In an effort to slim down a bit, I have been focusing on cardio a lot more than I did in the past. I haven't completely given up on weights but now when I lift I aim for high reps at a lower weight and am no longer chasing personal bests as far as weight is concerned. Basically I am in the gym just to remind my muscles that I am not done with you yet, but I am no longer trying to put on pounds in my chest and shoulders. I still take protein supplements because real protein is too expensive in my mind and I am also a lazy chef.
The rule of building mass is that you need at least 1 gram of protein per day and I am getting about 40 naturally, and have stepped my whey intake down to around 50 per day. I still want to give my body protein, but I no longer want to gain more mass. I want to be strong yes, but since I am getting older I do not want as someone on here called it "moobs." If you bulk or even if you are really fit like a bodybuilder, this phenomenon is basically unavoidable unless you slim down.
Therefore I have been doing a lot of cardio compared to what I was doing before. I am getting to the point now where when I stop I don't feel tired but then I realize as I am walking around that my legs are a bit stiff and I did work them out pretty damn well. This feels good when it happens and I am careful to do some stretching afterwards so that I don't bring on some sort of ill effects.
To a "real" cyclist out there with good gear these stats probably seem like some bull-hickey. I would like for those people to keep in mind that I am riding a single-gear road bike, and getting to a speed of 30km per hour means I am working extremely hard. Where I live it is mostly completely flat and it is very crowded so high speeds aren't really something I currently have access to. To me it seems like a good way to get frustrated and probably hurt pretty bad.
I am kind of happy with the readouts of what my workout did for me though. I like to think that they are based in science since Garmin is a relatively massive company and they gain nothing by lying to you about this.
That max speed is a bit of a cheat because there is this one hill that I encounter in this otherwise almost completely flat city and that is most likely where this mama speed moment happened. What I am more happy with is what my objective was from the start, and that is to keep my heartrate up in an aerobic sense for a long period of time.
I'm never lazy on the bike and if I had the road to myself I would establish a pace and just never stop moving. There are times that us on the bike trails are subjected to the crossing of roads though and when that happens you have no choice but to stop moving, sometimes for a while. That is where the "easy" parts come from.
I don't spend any time in the "maximum" area by design. I'm not lazy, but doing sprints isn't really an option around here on a bicycle, there are just too many millions of people in this city for something like that to be possible. I'm just happy I am able to keep it above aerobic.
The thing I am pleased about the most is that after just 3 weeks or so of doing this almost daily, I can see real progress and things that were difficult to me when I first started doing this, are not difficult anymore.
I suppose that is the trick to basically anything whether it is diet, cardio, or weights: Of course it is tough when you start! It gets easier as you get stronger though and now I am at the point where I am looking for my next challenge because honestly, this is becoming too easy for me now. Or I could be wrong. Like I said before when I do step off the bike at the end my legs kind of seize up from the repeated circular motion. I guess that means something!
I tend to think that I want to be 'fit for life' rather than being the best at anything. I never had huge muscles, but I don't mind if I can achieve a little definition. I just don't get to a gym, so I may not do enough to do much on that. I shall have a word with my son as he knows more about this stuff. I am happy enough not to have a big gut like some guys my age.
I do want to improve my running times a bit, but I wonder if I can get back to where I was a few years ago.
Have fun.
I treat fitness the same way but am starting to transition away from bulking as my age is starting to be a bit of a concern for me. When I look at athletes it seems as though the ones that pursued cardio throughout their lives end up with better golden years than the ones that bulked up and were bodybuilders. Plus there is always the inevitable crash that happens with age where you simply cannot keep up with what you used to do. I think this hits bodybuilders more than anyone else.
Yes staying in shape over size of muscles is a much better idea especially as you get older. I think there is nothing worse than seeing an ex body builder with sagging skin because surely you would rather just have a firm body.
yeah, this is something that is concerning to me as far as my chest is concerned. I also have rather large thighs because when I was involved in sports, it was normally the ones where you have to be quite strong in the legs such as American football and soccer. Flexibility is also something I am regularly concerned about and am now paying more attention to.