I was sick, tired and had lost myself until I began lifting weights at 71
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
If you get bored, try something else for a while. If that doesn't work, switch back.
Since no two people are the same, no exercise plan works for everyone. For me, weight lifting and technical mountain biking get me going and make me feel great. Tennis used to be a thing I lived for. Running and road cycling is a agony for me. Dancing is great. But I have friends who love to cycle 100 miles in a straight line. I guess there's some mental thing happening, but I just cannot do that.
An activity may really wear you out, but if you feel more energized the next day, then it's a good one for you. And if you start craving that feeling, then you know you found a good one.
Even within one type of exercise, there are many different approaches (which work better or worse depending on the person). Low rep, high weight is my thing. High rep, low weight (like road cycling) is a muscle burn and mind burn killer. So if you try something and it's not for you, make sure you try a variation on that before you decide the entire activity is bad.
Diet is important, but it can be easier to follow a good diet when you already feel better from the exercise. And you may find that you have more discipline after a good workout. On the contrary, a day which sucks and you can't get up and go to the gym is a day you're also likely to order pizza and beer for dinner.
Your primary goal (IMO) should be "I will want to do it again tomorrow," not a performance goal. Those are secondary. Go hard enough to feel achievement, but not so much that your are sore or worn out, either physically or mentally. Everything emanates from not quitting anyway, and quitting is the reason most people don't achieve what they want. Willpower is a scarce resource, don't overtax it.
if you do some sort of workout try and make it symmetrical eg if you excercise your chest then do your back otherwise it will give you a hunch
people who are hypermobile may (or will) have issues with out static stretching my friend is seriously hypermobile - she struggles to do anything without proper static stretching - YMMV
I wish I could be motivated to keep doing yoga or pilates
After, however, stretches are really important. Without proper post-workout stretching, you can wake up with muscles so tight that you can barely stand up. Not only is that hard on joints, it seems to slow the recovery process.
Ideally you can end up with a mix of weight building activities and cardio activities. As people elsewhere have mentioned, playing sports can be a really fun way to get cardio without "doing cardio". Same goes for dancing or regular good sex.
Why not? I like feeling sore, means I know I'm improving.
I'm for sure not saying I am better than them, because I certainly am not. But I am saying that there is something to just enjoying yourself. I have little adventures four times a week, and still like it. I'm rarely really worn; I'm just not going for that. So that is one reason to think to stay away from sore.
(Of course, if what you want is to win races then go for it.)
1) Relaxing recovery rides 2) Long endurance rides (50-100mi) 3) Race pace 1-2 hour rides 4) Intense sprints
I’m usually a little sore after 3 or 4, and take a relaxed day after. That is when progress happens.
That's what people often don't get about outdoor exercise. You can combine physical and mental exercise - exploring new areas, impromptu orienteering, just the sheer focus required to run or bike in complicated terrain is a huge plus and makes it easier to stay engaged.
There's a sweet spot where you really want to go in and do it again.
Also, beware of pro bodybuilder regimes unless you are one. (1) They're optimising for that elusive last mile (2) They often assume PED use.
It's actually really hard for someone to overtrain. What normally happens is people use it as an excuse to stop training.
What I tell people is that long term training is a grind - and that's a good thing. Accept that fact early on and find your own enjoyment in it however you have to. The discipline that comes to other areas in your life from accepting the training grind is a benefit many people don't even notice.
There is, especially in weight rooms, a danger of doing stuff that's not really exercise. But if you're swimming, running, climbing, squats, pushups, pullups, tennis and such... it's not really a danger. They're all going to put a beginner on a meaningful progression path. Don't worry about being insufficiently intensive unless your progression has halted.
You're right the main enemy is quitting. When I tell people I workout nearly every day, people have this illusion that it's easy. It's not. I make time for it in my day, I make it a priority. That's what I mean by the grind. Everyone is different, but I find embracing the uncomfortableness easier than looking for ways around it.
