on. Also this time I would like to focus less on losing weight and focus more on adding muscle, since the gym has such good equipment. Maybe my first goal should be to turn all my flab back into muscle and forget about my weight for the moment.

I suggest that you avoid being so goal-oriented. It's not a destination, it's a process. Just try to get slightly stronger, slightly lighter and slightly faster every year. Listen to your body. Start easy and slowly build. The main problem with aging isn't that you can no longer be strong, fast and light. It's that you get injured in the effort to get there.

Right now, I try to workout every day, but usually once or twice a week, life gets in the way and I have to skip a day. No biggie. I just rotate between swimming, running and lifting; making sure I always lift twice a week, with the swimming and running being a bit more flexible. I'm at a comfortable plateau where I weigh 170 (at 5'9") and have pretty good muscle mass and cardio conditioning. I used to always think about training for something (an upcoming marathon, or to reach a weightlifting milestone like benching 225) but now I'm just enjoying being healthy and capable of playing with my kids or playing basketball whenever the opportunity arises.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1072 » by dobrojim » Fri Nov 14, 2014 5:11 pm

nate33 wrote:
Zonkerbl wrote:Here's the fundamental question - at 44, exactly how far back into shape is it reasonable to expect to get? I spent basically three years trying to get below 170 and it just wouldn't happen. Now that I've let things get so bad I probably can't even expect to get back to where I was (175). Should I be satisfied just getting back down to 190? 180?

Maybe I'll just set small incremental, relatively easy goals. My goal now is to just get back below 200. Once I do that, try to get below 190. If I do that, go for 185. And so on. Also this time I would like to focus less on losing weight and focus more on adding muscle, since the gym has such good equipment. Maybe my first goal should be to turn all my flab back into muscle and forget about my weight for the moment.

I suggest that you avoid being so goal-oriented. It's not a destination, it's a process. Just try to get slightly stronger, slightly lighter and slightly faster every year. Listen to your body. Start easy and slowly build. The main problem with aging isn't that you can no longer be strong, fast and light. It's that you get injured in the effort to get there.

Right now, I try to workout every day, but usually once or twice a week, life gets in the way and I have to skip a day. No biggie. I just rotate between swimming, running and lifting; making sure I always lift twice a week, with the swimming and running being a bit more flexible. I'm at a comfortable plateau where I weigh 170 (at 5'9") and have pretty good muscle mass and cardio conditioning. I used to always think about training for something (an upcoming marathon, or to reach a weightlifting milestone like benching 225) but now I'm just enjoying being healthy and capable of playing with my kids or playing basketball whenever the opportunity arises.



I would change this slightly by saying goal oriented is good but as Nate is saying, make
your goals short term and achieveable. Get a good workout 3-5x a week (3 for you getting
started would be fine). On your non-workout days, get in a brisk (close to 4 mph) walk
of 1-2 miles as often as possible. But it is a process and in order to make progress you
need to be consistent. Making it enjoyable, doing it with friend(s) is one way to change
it from drudgery to something you look forward to. That's key.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1073 » by Zonkerbl » Fri Nov 14, 2014 5:32 pm

Yeah, at some point I just was not able to enjoy playing basketball anymore. That's when things started to go downhill, because working out in a gym just sucks. Plus it's just so much harder to find a pickup game in downtown DC than in Bloomington.

One thing I'm going to try is take advantage of all the different stuff at Vida so I'm not stuck doing the same boring workout all the time.

Huh, funny story - this security guard comes up to me and is all, "Where've you been man? You used to be at the gym all the time [the one in the basement where I work, which sucks but is better than nothing]." That's when I finally snapped out of my doldrums and started seriously trying to get back into shape.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1074 » by dckingsfan » Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:02 pm

I would add one more thing - one long endurance workout per week something at 69-83% of your HR FT. And build it over time.

But you can't get there in one fell swoop. You pick something - running, swimming, biking, kayaking, cross country skiing, (even walking), etc. and then start with a period of time that makes sense for your current fitness and then build 1 to 5% per week.

But be short-term goal oriented. Pick what you are going to do and see if you can do it for four straight weekends.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1075 » by dobrojim » Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:55 pm

what is HR FT? Heart rate....

and what do you mean by long?

In either case, it's relative to where you are starting from.

What's long for one person is just getting warmed up for another. It's getting to be the
wrong time of year but I am a definite fan of bicycling for fitness, going out and doing 25-40
miles over 2-4 hours. Great exercise and fun if you choose the right route and don't let
other people you may encounter who don't have good bike/trail etiquette get your goat.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1076 » by Zonkerbl » Fri Nov 14, 2014 7:08 pm

Well. I mean some things are going to come back pretty quickly. My bench press is going to get back to normal pretty quickly, it usually does. My cardio comes back in about a week.

Actually what I need to go is just get back into a normal workout routine and then make all incremental changes from there to my *diet*. I've gone the "workout a little bit harder each week" route and it hasn't gotten me anywhere (except injured). I need to get back to having a beer or two a week and replace at least half the carbs in my diet with vegetables. That's the hardest thing for me.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1077 » by dckingsfan » Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:35 pm

dobrojim wrote:what is HR FT? Heart rate....

Sorry, my coaching nerdiness got the worst of me. FT = Functional Threshold

dobrojim wrote:and what do you mean by long? In either case, it's relative to where you are starting from.

Exactly - start from where you are starting from and build from there. It could be 20 minutes of walking. Next week 22 minute, next week 24 minutes.

dobrojim wrote:What's long for one person is just getting warmed up for another. It's getting to be the wrong time of year but I am a definite fan of bicycling for fitness, going out and doing 25-40 miles over 2-4 hours. Great exercise and fun if you choose the right route and don't let other people you may encounter who don't have good bike/trail etiquette get your goat.

Violent agreement. Some of the kids routinely do 80 mile rides on the weekends. But it took them 3 years to get to that level.
There are a bunch of nice weekend rides for all types of riders as well if you don't mind riding with other folks.

Rock Creek Park is a great place to ride on weekends. And yes, CCT and W&OD - but like you say, you need thick skin and you need to be careful.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1078 » by dobrojim » Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:01 pm

I'm baaaaack.

Finished the 50 in the very modest time of 12:13 well into the rear of the pack.
But by any realistic measure, I had a great day and am really really glad to be back.
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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1079 » by Nivek » Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:01 pm

dobrojim wrote:I'm baaaaack.

Finished the 50 in the very modest time of 12:13 well into the rear of the pack.
But by any realistic measure, I had a great day and am really really glad to be back.


I don't care what anyone says, 50 miles in 12 minutes, 13 seconds is frigging incredible. :D




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Re: Official Workout/Fitness Thread (Re-born) 

Post#1080 » by dobrojim » Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:31 pm

you are so right

but seriously, the winner ran it in a little less than 7 hours flat.
while that's only equivalent to back to back 3.5 hour marathons,
considering it's largely on single track dirt trails through the woods,
it's still moving pretty good.
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