Wellness

[MKR14]

@hckynut  Very true on what you said. I have heart and mitral valve problems and pancreatitis so I know that it is a true blessing to be able to exercise. I consider myself lucky to not have cancer that will take my life. A few months ago I couldn't walk to the kitchen. Today my daughter and I went to some Garage Sales and did almost 3000 steps walking around and had fun doing it. I know you have had health problems and you deal with them amazingly. We need to take care of our health to see the sun and our family every day. It sure does put things in prospective when we face life threatening health issues. I exercise and eat so healthy that it has only enriched my life. I can have problems at any minute but rather to focus on the positive. I am careful when I stretch a little before exercising and thanks for the advice. I hope you and your family have a healthy and happy 2017. My children and husband are so proud of how I have been doing what I need to do. I do it for me "first" so I will be there for them.

I think sometimes people keep buying more exercise equipment to get different results. The truth is the results you achieve are within you and not fancy equipment. If you never use it you have just wasted your money. Just my opinion.

[QueenDanceALot]

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@Bri36 wrote:

Those are great questions @Lipstickdiva.  

I never know if I should increase weight or reps either.   I think some soreness is okay - it's your body's way of telling you you're working those muscles.  

Maybe @QueenDanceALot would be able to give you some advice.   She's pretty knowledgble about that stuff 

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Just saw this and thought I'd weigh in.  I do think I am pretty knowledgable in this area (36 years "experience" in exercise personally, weight training in endurance, strength, and power, and other recreational types of exercise including yoga, dance, running.

I became a certified personal trainer about 15 years ago, but let that particular cert lapse as I was busy with a job in another area and just didn't keep up with it every two years as was required.  I self studied during that time and continued my own workouts and often advised people in gyms when they approached me, but that was about it.   I also became certified in Kettlebell training with one of the best people in the industry in 2008.   Last year I decided I wanted to just focus on personal training full time and am now working for another certification which I will be tested on in the next few months, and then I plan to get a senior fitness specialization as there is a big market for it and most of the seniors I run into don't want the 20-somethings who have no idea what issues older people encounter.  Currently I am only working with one client, who has been with me for a year, and don't plan to take on any others until I am finished with my current certification process.

Anyhoo, that's my street  and professional cred, such as it is.  

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who call themselves "trainers", and yes, they might have the paper that says they are, but often they are woefully lacking in skill and practical knowledge.

The big box gyms have trainers that, by and large, put people on the standard 3 sets of 10 on this machine, that machine and maybe a couple of pulleys, and a stint on a "cardio" machine.  A one-size-fits-all approach.  Which isn't what "training" is all about.  I actually prefer the term "coaching".  We train animals, we coach people.

The first thing a trainer should do is sit down with you and talk to you about your goals (physical fitness goals) and learn about your exercise history, health, and preferences in activity.

They should also do some appropriate assessments in posture, stability and mobility as well as physiological, depending on where you are, fitness wise, at that point in time.

No good trainer would start loading someone with weights until they have information on how they perform in basic movement patterns.  This identifies areas of strength and weakness.  You dont want to start loading poor or inadequate movement patterns.  That leads to injury.

Most responses on this thread are in the old bodybuilder model (which I trained in for many years  .This is one type of muscular training, but by no means is it the only one, or the most appropriate one for you.

Soreness is not an indication of progress or lack thereof.   It is to be expected when you are performing new movements, but it is not the be all end all of evaluating how much to increase load or intensity.

You may not want to hire someone who will actually evaluate YOUR particular needs, based on your goals and your current abilities and fitness level, but if you don't you'll just be stuck with guessing.  Maybe you'll make some progess (to whatever end that is, which isn't clear from your post) or you'll just get sore, tired, and bored, and maybe injured.    

You don't sound really motivated (you're already anticipating bad weather keeping you out of the gym), and if you're just out there by yourself  with a no-program kind of program, the likelihood of you sticking with it is kind of, well, unlikely.

But if I read what you want incorrectly, I really suggest you find someone who can help get you going in the right direction.  Maybe a session per week with a good coach, for a finite period of time, just until you have a better grasp of what you are doing and how to proceed.

Good luck! 

[terrier3]

I am 63 and have been training for 6 years with a trainer...the last 4 with a guy who will have his doctorate in physical therapy next year...I've been with him through all his training and he has helped me a lot.