IMO establishing physical exercise as a part of your life should be the goal. It’s as essential as brushing your teeth. And a big problem I see is people are always presented with short term solutions. Do this workout for 6 weeks and get a Men’s Health cover body. Yet the reality is you have to eat healthy, consistently work out and keep working out to stay in shape and healthy.
My advice is for the 90% of us, the serial jan-march gym goers. If you already have that habit, compete, and exercise is a given... don't take advice from me.
That said, I suspect that even for advanced athletes, "Take steps to avoid burnout" is probably still relevant.
For an example, my understanding is that weight lifting is better for weight loss than cardio, contrary to the popular perception... if your goal is to lose weight, you'd better do what works best and not what you enjoy, or at least choose the activity that you enjoy most out of the ones best for the job.
Look at it this way...
(1) Basically any class on offer at your gym, taken daily, will get you fit, sexy & healthy. Pilates, weights, swimming, wall climbing. They all work good, as long as you keep doing them and don't quit.
(2) Quitting is extremely likely. Most of us quit most of the exercise regimes we start.
Given these two points, the only thing worth optimising is "how not to quit." A good start is aiming for that "sweet spot" where you feel satisfaction, but not soreness or burnout. If you have to make yourself take a recovery day, that's a good place to be. Obviously also life stuff. Scheduling, social stuff, etc.
So it's better to do something suboptimal that you enjoy, than not do the optimal thing because you hate it.
And cardio definitely helps with weight loss, because all the bodybuilders do it for cutting.
For me it's bodyweight excercises and running. And I don't really care if there would be something else that's better.
And about the cake example, you probably want to replace that with healthy food that you enjoy, not with the most healthy that you detest. Otherwise you will drop out immediately.
2) The 2nd part about enjoyment vs dropping I just completely disagree with.
2.1) Enjoyment often builds up with confidence and success, especially in the areas where you make rapid progress as a beginner, like weight-lifting or cardio or most PT really.
2.2) In general, this mindset where you only do things as you enjoy and don't try to develop any grit is terrible, especially for people who don't start out with an advantage in a given area (health, financial, smarts, mood, etc). And more so for people who have self-inflicted problems in a given area - the problems that stem from doing what they "enjoy".
You do the cardio to build more endurance, a stronger heart, and apparently a more efficient use of the oxygen in your blood.
TFA didn't seem to be about weight loss; it was about declining health. And in that case, virtually any consistent exercise would be an improvement. Whatever it is that gets someone off their sofa regularly is a good starting point. If that activity is weight lifting, then perhaps they will enjoy the extra benefits of better strength, higher metabolism, a feeling of more energy, etc.
For most people most of the time, running out of discipline and quitting is the failure point. The relative merits of running vs weights vs judo are trivial relative to the merits of continuous exercise habit throughout your life. You'll naturally gravitate towards little optimisations and improvements anyway, if you keep showing up.
If you're a pro athlete, where showing up is a given, then the difference between high rep and low rep matters. Otherwise, it's like premature optimisation.
Even for pros, like professional writers, the most common advice relates to showing up every day.
It isn't true that no form of exercise is better or worse than any other for general health.
If you have to pick one, I strongly recommend compound lifts of free weights. The benefits in terms of bone density, joint health, tendon strength, muscular power, hormone production, are simply irreplaceable with any amount of "cardiovascular" exercise. I put that in quotes because it should be called endurance training, lifting weights will emphatically exercise your cardiovascular system.
I was dancing every weekend and walking a couple miles a day when I started lifting. I started lifting because, in my late 30s, it started to be the case that when I would knock something to the floor, I would hitch up my pants and carefully lower myself down to retrieve it, complete with joint pain in my knees.
I extrapolated where that problem would take me in a couple decades, and decided to do something about it. It worked.
But why pick one? You can totally mix in some yoga with lifting :)
So I certainly agree! I view stretching (calisthenics, yoga, Pilates, whatever you want to call it) as a natural adjunct of weightlifting, something which most lifters discover is useful, even necessary.
But it's not as obvious to a dedicated yogic practitioner why they might want to lift weights. So in terms of "pick one" I'm going to advocate for the one which naturally points in the direction of both (:
I deliberately left out the word "heavy" because, while I do favor the powerlifting 5x5 style personally, it's not for everyone. Just: free weights, and compound lifts over isolation exercises.
