FITNESS AT 40 SOMETHING

 

Seems like yesterday I was hanging out in my older brother’s room as a child flipping through pages of a book I’d found about Arnold Schwarzenegger. I remember reading and staring at pictures in awe. The guy was huge and looked more like a cartoon super hero than a person. No one I knew or saw looked anything like that. I also remember reading how much this Arnold guy ate every day. Pounds of hamburger and lots of eggs. It all made sense…

Pickup Heavy Things + Eat Everything = Superhero Body

At the time, Derek, the older brother whose room I would tresspass in, was doing teen things like loitering at a local 7 Eleven playing Tempest, driving around in his cool hip Mustang, and chasing girls. Back then I had no idea why he had that book in his room. I just figured my big bro was doing cool stuff and becoming a superhuman was part of that stuff. He’d started lifting weights and was all about it. 

In our backyard sat a wooden weight bench constructed of 2x4s, adorned with a dandy set of those awesome cement filled plastic disks from Weider. Needless to say I was intrigued by this and did what all annoying little siblings would do. I injected myself into his private world whether he wanted me in it or not. At one point after he upgraded to a more rickety metal tube frame bench, he let me try it out. It’s strange because after that day my memory goes blurry like skipping chapters in a book. There I was pushing a bar away from my face and next thing you know I am a teen trying to survive the perils of Junior High School. Dang, where does all this time go?!

Though I didn’t get into weight resistance training until a few years later when I was about 17, I attribute my desire to do so to that early impression made on me by my brother and his weight lifting phase. He is the one who showed me what lifting was. He is the reason I felt exercise was something I should and must do. Love you bro!

 

No Pain No Gain!

I’ve heard that phrase a bazillion times over the span of my life, probably first from my brother as he watched me struggle to push 20lbs high enough to rack. Well, maybe I only heard it around a 30 times. No matter… it was enough to have those four simplistic words get integrated into my psyche. The mentality followed me through my 20s, 30s and up until my 40s.

The equation I deduced as a kid got refined over those years. It changed:

Lift Heavy Things + Eat Lots of Crap = Girls Will Want You

Lift Heavy Things + Eat Lots of Carbs = Hot Girls Will Want You

Lift Heavy Things + Cardio + Eat Lots of Carbs & Protein Powder = Get Noticed By Girls

Lift Heavy Things + Cardio + Martial Arts + Protein Powder = You may Get Some Looks from Girls

Lift Heavy Things + Cardio + Martial Arts + Just Eat Well = Feeling Better & Less Stressed

Needless to say, it didn’t quite “work out” to equate with the first formulas to well even though I did my part. I lifted heavy things over and over and over and I ate all the high sugar BS supplements marketed to insecure males looking to become body builders. Remember that sugar powder called Weight Gainer?

Like many teens I got a gym membership and would show up and push and pull for all I was worth, typically until my body gave up on me and many times to the point of injury. It’s all I knew. Lift heavy to get strength, push long to get endurance, push hard to get better. For the most part it’s all true. What I didn’t pay attention to was to what level I should lift, push, and push. This is where my general knowledge became a hindrance.

There is truly something to another cliché’ phrase you may have heard.

 

Knowledge is Power

The three words above create one of the truest simple formulas I know. It has taken me decades to pay attention enough to realize and understand what many have known since their start in fitness. Partly because exercise was like brushing my teeth. I just did it. And, partly because I thought I knew everything I needed to know. Duh, it’s all common sense right? Maybe for some, not for me.

I didn’t need to engage much brain power to work techniques of doing this or that movement. It was just about trying to pick up or push as much or more weight than the next guy. Of course how you perform movements are important, but so is the other 90 percent of the fitness formula.

It’s not all about killing yourself with repetitive motions or maxing out every time you are doing an exercise. There are so many other factors it’s not funny. Diet is a HUGE factor that I have struggled with all my life.

 

Diet Is More Important Than I Realized

I didn’t really understand nutrition all that much because quite frankly I was ignorant of better choices. I was raised in a poor home with a typical western diet filled with processed crap, and later on as an adult bought into those manufactured foods labeled healthy. Of course hindsight is 20/20 but, today, I cannot express in words how much I regret not knowing how to eat healthy when I was younger.

