Hearing Loss Phone

Attention geezers! Do you suffer from CHS? (can't hear shit!) Check out this hearing-loss phone:

Perfect Pushup V2

Hi there! I just blew $40.00 of my amazingly pathetic savings account on these rotating pushup thingies, and I must say that they have been an incredible addition to my home-gym routine so far.

I've always much preferred working out at home in private as opposed to any public gym, and these babies have landed me one step closer to never setting foot into the mega-gyms again. I have been aware of them since they first appeared on the scene about two years ago from some enterprising inventor, and I'll tell you what, I wish I'd thought of it. From the reviews I've read, the V2 version is a huge improvement over the original and after trying it out, I'd have to agree.

Eating Right

During the past several years, conventional dietary wisdom — skimp on fat, count calories — has started to crumble, thanks largely to a one-man wrecking crew named Gary Taubes. In his latest book, Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (Borzoi Books), Taubes argues that calories and fat aren’t to blame for the world’s increasing girth and high incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.....read more

Reaction Ball Workout

The Reaction Ball is a surprisingly good workout in as little as 5 minutes, and the uneven nature of the ball's surface is great for sharpening the reflexes.............

Sunday Workout Jan 30

D. Squats: 235x14,14,14,12,10
Incline Curls-Dumbbell: 27.5x14, 30x14,35x10,8
Situps-Fitball: BWX16, 25x18,18,18,18
Delt Raises: 17.5x14,20x12, 22.5x10,10
Chest Flys-Cable: 90x11,10,8, 80x9
Side Bend Shrugs: 50x14, 60x14, 70x14, 75x13

Fit-News:
Attention Old Bats-Tips From Top Muscleheads
How to Use That Modern Gym Equipment

Friday Workout 1-28

Triceps Extensions-Cable: 70x12, 80x12, 100x12,10,8
Lat Pulldowns-Cable: 160x12, 220x8,210x10, 200x10, 190x9
Splits-Leg Machine: 200x14x4
Treadmill-25 Minutes/409 calories

Tuesday Workout 1-25-2011

Barbell Deep Squats: 135x12, 185x12, 235x14,13,12,10,9
Rows-DBell: 50x13,13,13
Incline Bench Press: 135x12, 185x5,175x5,165x7,155x7+1,6

Notes: Lingering flu symptoms got me down.

Wednesday Workout 1-19-2011

Splits: 180x14,14,14
Lat Pulldowns: 175x14,190x14,205x12,11,10
Magnum Situps: 90x16, 135x16, 145x16,16,16
Triceps Ext-Cable: 85x14, 100x11,8, 85x11
Delt Raises: 80x12, 90x12, 100x10,10,8

Treadmill: 25 minutes @ 4.5mph+incline

Pumpin' Iron, Sweatin' Steel

Tuesday Night:

Barbell Deep Squats: 225x14,14,14,12,11
Side-Bend Shrugs: 45x14,80x12,90x12,12
Rows-Hammer: 90sx12, 135sx10,10,9
Incline Bench Press: 185x6, 175x6, 165x7, 155x8,7

Sunday Workout Jan 16, 2011

Splits: 180x15x3
Hammer Curls: 70x14, 75x10,7, 70x9
Triceps Extensions: 80x12, 90x12, 110x7, 100x8,7
Lat Pulldowns: 175x18, 190x14, 205x12, 220x10, 190x12
Situps-Magnum Seated: 90x18, 135x16, 145x15,15,14
Delt Raises-Machine: 80x12, 85x13, 90x12,10, 85x10
Treadmill 25 minutes/480 calories

 Workout Logbook

 Butterfly-Bar Triceps Extensions Setup

Magnum Situp Unit

Lat Pulldowns

Jan 14 Workout

Looks like I ran out of things to write about here, so I am at least going to track my weekly exercise progress (or decline). I lost all record of my workouts last year when my PDA erased everything, for no apparent reason around mid-December.

If these numbers seem a little weak, remember, I am just coming off a three week flu thing, where I didn't do anything but eat warm soup and shuffle around in my bathrobe between naps and barf sessions.

