Exercising Every Other Day

[TromboneAl]

Long ago I read that people over 45 should exercise a particular set of muscles only every other day. That is, you shouldn't run every day, because the muscles need a chance to repair themselves -- they'll be built up more (and burn more fat) if they get a chance to rest. I think it was in Covert Bailey's Fit or Fat book that I read this.

Thoughts?

 

[Kronk]

I don't think it is related to age. If you are building muscle mass, you want to exercise the same muscle groups every other day, as you said. From what I remember, abdominal muscles regenerate more quickly and can be exercised daily.

More cardiovascular types of exercises that aren't stressing muscles as much as weight lifting I don't think matter as much for every other day.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

only every other day? gee, i hope that's not for every muscle.

i try to mix up my routine so that i am doing something almost every day but that way i'm using a different set of muscles or using the same muscles in different ways. usually alternating weight training with swimming & biking. then i have a day or two during the week of vegging out. i'm always careful of my knees so i hardly do any weight training on my legs, figuring they get enough of a workout during all the rest of the day.

as i understand it a lot of repair and also growth happens during rest. i think i somewhere read that this is true of plants as well as people.

edit:

i've found some pretty good info here: Muscle Building Forum

 

[haha]

For the past 10 months or so I have been relying on long walks up and down hills, and not going to the gym very often. Yesterday I got a surprise- I have lost a lot of upper body strength. 2 years ago I could easily do 10 full hang pull-ups- not now!

My legs and back are strong- I carry 2 bags of bird shot (50# total) in a pack up and down hills. But something needs to be done about the upper body. I favor functional movements like pull-ups, dips, weighted pushups.

Re the original question, I think there are a lot of different opinions about best frequency, but I don't think there is much compelling evidence one way or another.

Seems to me a good area to test on yourself for what works best for you.

I also started hill running. Once I could plow up walking without losing speed, I started running up. Almost next door I have a real steep 2 block pitch. I walk down, run up, rinse and repeat until 10 minutes are up or I am dead, whichever comes first. I don’t get much knee pounding because it is so steep, and also it doesn’t go on very long. To me, knees should be guarded at any expense, especially as one ages.

I notice it really improves my sleep, and although I feel fine when I am done and showered, I feel semi-dead by 9 o’clock at night. I hope that I will adjust so that I have better energy at night.

Ha

 

[W2R]

I read that strength training, should only be every other day. I don't think that's for cardio; I know that my doctor wants me to walk five days a week, for example.

I still prefer to do my strength training 2 or three days straight and then take a day or two off when I start feeling "beat up". Usually my body knows when it needs a rest and I am exercising more for health and feeling good than anything. Even so, I am pleased and surprised with my progress in weight lifting. I do thorough, careful warmups and cooldowns under the circumstances.

 

[dex]

I've read a couple of books on body building - I'm nowhere near a body builder - I don't like to reinvent the wheel, so I read.
Weight lifting and gaining muscle mass or strength is hard work. It is a factor of genetics, food eaten and how you exercise. Let's leave out genetics for the time being.
The short answers:
Eating is about 70% of the equation - you must increase protein intake and reduce other calorie sources so that the exercising you do can be turned into muscle.
How you train is the other 30% - You must stress out the muscle when you exercise to send the message for it to grow. Then the rest comes in so that the muscle can repair itself and grow. Too much rest - more than 1 day usually - and the benefits of the exercise begin to be lost. Too little rest and you over train - no improvement.

If you are going to the gym and using weight but not watching your protein you are really not being effective in your workout. I use the powder protein to increase my intake. You should be aiming for about .75 grams of protein for every pound of bodyweight - per day. This is why you must decrease other sources of calories or you will put on weight.

Other suppliments to consider:
Multiminerals
Multivitamins
Creatine - for muscle repair and growth
L- Glutamine - for recovery

You can tell the people in the gym who know what they are doing if they are carrying a work out plan with a pen to track their routines and some water - I hope you are one of them. Also, they work out with weights first and then do some aerobic exercise. You should move slowly when using weights which will reduce the amount of streeching needed.

There are many work out routines and concepts - - go tp the library and read
Arnold Schwarzenegger - The new encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
Darden - High Intensity body building.

Read Arnold for the routines and Darden for how to do the exercises properly and his thoughts.

My general routine while at home is:
Day 1 - Chest,back,stomach
Day 2 - Shoulders, Arms, stomach
Day 3 - Legs, lower back, stomach
Day 4 - Rest
If traveling - walking, push ups etc - really light stuff. This is why I really don't get big - the benefits of the at home work out are lost by about 30% when I travel.

Weight training is one of the best ways to keep your body young - if done properly.

Bodybuilding.com's Main Page - The Largest And Most Complete Bodybuilding Site Online! Bodybuilding Info.