Feeling sore is normal. It's a build up of lactic acid in your muscles. The BEST way to get over it is to MOVE - get your heart rate up and everything circulating.

I never work the same muscles two days in a row. In fact, I just lift weights 3 days a week.

I now go to a CrossFit center where my trainer works on the weekends. Some people go there SEVEN days a week -, but they are in their 20s!!!

My trainer works with me to modify exercises - I have never been injured.

Last week I made a new bed in my garden. I had to lift out 15 wheelbarrows full of heavy wet topsoil and move it quite a distance to dump it...I ended up doing 20,000 steps and worked in the garden for 7 hours straight.

When I got in the house, I could barely move...I thought I broke my back!!! But after a hot shower, an Aleve and time spent rolling out the kinks with my Rumbleroller, the next morning I had NO pain whatsoever!!!

Investing in some sessions with a private trainer, with credentials, is worth every penny. 

[hckynut]

@QueenDanceALot

Like what you have to say in your post. Training and Coaching, to me mean different things. Group exercising(more than 1 person) to me is way too variable for it to work for multiple people. 

I was in 72 Cardiac Rehab Classes, with and Exercise Physiologist giving most of the classes. Myself as an​ avid exerciser and athlete since the early 1960's, most of those exercises would barely even raise my heart rate. Yes, I damages my heart, and I do understand how to recover from injuries, including some idea of what I need, that may be way too much for most others in those classes.

That PT and myself had many meetings of the mind, mostly disagreements on things like shoes/doing exercises correctly, and many other things I knew about my body, through my life's experiences, not from something I read about in a book or thesis I wrote.

My knowledge did not come with a certificate and I have never claimed, here or on any forum, that I have a formal(?) education in exercise or exercises. I have trained many in running/stretching/ice skating/hockey, and also in being a hockey Referee. No paper, but decades of doing exactly those specific things.

There were no "how too's" back in the early 1960's. I learned through trial and error and have a long list of injuries to which I referred. I also wrote down exactly every detail of what/where and how I exercised, every single day.

When I had issues, I could refer back to "did I change anything/do anything differently or wear a different shoe or skate. I seldom suffered the same injury(setback) for the exact same reason. The sooner a person learns to hear what their body is telling them, the better their chances of suffering a "long term(months)" injury.

I did not stick with the old views on exercises and exercising. As knowledge was acquired from studies by those in strictly athletic fields(Sports Medicine is one), my ways and views of them changed with the times.

Appreciate reading your experience and experiences with clients and in general. Thanks for your post.

hckynut(john)

[QueenDanceALot]

Actually, muscle soreness is caused by microtrauma to the muscle fibers, not lactic acid build up;  It used to be thought that it did, but science has shown that it's not the reason for DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

[hckynut]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

Actually, muscle soreness is caused by microtrauma to the muscle fibers, not lactic acid build up;  It used to be thought that it did, but science has shown that it's not the reason for DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

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@QueenDanceALot

Now that is a new one to me. Have known since the mid 70's about exercises and muscle trauma, and micro-tears. Dr. David Costill was in town for all day Clinics twice within about 5 years back then. His later clinic had updated studies he had done on some Olympic Athletes, some from other countries, along with regular people like myself.

He always said it was best for most to have a day or so of rest for certain muscle groups as that is what allows them to repair, and also rebuild with improvement. He of course was speaking of those that work the muscles to close to their max, or beyond, not just using them a little more.

I know from my own experiences that my cooldown is a very important part of all of my exercise routines, moreso when it involves the bigger muscle groups like the legs/back/shoulder and chest.

If I take my legs to their max and do not cooldown? It is not the next day or 2 days that will effect them. It is within minutes, and for me I believe it has more to do with the retention of lactic acid than the micro tears to my muscle tissue. Now that is just me.

While I haven't been to any clinics lately, I do try to keep aware of some new findings done by unsponsered​ studies, when performed and tested by well known Exercise Physiologists on people that are athletes well able to exceed the, so-called​, maximum levels of muscle/cardio and pulmonary functions. 

I prefer studies that also repeat these tests the next day, or within 2 days, on the same athletes doing the same routine. For me those types of recoveries tell more than multiple tests on different subjects. 