Here was today's routine at Gold's:

(1:30 second pause between sets)

Incline Bench Press: 135x14, 185x6, 175x6, 165x7, 155x9
Dumbbell Rows: 45sx12, 55sx11,11,11,10
Chest Flys (Body Masters machine): 110x14, 120x12, 130x8, 110x10
Power Squats (Body Masters-Facing Inward) 180x12, 270x14, 360x13,13,13
Side Bend Dumbbell Shrugs: 75x14,14

Low Back Stretch (Dr. Kim)

Low Back Stretch (Link)

Hot Girl Workout

Staying Motivated

So you've started your workout program and stuck to it. How do you stay motivated after the hundredth or so visit to the gym? I know everyone is different, but here is how I keep up the intensity after thirty five-plus years in the gym:

• Think of Someone you Dislike:                                                                                                  Hate can be a fabulous motivator, believe it or not. Also, notice how mean people seem to live longer. How many total pricks do you know that are still around? Every one of them, it seems. They'll outlive everybody, just for spite! This is only true if you have any enemies, or people that have wronged you, and gotten away with it. If you're a "mister nice guy" and have nothing but friends, this will not work for you. The method goes something like this: During the last few repetitions of an exercise, or during the all-out phase of interval training, picture your worst enemy practicing harder somewhere with the express purpose of eventually kicking your ass. Works amazingly well.

• Think of a Love Interest:                                                                                                              Maybe you're trying to win over that little hottie in accounting with your hard-body, or possibly you want to rekindle your marriage by taking a little pride in your appearance. Method: Visualize your subject ogling you as you walk by with that slim body, bulging biceps, or six-pack abs, etc.

• Think of the Health Benefits:                                                                                                    Exercise has a lot of instant and long-term health benefits. Sweating helps detoxify the skin, and gives it a healthy glow. Full oxygenation of the lungs promotes anti-aging and blood flow to the organs. Weight-bearing exercise thickens the bone structure, and prevents osteoporosis. Exercise helps keep you active long past the day when your sedentary counterparts will be unable to care for themselves.

• Set Goals/Track Your Workouts:                                                                                                                                   You should keep a journal of what you did on what day, so you don't repeat certain exercises unnecessarily, and don't leave out any muscle groups either, which can lead to injury later. Also, you can track your progress (or regression!) over time. You can carry the journal with you in the gym and quickly write stats down between exercises, or after completed sets, if you can remember everything you did (not me). What I do is carry an old PDA (personal digital assistant), where I just copy and paste routines from the second to last workout, in a matter of seconds, or whichever workout routine you feel you need to catch up on, and just blank out the old numbers and replace with today's results.

• Vary Your Workouts:                                                                                                                       If you're doing the same exercise to target the shoulders for the 89th time in a row, maybe it's time to switch to a different exercise that targets the shoulders from a different angle or resistance curve. For example, if you're tired of doing dumbbell front raises, switch to the barbell military press for a while.

• Make it Convenient:                                                                                                       Sometimes, it's just the logistics of going the the physical location of the gym that kills your motivation. Perhaps traffic is bad, or it's late, or the gym is closed. Maybe it's too crowded with those pesky 20-somethings, hogging the weights. Try putting your gym in your house. Go to Play It Again Sports to find affordable, used gym equipment. Or, get your local friends to go in on renting gym space right down the street, where everybody gets a key to the place, and shares in the cost of buying the equipment. Put a TV in there too,with cable, and a fridge, and a pool table, and a bar, and a stripper pole, just like that place they used to hangout at on the Sopranos.

• Take a Nap First:                                                                                                            Sometimes, you're just beat from work, or just a long day. Try flopping on the couch for a 30 or 40 minute nap. Then wake up, have a coke or coffee, and go! Works wonders.

There. That's seven that I can think of, but, if I am having a tough time getting motivated to do my best at the gym, one or more of these usually gets me going.

Fitness Link of the Day:Updated Atkins Diet
Fitness Link I: Look Better Naked
Fitness Link II: Men, Get the Bod of a God in 28 Days 
Fitness Link III: Ultimate Upper Body Workout 
Fitness Link IV: How to Harden That Saggy Old Ass 
Fitness Link V: 6 Exercises for 6-Pack Abs, Fatboy! 
Fitness Link VI: Best Muscle Building Moves of All Time

Exercise TV

Check out Exercise TV!

Interval Training

The first time I heard the phrase "interval training" was in the late 70's, from an Olympic coach on the television news who was discussing Russian training methods.

In its simplest definition, interval training involves combining the usual, steady exercise pace with short bursts of near-maximum activity, usually involving running, cycling, or swimming workouts.

Take your daily jog for example; if you were to add an all-out 100 yard sprint, every three minutes, to your normal 25 minute jog, this would probably be a great interval workout.

You do not want to just jump into interval training before getting in shape for steady aerobic exercise first. You should be running at a regular pace for at least 20 minutes, three times per week for at least 8 weeks, with no ill effects, before adding interval-type training to your workouts.

For the 50-plus age group the benefits would mainly be preparing the heart for physiological conditions that are similar to a cardiac event-in common terms, a heart attack , thereby increasing the chances of surviving such an event, God-forbid, should it occur.