Putting less weight on the bar and combining it with sprints and burpees makes plenty of sense to me, although it's not my style.
There’s a big difference between someone lifting weights somewhere near their genetic capacity and someone spending many hours per week racking up long, slow distance on the road. Or someone spending a few hours waving one pound dumbbells around.
If you want to be able to get out of your chair at 95 and not develop osteoporosis, you need to engage in load bearing exercise. If you want to add cardio to that - do it faster. You’ll get your HR to 80%, no problem.
I’m 80. I lift about twice a week for about 90 min each time. On the off days, I walk for an hour, usually over hills, since walking on the flat doesn’t get my HR up enough, and I don’t want to stress my knees by jogging.
I think the lady looks great, probably a lot better than she would if she was a runner.
what does that mean
>usually over hills
Are you sure that's also not stressing your knees?
But, you have to be really careful on the downhill parts - that’s what gets the knees. I was surprised to notice that it takes me longer to go down than up - and I think that’s good.
Jogging is different. I tried that a few years ago and my knees started acting up.
The pain and stiffness didn't go away. It got to the point where I was picking up my left leg with my hand to get it into the car like some old geezer! I started searching the web and came up with a supplement containing glucosamine and condroitin, along with a small amount of inflammatories to promote healing. Got gradually better, and in six months the stiffness vanished. I stopped using it, and have been fine since. Sometimes I think about a 5K ;-)
A few years ago, my wife developed pain in her hip and knee joints. I suggested she try the same stuff, and, sure enough, the pains went away. She's still using it.
This is all anecdotal, of course. I've never had an actual injury, just joint issues.
Along with MSM - is great. I have taken it few times to get rid of pain induced by - I believe - prolonged sitting and workouts
This wasn't about optimal. If you ask me personally what I think optimal is, I think it's 5 sets of 5 with big weights, squats deads and bench. Mix in some other cardio activity 1-2 times a week, and you'll be a relative superhero.
But we're talking about people who have health problems and no history of exercise activity. For them, just starting to move is a huge step forward.
This lady probably wouldn't have reached 80 if she had continued on her current path. If we tell people like this, "you must lift weights", we will lost most of them. I have taught a few women to lift, even tiny ones, and of course they can learn and be very strong. But there's a serious stigma when it comes to weight lifting and women. They either think it's impossible, or they think they will end up looking like the woman in the article. Now I'm a fan of built women, but most women seem to really NOT want to look like that.
Running is mostly a solitary sport. Lifting can be communal.
Slow and steady does it. If you hurt yourself by overdoing it when you are getting old, it will take much longer to recover.
From what I know, at an older age, the chance of injury, not to mention the danger of injury, is way higher. The standard advice afaik is therefore to aim for lower weight / higher reps, because the risk of injury is therefore greatly reduced.
Not saying that 5x5 is necessarily incorrect, just that I would imagine a 8-10 rep based routine would be better for purposes of injury reduction (while still improving muscle conditioning, obviously).
Look at The Barbell Prescription book for more details - it’s about strength training after 40. Good form is important, and a trained coach can help with that.
But the same dynamic exists in other sports, including weightlifting. Plenty of causal weight lifters focus on the weight they are pushing exclusively and never consider their bodyfat, go on "dirty bulks" or permanently injure themselves with poor form or pushing it too far (also see CrossFit).
For most people, having a couple of different and reasonably different physical activities, and sticking to them, is going to be enough. The most important thing is that people actually use their bodies into old age. Exercise isn't the rocket science people make it out to be.
Bodybuilding (done properly) is about as close to perfect for maintaining a functioning body into old age as you can design an activity: It's easily scalable from zero to infinity, has regression and progression to your abilities built in, and huge benefits from even the smallest investment. It can be performed with basically no impact. It improves joint health. It helps you train to perform every day activities. It can easily be modified to cope with injuries, missing limbs, whatever limitation you have. It benefits you hormonally in a massive way. etc etc
I'm 36. I do about 14 hours of tennis/surf every week, plus maybe 2 hours of gym work and lots of moving around during the day for my construction work. I love my sports but my body would be a wreck if it weren't for the resistance exercise I do to prepare/rehabilitate it. I would do a lot more of it if I were smart.
