With the news of our second daughter to come I felt it was time to take a look at how I was living and try to get myself to a point where I might actually be able to extend my life instead of just taking what comes.
I had done some weight training in high school and in my twenties, but it never lasted more than a year at a time.
I was now at the over 40 year old mark and started researching vitamins, minerals and all the healthy foods as well as getting blood work done and a complete physical.
Hit the gym with vigor and the idea of "more is better" - this was a waste of a good year almost.
I had bought in to the idea of working body parts twice a week, taking supplements that were advertised as the best for mass, testosterone, recovery and so on.
Then I switched up routines doing 5x5 , supersets, 5 day week, westside barbell and a couple more variations that I thought would just make me explode and look like a bodybuilder.
All wrong.
After the first year, I slowed it all down and simplified my routines to be one body part per week and usually a three day split.
I also learned more about nutrition and recovery...and that's when I actually started seeing the biggest difference. Sure, I had some bulk from all I had done in that one year, but there was no real definition, no abs, no legs (didn't work those regularly that first year either)
So, at 42 years old, there I was scrapping all I thought was well and good for training and adopting a whole new set of rules for myself.
These rules included setting a plan.
Without a plan, what are you hoping to accomplish? It's just another option to fail. Start a training log, take pictures, track your nutrition, anything that will show you are progressing. It is a great motivator!
Other rules included being in the right mindset, setting a decent level of intensity and actually trying some visualization as I had heard from other guys I respected in the gym. I no longer went in to a workout trying to lift the heaviest weights with mediocre form.
I slowed it all down and paid more attention to recovery and feeding my muscles while eating the good things to optimize my bodies abilities in all that I did. I found that nutrition is king!
It's been a few years now, and looking back, I'm proud of what I've done and am always willing to help others understand how paramount a little strength training can be in regard to their quality of life.
1 Comment
I have two questions regarding your muscle tone definition workout. The first is how do I know when to move up in weight and the second is how many reps do you consider in the failure categories, like how many should failure be so you know what weight to start on?