Couple weeks ago I had a, not so friendly conversation with 2 Cardio nurses and a Echocardiogram Radiologist before/during, and after my Cardio Treadmill Test. It wss suppose to be a Maximal Bruce or Balke Protocol Treadmill Test, they instead insisted on the old worn out: 220bpm/minus my age as a maximum heart rate level.

That ended up being 125bpm(using their wrong math) which barely has my heart even elevated, much less breathing hard. Since I will be 78 on the 8th, my math came to 143bpm.

Theprotocol for athletes, or active exercisers is 200bpm/minus half my age. That comes out, at that time, to be 162bpm. They stopped me at 130bpm and I was P***ed. When my Cardiologist came in, he too read them the riot act for giving me the wrong protocol test. In other words, they didn't even get my heart revved up enough to show much more than a Resting EKG, except it was an Echocardiogram the showed the heart and it's functioning parts. 

Not all of what I or my Cardiologist wanted to know about my heart and it's ability to function. My last 2 Heart Stress Tests were done via a Nuclear Text called Lexiscan, where the patient(me) just lays there with an IV in my arm. And for me these tests, when I was already weak from 5 days in hospital with Cellulitis, made me even weaker. Not fun.

Long enough, too long really.

hckynut(john)

[Lipstickdiva]

@QueenDanceALot, thank you very much.  And you did misread what I posted.  Trust me when I say I am very motivated to get myself in better shape and ultimately I'm hoping strengthening my core helps with my lower back.  I was joking when I made the comment about the weather in January, hence the LOL at the end of my sentence.

I am going to speak to my friends future son-in-law.  He is a personal trainer but not at the gym I attend.  He just opened a gym but it's over an hour away.  He lives in my area though so I am going to see if he can look over my program given to me and then go through it all with me at the gym, make sure I'm doing everything correctly, etc.

She did go through my personal fitness goals and talked to me about my previous experience.  What she didn't do was walk through all the machines, demonstrate, work with me.  She walked the group of us around, pointed them out, talked to us briefly and moved on.        

[Lipstickdiva]

@SaRina, yes I am over 40.  I'm 49.  When the trainer met with me, she asked me how many days a week I wanted to train and for how long. 

My goal is to take Wednesdays and Sundays off but sometimes my schedule doesn't allow for that and I have to alter when I'm there. For instance, I am going out of town at the end of this week and won't be able to be at the gym a few days.

The program she set for me doesn't have me working the same bodyparts 2 days in a row. 

Still hate the cardio part of my workout but maybe that will change.  LOL  

[QueenDanceALot]

@hckynut

Good explanation of the current science re: lactic acid 

https://breakingmuscle.com/learn/why-everything-you-know-about-lactic-acid-might-be-wrong

[QueenDanceALot]

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

@QueenDanceALot, thank you very much.  And you did misread what I posted.  Trust me when I say I am very motivated to get myself in better shape and ultimately I'm hoping strengthening my core helps with my lower back.  I was joking when I made the comment about the weather in January, hence the LOL at the end of my sentence.

I am going to speak to my friends future son-in-law.  He is a personal trainer but not at the gym I attend.  He just opened a gym but it's over an hour away.  He lives in my area though so I am going to see if he can look over my program given to me and then go through it all with me at the gym, make sure I'm doing everything correctly, etc.

She did go through my personal fitness goals and talked to me about my previous experience.  What she didn't do was walk through all the machines, demonstrate, work with me.  She walked the group of us around, pointed them out, talked to us briefly and moved on.        

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Hi @Lipstickdiva

That's great that you are very motivated!

Of course I haven't seen you and what you are doing so I can't know exactly where you should be starting, but if you have a goal of strengthening your core I am not sure that sending you on a machine workout, particularly without a physical assessment done first (stability,mobility and movement) is a good way to start.  I will say that I am not a proponent of gym "machines" to begin with (although I spent a lot of time early in my "career" on them, back in the day when they were standard in all the big gyms).  I could talk about that forever, though, and I don't want to bore the you-know-what out of or you.  haha

I think it's a great idea that you talk to your friend's future son-in-law. Hopefully he can give you some good advice to help you on your journey!

I look forward to reading about your progress  

Well, I gotta get going.  TIme for me to get to the gym.