My dad was an elite athlete who ran for the national team. By age 50, many of his cartilages were worn out and he experienced extreme pain while doing daily chores.
He says you should only jog on grass or sand.
The first time you have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
The 2nd - 4th times you are starting to get the hang of it and will see the slight derivations across different classes.
By the 5th time you’ve probably gotten enough exposure to be able to say “yeah ok this really isn’t my thing” or “these of the parts of this I really enjoy”.
I agree with other commenters that there is something important about weight lifting, though. Certainly having cardio as your main exercise is fine, but I think diversity of exercise is important, too.
The harder part, IMO, is finding a job in tech industry that will allow the free time to keep doing it.
Everyone I know that has been into powerlifting for a long time including myself is paying the price with disc herniation, bad knees, etc.
We really need gyms to get belt squat machines or pit sharks so people stop balancing barbells on their spine with huge weights and move up and down. Kind of obvious what is going to happen over time.
Lifting heavier weights than you have previously is super addictive.
I don't think it really helps my mood nearly as much as hard conditioning or even long walks but I don't really know what it is like to not lift at this point.
My anecdotes (to go with OPs) is that the competitive powerlifters I know have injuries, and the 'gymbro' types who use the big lifts for health and some light bodybuilding, for the most part do not.
Chasing that new ATH is addictive, and a great way to exceed what your body can safely handle.
I love deadlifts, but It is very easy to mess up your back with them. On the other hand, whenever I didn't deadlift, eventually started getting random back pains (from sitting too long), and wrists pains (from typing) as those muscles were getting weaker.
TLDR: Deadlifting, powerlifting and such are great for your back and posture, as long as you don't push yourself to your limits (keep it within 80-85% of your max) and watch your technique.
Most people want to push their personal envelope, and that's where they get injured.
Recovery is important. Maybe it will be better if people see exercise as a secondary tool for improving their health/recovery rate, rather than the primary tool for becoming more powerful.
I powerlifted for many years, and have only had major injuries from sports - a torn ACL (wakeboarding) and disc herniation (basketball). In both cases, my doctors/PTs said my base strength accelerated my recovery.
YMMV.
20 minutes a day of not very hard cycling provides a pretty decent base fitness. Or at least I like to think that.
Unfortunately, I still have the problem of motivating myself to get started on my own chores. I have a much easier time helping other people with theirs.
I'm kind of an introvert and haven't really gotten to know my neighbors that well, and most of my friends are too distant for that to be any kind of regular thing.
I have a couple neighbors I could probably ask, though. It's far enough out of my comfort zone that I don't think I'll do it, but thanks for the suggestion!
But put me in a team sport and I can chase a ball until I collapse!
Team sports are also great for the social obligation. Both to help the team win, and to show up each week.
Couldn’t agree more - and it’s so slow. My completely made up theory is that some people are the wrong shape. I prefer cycling as it’s way faster and doesn’t hurt.
I'm probably in the weak muscle category. Possibly added to by a negative attitude.
When did you last put your mental attention pointedly, on the various joints and muscles of your leg and foot, as you walked? Tried to feel the minute variations in proprioception most of us can there. How the slightest shift would cause you to fall. But you catch yourself. How far can you lean and still catch yourself without moving your left leg? Or either leg and just your hip muscles?
I used to do that as a child. I think most of us do? Figuring out my relationship to the three dimensions. And gravity. While you should probably take care not to break your ankle maybe we should try to keep that alive long into adulthood?
From a less spiritual (I guess) angle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurobiological_effects_of_phy... I think it's a "learned taste" for some. (If you're now going to go look for the runner's high because you're not sure you ever experienced it, please, see a GP first? Of any age, really. I'm not a medical prof. in any way. But that does seem to be often recommended if you're thinking to switch from light to heavy aerobic exercise.)
