Using the search term "exercise" I went back 7 pages and could find nothing on the topic, so I'm starting a new thread.
My story:
About a month and a half ago I went to a friends house to watch the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao boxing match,
could hardly call it a fight. Anyway, my friend had the TV set up in his mancave/garage, boxing posters all over the place and leaning against the refrigerator a heavy punching bag.
I asked him about the bag, he said it hangs just above from where I was sitting.
That gave me the idea to take my idle bag out of the basement where my wife long ago won the battle about "the noise" it made and established that it was an apparatus meant for hanging laundry on.
Typically my tiny garage is fulled with boxes of tools and parts for working on the Porsche, this year I hung the punching bag.
http://s184.photobucket.com/user/kach22i/library/Exercise%20and%20Garage%20Gym?sort=3&page=1
My mountain bike idle since 1996 is also back in action.
The weight set I've had since 1978 converted into functional art.
The nearby stadium and it's many outside stairs are part of my home gym.
I've done laps at public pool three times now.
In the five weeks since I've started my exercise routine I've lost five pounds. However I've lost over two inches on my waist, and I've built muscle all over my body, concentrating on my formerly neglected chest.
The transformation is quite astounding, I focus on different parts of the body on different days, typically only one or two days off a week.
Push-ups are their own category, a day just on that alone. 1. On knees with PS-90 sliding discs forward, and others spreading outward to the sides. 2. Rotating disc at various distances apart and with feet on the bench inclined. 3. Inclined with hands together, shoulder, and far apart. 4. Inclined with hands on a child's size basketball (
almost pulled a collar bone muscle - be careful getting on). 5. 25lb dumbbells on end to increase motion range and back strength at an incline of course.
I discovered that I can hang from my pull-up bar and grab the punching bag with my legs as I pull them up. I have to reinforce the rafters before I get too aggressive with that exercise, very reminiscent of wrestling moves.
I can see where the fat is now, can feel the hot and cold temperature of the skin after a workout and see the means to an end goal.
The real motivation happened before the big event boxing match.
I had been working construction for the last nine months and about three months ago the project stopped, so I went back to doing architecture. Sitting there working on the computer feeling my muscle mass and muscle tone slipping away made me alarmed. No way did I want to slip backwards to where I was, far too much pain, progress and work involved to let that happen.
That's how after +20 years of almost no exercise (
did a lot of walking though) I started back up.
One of the old body building / exercise books I have has an interesting statement in it.
Exercise is for using muscles your already have, bodybuilding is for building upon those muscles and for creating new muscles.
Q1; I've been told that I can do dips everyday as it is a core strengthening exercise, is that true?
Q2; I've been told that sprinting (
power bursts), jump rope and bicycling are the leading fat burning actions one can take. Is swimming an equal or superior to the list already mentioned?
I'm interesting in hearing your stories and experiences.
I ask people all the time now what their exercise routine is, staying focused on the topic seems to help me maintain my momentum somehow.
If anyone tells you that a man in their mid-50's cannot build muscle mass, tell them to lost. It's not as hard as you would think, and makes you feel years younger.
