Aging Badasses

 Julia Hubbell is a writer on MEDIUM and one of the few I follow regularly.  She writes about a lot of topics and one of the ones I enjoy a lot is her fitness material.  Today, (11-20-21) she was ripping into a person who pranked a gym by pretending to be an old person-weight lifter.  She took the prank very personally because Julia is a weight lifter and she is over 60. 

I wanted to share her writing because she provides example after example of older people who keep on keeping on.  As she states, there is no problem in finding older people who are examples to all with the way they continue to build and use their bodies in the gym.

The other day at the Hartsville, SC YMCA I was on the what the Robbie calls the Hamster Wheel track (one mile equals 17 laps) and there were two other people there.  All three of us were over 70 and I believe I was pulling up the rear.  They gave me something to shoot for. 

If you are thinking about staying in shape despite the calendar -- Julia Hubbell can give you a lot of tips and in the article linked above a lot of examples of people who push the plates (weightlifting term)  every day.

Celebrate what your body can do

Brendan told us he had prepared "a little different" class for the Hartsville YMCA Spin hour this past Wednesday.  Brendan seems to spend a great deal of time working on appropriate play lists for his classes and he said the play list would also be "a little different." 

What was most different was the theme he shared for this class -- Celebrate What Your Body Can Do!

I am appreciating that theme as the week progresses because as I find my body not moving as quickly as it has, or being able to do as many reps as it did, or not lifting as many lbs as I think it should I have noticed I am not giving it credit for what it is doing for and with me.

This week I have been coming off a more than 10-day best.vacation.ever and as part of that vacation the only real exercise was trudging through the sand to and from the ocean. A few days that trudging included pulling a heavily loaded wagon and maybe a walk or two with the three year old -- but it was not exercise filled.  (Okay I did manage some daily beach push ups,) 

So this week I decided on trying a variety of workouts. It began with an early morning walk on Sunday that went just under an hour and covered a little more than three miles.  A short trip to the Y on Sunday afternoon included a set of 500 crunches on the Red ball and four sets of chest pulls on the machine. Kept the resistance  down around 40 for three sets and did try 40 for the fourth set.  Monday was back to the Robbie YMCA Bootfit for a brutal 30 minute AMRAP. Tuesday I went back to the core and did combined sets of dumbell flies with 20lbs with 25 reps four sets while doing scissor kicks; then 25 pound bells for chest press with 25 reps at four sets while doing leg lifts 

So as not to bore you with more of the specifics I will note that while I was castigating myself for the reduction in weight over the past few months -- I was not congratulating myself for what this body was still doing.  I listened to the Spin music and tried to keep up with the others as we increased our work loads and speeds as we were celebrating what the body could do - except I was not celebrating -- I was wondering why I was not doing more.

  So Thursday I decided to do the night Bootfit class -- which was a 20 minute challenge AMRAP that included 100 meter farmers carry ( I used the 25lb plates) 10 clean and jerks with the plate and then 10 squats with the plate. 

 

My knees rebelled at the squats so then I did a mixture of reclined chest presses and reverse crunches or chest rows.  I was not able to carry the 45 lb plates the other guys in the class were moving, nor could I do those sumo dead lifts but I was able to modify that workout and get in 20 grueling minutes that moved the heart rate and stressed some muscles.  And as that class finished and I was feeling some of the soreness in muscles throughout the body I finally got the message and on the way home gave myself a proverbial slap on the back. While I am not fast enough, strong enough, or flexible enough to earn any medals I have a body that can and does push - It was time to celebrate.

 

Thinking that working out requires a lot of daily motivation

 I have identified as a physical fitness person for a lot of years.  For example, at one point in my life I did have a running streak of more than 10 years without missing a day (10 years, two months and 12 days). And, I have said it before, each of those days was a conscious effort.  And, some times these days as my body does not always have a great desire to be pushed, I notice that fitness for some of us requires motivation.  

1 -- One of the ways I get motivation is heading to a bootfit class at the Hartsville YMCA that is headed by Robbie McLendon -- a great motivator for people of all ages and all fitness levels. He has a 20 minute EMOM workout planned today that I know is going to kick my butt.

2 -- Another way I work to get some motivation is read about some of the good ideas for fitness in older individuals.  I try to write a periodic blog that show cases people over 60 who work out regularly and I do that because I see it as motivating to others. This morning on Medium there was an article investigating the question of weight training being important to older people: https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/is-muscle-training-really-important-for-aging-well-d4d58880012

3 -- Now, what do you do that gets you the motivation to do the hardest exercise of the say - put on the work out shoes and leave the house?