Another nugget: your body isn’t fly by wire. Powering more muscle fibres requires more action potential. It’s literally more taxing on your CNS, and something your brain must divert resources to power.
I just turned 50 and do calisthenics daily (over 175,000 burpees cumulatively, over 50 per day), requiring no equipment, spotter, money, or risk of injury. I have bought a few kettlebells over the years and a rowing machine.
A couple years ago I accepted a challenge by the rowing machine company, Concept2, to row at least 100,000 meters in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I made it and felt great, though very tired, figuring in my late 40s I'm behind the curve.
Then I read of this 77 year old woman who rowed 100,000 meters per day for a month https://web.archive.org/web/20210306044719/https://www.row2k.... In one month she rowed more than I had in a decade.
I say these because of my own experiences with failing to follow those rules and suffering physically debilitating consequences as a result. I used to ride 100s of miles a week and now can barely ride and hour. Weight lifting is no longer a matter of how much can my muscles lift, but rather how much can my shitty joints take before they get injured.
I honestly get very anxious about if I ever get injured. Fortunately there are many ways to exercise - I've gotten injuries before, and I switched from running to biking to swimming and yoga. I feel like even if I can at least walk for hours maybe I can get a similar feeling. But otherwise, I don't see any alternatives.
But really, I think the biggest benefit is the mental side. If you can stay in your own head for 30-60 minutes at a time, it's a great way to work out problems. I solve most of my problems at work while I'm running. Coding is always easier when you have had time to think through the entire plan.
I definitely see a difference pre/post run. My days seem better when I start them with a run (as opposed to running later in the day or at night).
My rules are simple (got them from a friend): 1) run at least one mile a day - every day.
A theme from many of the comments here has been that a small amount of work consistently done is a better approach. I completely agree. So far, I've been at this for almost 1000 days. I've also gone from 3 miles to marathons, which is another beast entirely.
Streaks are a deceptive motivator with a surprising amount of inertia. For me, it's the fear of breaking a streak that is the motivator. But, when you don't have the ability to push your workout off to the next day, it's somehow easier to do. And if you're already running 1 mile, adding another one is also easier. And then pretty soon, you've moved from 1-2 miles/day to 3-4 miles/day. The key thing is to just start.
Like you, I'm really anxious about what happens if I get injured, but afterwards, I'll probably just start over at day one.
Unlike lifting weights you'll have something more valuable than just your improved health afterwards.
I also find it's far more psychologically rewarding to see your property become more useful, the physical fitness gains become a nice side effect instead of the primary goal.
If you're sick and tired, lift or build shit. Whatever gets you moving.
It's a source of depression, for me, once I understood the value of manual labor expended on my own property. Lifting weights has become kind of a pathetic waste of time if I have access to my land where there's an effectively infinite sink for such efforts.
But I also recently rebuilt an old roof, and turned it into a mild climbing+parkour game by not using any ladders. This past month I've gotten quite adept at jumping off a 1-story roof.
There's plans for burying a geothermal ground-loop which will involve digging ~50x10` down to 8', basically digging an in-ground pool by hand, only to fill it back up again.
You can make this stuff as difficult as you want...
Edit: Wanted to mention one of my neighbors has been building underground earthdomes which is very labor-intensive, but has the nice property of turning almost pure labor into thermally ground-coupled housing. Totally unaffected by today's lumber prices for example.
The work you are describing is difficult, but that doesn't mean that it will translate to absolute strength or that it is the same as strength training. Moving 80 bags of cement won't translate to deadlifting 405 pounds a few days later unless the person doing that is already very strong. If the person doing that work does not overexert themselves they'll certainly be adapted to doing more of that type of work though.