Consuming foods for your own body type and for your energy needs is essential and something I neglected and didn’t understand. I was going by what everyone else was eating and that was a big mistake. Sure, it was great to learn what worked for others, but in the end I had to learn what my body needed and could use, not what they could.

For example, I’m lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, sugar intolerant and lots of sodium messes me up on multiple levels. Just look to the left and tell me if the 20 year old me looks healthy. I was miserable eating all that back then. Not anymore. I learned over the years through trial and error what works for me, and that's a diet without a regular intake of simple carbs, dairy, and gluten. I now eat mainly vegetables and proteins and only on occasion have fruit since most are loaded with sugar. I have for the most part completely eliminated things like breads, rice, and most other starchy foods from my plate because they were keeping my body from utilizing a great energy source, its fat stores.  

 

Supplements Were Not The Answer For Me

I can’t count how many stupid pills and powders I’ve tried over the years in the name of gains. Pre-workout formulas, post workout formulas, natural testosterone boosters, amino acids of every kind, herbals like longjack, tongkat ali, maca, tribulas and every other one with a hyped marketing slogan. I call BS on 99.9% of that garbage and finally understand that a decent meal provides everything needed. I was looking for that edge to get more energy because with a crappy diet I had none. Those simple carbs I was shoving down my throat gave me a short lived energy rush before causing a crash and burn, and that led me to try so many supplements.

Sadly, most either did nothing for me, ended up causing some odd side effect right away, or caused a gradual issue over a longer period of use which required me to stop taking them. Who knows what damage I've done by ingesting the mystery powders included in those pills.

Creatine Monohydrate is one of the few I can't complain much about other than the fact that after a while I couldn't tell if it was helping or not. I can cycle on and off and maybe kinda sort of feel a difference but can't be 100 percent sure. For the most part I found that once I got my body burning fat instead of sugar (glucose) my energy levels remained consistent, not like before when I would eat and suddenly have energy for a short while and then have none. 

 

Getting Good Sleep is a Top Priority

I find resting is another GIANT factor. Chances are you have heard the term recovery when the topic of exercise is discussed, especially weight resistance training. Recovery is the downtime that allows your body to repair all that damage you caused by pushin’ it beyond the couch potato levels. For me, I need good solid deep sleep to feel healthy, and if I don’t get it my body doesn’t seem to recover as fast and I feel like a drone bee just going through the motions. I’m not partial to becoming a mindless worker drone so my priority each night is to fill my body’s need for sleep. What’s the use walking around like a zombie all day? What kind of life is that? I prefer to have a capacity to fully embrace each hour I’m alive.

 

Move It or Lose It

Regular movement every day is yet another factor. I find that no matter how much I exercise if I’m not moving I’m not grooving. My memory recall sucks, my motivation lacks, my house gets dirty, my clothes sit in a big pile on the floor and I generally don’t get much done. And yes, I fall into this slump now and again after spending days in front of a computer working on websites, doing graphic design or editing video.

My job requires me to sit for hours and hours each day which creates a dilemma for me. If I don’t take some time to move around it takes longer for my body to recover from exercise. I hate sitting in front a computer even though everything I do requires it. I always try and take breaks, go outside, walk around, and stand whenever possible to split the time up so it’s not all in one lump.

 

Doing It Right For Me

How to exercise is another factor I had to learn the hard way. This is where many folks who avoid activity may misunderstand as I did just how hard you have to “push it” in order to stimulate the body to grow muscle, gain endurance or remain in a healthy state. After 30 years of working out I can say, for me, it’s not much!

I am in the gym for about an hour and a half every third day of my life. That’s nothing!!! The remaining time is living and trying to balance stress with rest.

It doesn’t seem to take much exercise at all to maintain and not much more to gain. On top of that I found I didn’t have to risk ripping tendons, wearing cartilage or tearing muscle in order to stay fit. I think many folks have a bad impression of exercise and believe a person needs to spend 3 hours every morning in a dungeon moving heavy objects around and then must do the same later that evening while a dungeon master whips their back.

NOT!