Goal Has Been 100 Push Ups A Day

 The first of March was day one of trying to get 100 push ups a day.  A year ago this would not have been a "thing." At that time I was in some sort of shape and doing push ups was not a major challenge. The pandemic, a couple of cataract surgeries, some other excuses had pulled me away from my regular routines. The goal for March 2021 was one way to kick start back into exercise. The other goal starting that day was 10 sets of 100 ball crunches a day to see if I could bring back some core strength.

Well, today is March 21, 2021.  18 of those 21 days I have managed the 100 push ups and the push up challenge is still there though I have gotten obviously (to me) stronger. My proof of that is that instead of only sets of 10, I throw in some sets of 30 regularly and a couple of days ago after some warm up with other stuff I managed to hit 50 in one set.  So, while I have not totally achieved the daily goal, the overall strategy is showing some success.

As to the crunches. I have hit the thousand mark 17 of the 21 days so muscle memory kicked in pretty quickly and though I feel them at around 600 hundred, there is not usually any lingering ouch throughout the day. 

This morning on MEDIUM I saw a post by someone else who decided on 100 push ups a day and he made a better study of it than I have. His question to start was do these 100 push ups replace a gym membership. His answer and my answer are the same -- NO.  As part of my push for moving back into shape I have made a few of Robbie's Bootfit classes at the Y. 

This is the photo after the March 21, 2021 bootfit class that was a 30 minute as many reps (AMRAP) that incluced 400 meters - run (in my case walk); five body builders; ten weighted hollow rocks; and 15 goblet squats.  I include this photo because while it was not pretty, I was able to accomplish four reps and then still do the core work following.

I have also done some curls, some bench presses and chest stretches to begin getting back.  March has also seen four spin classes that are helping a bit with cardio, which is needs significant work at this point. While I have tried F3 at Revolution, I am still letting rain, cold and limited knee mobility keeping me from regular attending.

Conclusion -- been doing some work to get back -- but need to step it up. 

Good Advice from people who continue to build their temples

 My own fitness journey has been one of fits and starts over the past couple of months. That is something I am not proud of and mention it because - It happens.  As has been mentioned so many times in this blog over the years, the hardest exercise I do is opening the door of the YMCA (or gym), Once it is opened, the journey is happening.

Julia Hubbell is a writer whose work I have been following on MEDIUM and recently she talked about the ideas that Steve shared with her about how he is building strength well into his seventies. She wrote about that feedback.

Many of the blog posts that make up the content of this blog are about people over sixty and their fitness journeys.  Often, I wonder if the content is worth it and then I read an article like Julia's this morning and know that we all can benefit from seeing what others are pushing themselves to accomplish.

Personally I have been trying to rebuild my routine though if honest, I will admit it has been with less vigor than when it stalled. My March goals are to put push ups and core work back to pre-gotlazy levels. So I am working on 100 push ups a day and using the exercise ball for crunches - ten sets of 100. Today is March 10 and I have 700 push ups (not all regulation) and 7000 crunches so far for the month. Slowly I am adding a bootfit class and have about four spin classes. So this new journey is beginning to take shape. While I did make the Hartsville F3 six-year convergence, my knees make any semblance of running a fantasy and I have not been back often because of my inability to keep up with the work.

Hartsville F3 Revolution -  they will let me hang out with them even when I can't hang with them.

Keep Reminding Yourself - Motion is Lotion

 Exercise is one of the most potent medicines that people who are aging can take for their overall health. (By the way -- ALL of us who can read this are aging.)  And, for those who have aged a little more than others it continues to be far more true than we might like.

So, in this case the blog is to remind me that despite sore knees it is important to get out and walk or to get to F3 or Robbie's Bootfit class at the YMCA to make those muscles work.  Yesterday, for only the second or third time this year, I got to an F3 workout. We call this workout Revolution because instead of being at 5:30 a.m. it is at 5:30 p.m. and the guys were nice enough to let me hang out for a pretty challenging 45 minute workout.  I am too slowly getting back into a workout routine. 

Head took this photo that included Scout and Powder Boy and then me, Radar. I have missed that peer -led working and it was fun to be back. It was a blue sky afternoon though the breeze did keep us from overheating but it was nice to be outside without the continuing rain we have been not so much enjoying.

This morning looking at my email inbox I discovered a new publication from the NIA and it has to do with excercising for older people. The publication is free: https://order.nia.nih.gov/publication/get-fit-for-life-exercise-physical-activity-for-healthy-aging?utm_source=nia-mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=exercise-20210210

This blog is often a story of people who have reached the aging process talking about their workouts. I hope to share several more of those soon.  As it turns out, at the end of the Revolution workout on Tuesday afternoon we were talking about a Hartsville legendary runner, Arnold Floyd who is now ranking second in his age group 75+ in the state of South Carolina.  Sometimes it is fun to see how others do this "exercise thing" to keep their bodies moving.