The challenge is to avoid actually giving yourself a heart-attack during the training period. Depending on which decade you're in, 50's, 60', 70's, or later, the training should progress slowly, with careful monitoring of heart rate and blood pressure levels, during and after the workout. The heart-rate monitor I recommend can be found here: Heart Rate Monitor - Exercise Watch + Chest Belt


The question is, at what optimum heart-rate should you train? The commonly used formula I have used for years with good effect is this: 220 less your age, multiplied by 60, 70, or 80%, depending on training intensity desired. You will want to keep your heart rate at between 60 to 80% for a 20 minute time period, at least 3 times per week to maintain good aerobic shape.

The thing is, with interval training, the athlete briefly pushes his/her heart-rate to near 100% of this level. In fact, I commonly exceed my so-called maximum heart-rate (220-49=171 bpm) for a minute-plus on my treadmill interval workouts. I set the treadmill on maximum incline every other minute during a 25 minute workout, with no apparent ill effects so far the past couple of years. In fact, my blood pressure seems to have benefited from the addition of interval work to my program.

If you don't have access to a decent treadmill, then stair climbing is a pretty good substitute for an interval workout. As long as it doesn't take you longer than a minute to climb to the top, and it's not too short a climb either, then it's a pretty good set of steps to work out on. Just make sure when you're going up, that the effort is near full speed, and don't forget your heart-rate monitor.

I was traveling on business last week, and found a pretty decent stairwell in the back corner of this three story LaQuinta hotel. Early in the morning, after some hot tea and fish oil pills, I ran these for 25 minutes, and found it to be a pretty good substitute for the treadmill workout. It was also really private, so I didn't have anybody eyeballing me while I worked out, which I hate.

If you decide to do this, be sure to bring your cellphone, so that if you have a problem, you can call the meat wagon, because it doesn't seem like anyone used the stairwells much, with the elevators available. You certainly don't want them to find you back there, all stiff, like a day-old pizza, when all you wanted was a little exercise.

Here is a link to more information on the merits of interval training.

LaQuinta's Beautiful Stairwells

Squats Part 2

Health News Link: The Truth about Exercise Machines

I discovered another way to improve my squat game in the gym, by strengthening my base at the level of my feet.

Since I have big, sloppy feet with low arches, I often have foot or knee pain after doing heavy squats. Wednesday night I decided to put stiff orthotics in my shoes before doing my squat routine, and not only did I comfortably equal my maximum lift for the month, I have had no foot or knee pain since. This is not usually the case. I do not claim that the inserts themselves weren't a little painful during the lift, but at the same time, they felt very natural, the way they supported my feet.

Orthotics are shoe inserts that force the foot into it's optimal configuration. A lot of people have low, or fallen arches in their feet, leading to knee pain, low back pain, and avoidance of vigorous physical activity and exercise as a result.

I suggest that anyone who feels like their foot arches are less than ideal try these stiff orthotics before doing any lifting exercise where they are in the standing position. Stiff orthotics are better for lifting, but flexible orthotics are better for running type activities.

I use a late night infomercial product called Walkfit orthotics. See picture above.

Here's a link to my size (G=10), and other sizes on Amazon:

Welcome Geezers!

Hey there, I am Dr. Anderson, and I would like to welcome all you old farts to my Fitness Over-50 blog spot. Actually, I am not quite 50 yet, but I will be in March of 2010. Hopefully I will be too busy working on this blog, and my four other ones to get too depressed about it, but I have already gone through feeling depressed about being 49, so I guess that's covered.

I don't feel 50, or even look 50 I'm sure, because I missed the marriage and kid thing, due to my own bad decisions about money while still very young, and I did not smoke my health away, so I really feel about 28 at the most, but they tell me I'm 50, so here I am....

I am a licensed chiropractor who has been a wrestler and gym-rat since 1972, when I was 12. If a mistake exists regarding fitness and exercise, I have made it. I have also found out the right way to do a lot of things regarding health and fitness, and I would like to share them with you on a regular basis.

Even though I don't wrestle competitively any more, I certainly would if I had the time and cash for travel and hotel. Age certainly would not keep me from competing just yet. One thing I still do have access to is the gym and weight room at Anytime Fitness. I highly recommend this gym. If you decide to join, please tell them I referred you, so that I may gain some free months-thanks!

I love going to the gym and I love working out. I will pump iron until I die, I am sure. One day they will certainly find me lying under a barbell, eyes wide open, slight smile on my face. Hopefully I can pass on some of my wisdom before that day.