Strength training is about making deliberate progression through repeated cycles of overloading and adaptation, and not about making equivalencies from one type of work to another. A bag of cement in the United States weighs 94 pounds. If you move 80 of them, you'll adapt to moving 80 bags of cement that weigh 94 pounds. That will not translate to the ability to lift four or five bags of cement at a time without deliberate effort. Will you empty the cement into a container adding a little more each time with appropriate recovery periods between until you can lift four bags worth of cement? Or will you move them one at a time, or maybe two at a time if you are able, to get the job done?
so beacause I couldn't work out in a gym and for some unknown reason, I started a garden project. I think I've moved over 10-15 cubic meters of clay/ soil/ stones in my garden
and boy the delayed onset pain in the few days after is a real joy
I'm on and off of lifting for 30 years. Inevitably I get to a big glass office building door and think, "wow this is so heavy to open!"... and then I know it's been too long since I lifted.
A couple of months later, and I'm practically looking for heavy stuff :). 4U rack server full of drives?... no problem!
Resistance training has innumerable benefits, but it's not a panacea nor is it a substitute for aerobic exercise; if done properly and sensibly, aerobic and resistance training complement one another. Here's a great summary comparing the two: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Adaptations-and-Health-B...
By all means emphasize one over the other as you prefer, but for health benefits both should be included. And, no, powerlifting exercises with a straight barbell are not irreplaceable. Resistance training is a far bigger world than that.
Hormone replacement is probably a good idea once it becomes necessary. That shouldn't be confused with 20 somethings taking 10-100x natural levels of anabolics.
> shattering preconceptions about what’s possible in your eighth decade
So if she's using something, this is not giving other people a fair idea of what's possible.
If your doctor won't prescribe some hormones in your eighth decade, find another doctor. What she's doing is absolutely in the realm of what's possible. She's doing it!
Perhaps the article should be more honest about that part? If that's your point I have no objection to it.
Pretty much anywhere this sort of thing comes up, the de facto answer is lifting + calorie increase. I’m not too interested in paying for and commuting back and forth from a gym so often, so is it possible that my goals could be obtained from either body weight exercise or moderately inexpensive home gym equipment? I’m also concerned about the timeframe as I don’t think I could manage to commit to a multi year endeavor.
I'd suggest a 3x weekly home workout with one additional session with a trainer in a gym. That'll make sure you're making progress and not hurting yourself, and it as variety.
Eating enough is likely going to be the bigger challenge. Happy to provide supplement recs, but even a meal replacement like Soylent will do fine. You'll want to calculate out your macronutrient requirements to figure out what you should be consuming. A trainer can help with that.
Eating will be the challenge. You need dense food that you like eating. When I did something similar I drank lots of whole milk and ate peanut butter as a constant snack. Two dinners was also common. Just be ready to eat on schedule even when you’re not hungry.
My big concern though is I’m convinced I have some form of IBD due to unique combination of side effects, and eating too much quickly will make me nauseous and bloated the whole day.
I'm not sure what you mean with the last part though. Weightlifting isn't just something you do for a few months and then you're done. It's by its nature a long-term process. After a few weeks without training, you start losing muscle mass and strength.
-Health scares. A worsening diabetic retinopathy has him afraid of losing his eye and that has helped me push for changes to his lifestyle.
-Social pressure. I make it hard for him not to be around people who move a lot.
-Sneaking it into our buddy time. I'll invite him to a movie (one of his favourite things) and then suggest walking to the theatre. He loves it.
Things I haven't found helpful:
-Sending him inspiring articles -Shaming him into working out -Worrying or whining about it to him.
I've seen quite a few people who were out of shape come in and start training BJJ and drop weight and get in great shape. Eventually, if you keep training BJJ you will want to supplement some cardio and weight lifting though.
With all that said, for me personally, the biggest benefit from BJJ was mental and emotional.
The rest of my family presents the counterexample and they're all pretty unhealthy. Any attempt to persuade them to exercise fails. At best, occasionally one of them will try but go extreme and injure themselves and then use that as evidence as to why exercise doesn't work for them and that I should shut up about it.
It's not complicated, it's just consistency. Just like almost any other thing actually.
I very quickly became stronger than I’ve been before. It’s such a small time commitment that consistency is relatively easy, but you still accumulate a decent amount of volume per week.
Try to work towards the 1 hand 1 leg pushup, or planche pushups. Way better and more efficient.