I’ve read plenty of articles that refer to an athletes training routine and how they must put in ridiculous amounts of time every day preparing for competition. I know all about it, I did that as well when training in TaeKwonDo for tournaments. For certain sports you just have to work like crazy.

But for general fitness, especially as an older person, I’ve also learned that when you burn a candle at both ends it does not last as long. Things wear quicker than they can get repaired and eventually you become riddled with injured tissue, worn joints and no longer have the ability to move like you want to. What use is that?

Don’t get me wrong, I am all about pushing it, but how much, how far and how long you push it need to be considered. Learning to slow my roll was difficult, but I believe for me it was needed to allow my body to maintain itself. I’ll be 48 years old this year and have no desire to be a body builder, power lifter or get brain damage fighting in the cage. I view life differently now. I want to maintain a level of health that affords me the mobility to do anything I want to do. My body is my way of getting around and enjoying life, so it’s imperative I have a “use or loose it” mentality.

 

The Secret Is Moderation

Not just 6 months ago when I entered the gym my mission was to get the torture session out of the way in order to move on with life. The workouts I had adopted were brutal two hour sweat fests requiring me to push and pull as much weight as possible in between two 15 minute blocks of incline runs. I never thought to lift lighter, be more precise or make my movements much more deliberate. 

I used to dread those workouts. They left me worn out so bad I couldn’t rehydrate for two days and had no energy during recovery. Leg day was the worst and there was always a chance I would injure my lower back torquing the wrong way or squating too much weight. Oh, but I loved the feeling after though! Those sweet endorphins are addictive!

To me there was nothing like knowing I'd burned up everything. I had and depleted myself to the point where a 5 year old kid could beat the tar out of me and take my lunch money. The problem with this scenario is that I was always in recovery and losing ground. Sure I ran circles around others in the gym but when I was at home or out and about I felt like a weakling, my energy was low and I kinda just wanted to lay down. What a conundrum.

I had to make a change and that change was moderation. Remember I’m turning 48 shortly and can’t be wearing myself out. I’ve got nothing to prove and it’s no longer about getting the girl. Been there done that. This is about how I choose to live and move.

I’m no biology expert, but I believe the human body wasn’t exactly meant to constantly hold and handle much more weight than itself. It’s very efficient at moving itself around and also handling heavy loads short term. I definitely feel the wear and tear on my body from all the heavy lifting I did in the past.

I've run into so many older generation lifters who have had joint replacements due to the excess wear. I don’t want that! I have lightened up on the weights to reduce that damage. I want to stimulate my body to maintain and stay strong and healthy, not run it to the ground. No more deadlifts, no more 405lb squats, no more ridiculous vein enlarging, eye popping bench presses. Well, perhaps once in a while just to have some fun :-)

The point is… I found I didn’t have to go so heavy. Now, I look forward to the gym. It’s my play time to move around and keep things lubricated and in tip top shape. I feel better, have more energy on recovery days and don’t dread the next workout.

 

Don’t Worry About The Other Guy

One lesson, that has been a long time coming, for me anyway, has been that of the need to only worry about myself and what I must do. In the past I was constantly judging myself based on the levels set around me. I would see someone lift a certain weight, run a particular speed or achieve something I had yet done and would instantly feel I had to do that also. Observing someone else achieve something great can work well as a motivator, but... the path can be a lot different for each person.

Competition has always pushed me beyond my limits and made me better than before. However, I think there’s a point at which one must not worry too much about what the guy on the next bench is doing or can do. I don’t know that persons genetic profile, if they are taking steroids, what their history is or diet. Why would I want to compare myself to so many unknown factors?

Even friends I trained with were very diverse in strengths. Some were great at specific things and not so much at others. Of course I would always feel the need to match those strengths by pushing it harder than my body should have been pushed. No more.

 

Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body

No it’s NOT! I ignore this BS and move on. I learned that yes you must go beyond your comfort zone. You have to, you have to raise the activity levels beyond a resting state in order to stimulate your body to become better or maintain. That doesn’t mean you have to torture yourself. I push to a point of discomfort not pain. Pushing to a point of pain... That’s just dumb. Pain is your body signaling the brain about some damage occurring, discomfort is more like revving up your car engine to get the carbon build up out.