My cardio (cycling) includes a mix of sprints of various sorts so I don’t bother weight lifting for lower body. Getting too bulky is also not good for speed in cycling so I’m not trying to get super buff so everything is just dumbbells and weight vest.
The "big 3" are the core strength workouts of bench press, squat and deadlift. These are the workouts recommended by Rippetoe in Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs
For me this usually translates to one day per week of "upper body" (bench, abs, whatever ancillary stuff like curls or skull crushers) and one day per week of "lower body" (squat, deadlift, ancillary stuff such as calves). Abs are worked in between on both days, usually with body weight exercises. This is enough to keep me in good shape. If I do the above 4 days per week instead of 2, it's enough to get me into great shape.
All of the above can be done with a set of dumbbells going up to 20kg/50lb. You might substitute squats with lunges if you don't have access to a barbell.
Sounds incredible, compared to amount of hours people usually spend to be in "pretty good shape".
Care to share your method?
What is "pretty good shape" is the question.
Being in shape is mostly a matter of nutrition. If you eat like the average westerner no amount of exercise will save you. On the other hand if you eat the proper food in proper amounts you won't need much to be in shape, even body weight exercises can be enough if you don't want to look like bodybuilder
3-4 hours is pretty standard, actually, from what I know. A fairly standard "beginner" routine is 3 days a week of weightlifting, around 1 hour in the gym each session.
That does lack cardio, but if you do the above and eat well for a few months, you can look and feel vastly better than before (and a year of this gets you in better shape than 90% of the population, I believe).
interesting
I've been relatively active my whole life, and it wasn't until I started lifting weights (mostly pull ups and chin ups) where I actually started to see a difference.
Either way, exercise is better than not, but lifting weights is also better than running in many regards. Been a while since I read about this so I'm struggling to remember specifics - hopefully somebody will come along and expand upon this.
If you have weak back muscles, for example, walking is not going to do that much for them - but weight lifting will.
If your quads have atrophied because of a past knee injury, just walking - even very actively - will not fix them (bitter experience here) and the injury may well recur. But gentle goblet squats and light leg presses combined with balance exercises for proprioception will sort that out.
You lose a lot of muscle when you get older, and if you have any injuries you will naturally tend to avoid specific movements in your daily life. This _is_ better addressed by weight training (ideally with physio guidence) rather than just aiming for a goal of "being active".
A lot of people in wealthier countries work until retirement age and then park their asses on the sofa to spend the remaining years watching (awful) TV and getting fat and unhealthy. That's not living, and it's a guaranteed path to sadness (and frustration for the children who have to help the parent). Not to say that children shouldn't give back and help the parents, but it's still super important for all parties involved to be making effort.
Actually a block of wood will do fine. Or vinyl. Brass. Iron. Gravel-filled. Water-filled. Lead shot filled. (Not RoHS). Weight plates have a few standard sizes used in competitive gyms but it's not really standard in any way beyond that Olympic sequence. And at the end of the day the best weight is a weight you have and you can grip well :)
It only increases risk of injury to people or damage to the floor if it falls down or if you bump into something or someone.
The big wooden weights are probably very safe.
All their equipment is built out of wood/stone. It's a gimmick.
For muscle growth I can from personal experience highly recommend Glycine (available from vegan sources). It can be used as sweetener while helping keep blood glucose down. One study found it can boost muscle growth 400% in young pigs.
Glycine study performed on young pigs: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/144/10/1540/4575112
Here’s one on mouse muscle cells: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/146/12/2461/4589973
Since then my general rule has been "If it goes on me or in me, I'm not getting it from Amazon"
I've heard it said that there is no such thing as over-training only "under resting".
> The heart rate variability (HRV, there are apps for that) is a good indicator.
Can you give more details on this? How does it work, what number(s) to look at, etc.
Here’s one on mouse muscle cells: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/146/12/2461/4589973
The study doesnt say that. It says protein synthesis in vitro (in a test tube) using cultured pig intestinal cells increased by 36-419%.
This doesn't necessarily mean anything at all for increasing muscle mass.