Quiz time:
What should the calorie intake be under these circumstances:

Office Worker
Man
Woman

Exercising - as in above
Man
Woman

 

[Bigritchie]

I recommend doing each body part only ONCE per week. This is the true natural way for the human body to gain mass. Try benching once per week to max and exhaust the muscle.

For example you could do chest and triceps one day take a day off then do biceps and legs the next.

Most people when working out 3-4 times per week doing the same body parts will loose some weight and gain some muscle mass, but you will not keep growing.

It takes almost a full week for a normal human (read no roids) to breakdown the muscle, have your body dispose of it, and then rebuild the muscle even stronger. Remember you are actually destroying a chunk of the muscle when you work out, and working out the same muscles before they recover can be very bad, lead to injuries and even kidney problems.

That is one reason so many athletes use roids, because they speed up the process of healing and rebuilding.

Weight training several times a week on the same part is rough on your liver and kidney's can lead to injury and can make you feel like utter crap.

For biceps it is even more important, because you use the muscle so much everyday without even realizing it, work them out hard 2 sets max, then let the rest for a week.

Working out like this is against some conventional thinking, but I started giving it a try when I was still in the Corps after reading Mike Mentzer's books, he got a perfect 300 (only perfect 300 ever) at the Mr. Olympia, and was roid free at the time.

Running is a different story to a point, but running over 3 times a week is not good for much the same reasons.

Anyways give it a try, it works amazing for me, and it is nice to see strength increase and growth each week.

 

[RunningBum]

Running: I'm not sure 45 is the right age for this cutoff, but every other day is consistent with some expert advice I've seen, though I know many very successful older runners who do a lot more.

Hal Higdon, who's training program I followed religiously for my first and most successful marathon, has a senior marathon training program that has you run 3 days a week, cross train twice, and rest 2 days. His normal programs have 5 days of running and one cross training. The senior program cuts out the shorter running days. He does not list an age recommendation for the senior program.

Jeff Galloway, another respected marathon guru, recommends those 55 and over to rest every other day, and 45-55 to rest 3 days a week.

I'm 45 and usually run 4-5 days a week. If my legs feel dead, I take an extra day or two off but generally I don't feel 3 days a week is enough for me.

 

[haha]

There is a guy on this board named Boo Bear or New Guy who runs like 10 miles at a pretty good pace almost every day. I believe he is in his fifties. He must be titanium man.

Ha

 

[mb]

I read that strength training, should only be every other day. I don't think that's for cardio; I know that my doctor wants me to walk five days a week, for example.
.

I think that it depends on the intensity. If you are staying aerobic and doing something that is low impact such as biking or the elliptical trainer then everyday is probably OK. However I think that it is a bad idea to do the same thing every day. I think that what ever you do it is best to mix up the intensities, times/distances, etc.

If I do a track workout or a 5k or 10k race or time trial (at 50) I might need 2 or even 3 recovery days before another hard day. If I'm sore I take it easy. Twenty-five years ago I only needed one recovery day. That doesn't mean I can't run on those day. If I do run it might be 5 miles at a pace that is about 3-4 minutes/mile slower than race pace.

I recover faster from hard biking or swimming workouts than from running workouts.

I just returned from a 50 mile bike with about 3000 ft of climbing. I'll be a bit sore tomorrow. I'll be fine on Tuesday.

MB

 

[dex]

I just returned from a 50 mile bike with about 3000 ft of climbing. I'll be a bit sore tomorrow. I'll be fine on Tuesday.

MB

How long did it take?

I can do hills on a bike for the life of me.

Are there any special exercises to improve it?

 

[mickeyd]

I find that if I do not at least walk 30 minutes daily, that I tend to slack off and not attend to my normal 60 minutes of daily work out. I think that I am trying to make sure that I do not turn into a slacker once or twice a week. It's all a mind over matter game anyway, I think.

Whatever you do, it's all good.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

How long did it take?

I can do hills on a bike for the life of me.

Are there any special exercises to improve it?

Advice if you want to climb like a tourer, not a racer -

1) Get lower gears - I like at least a 24x34. You may only ride at 3mph
up the hill, but you probably will not need rest stops unless the grade
is over 5-6%.
2) Ride up more hills - nothing beats riding up hills to train for riding up hills
3) When you plan your ride / tour, try to put the big climb(s) early in the
day - they are much easier early.

 

[mb]

How long did it take?

I can do hills on a bike for the life of me.

Are there any special exercises to improve it?

The best places to ride in the SF Bay area are up in the hills so you have to be able to climb to do the good stuff.

The ride time was between 3 and 3 1/2 hours with a water/Clif bar stop. Not sure about the exact time. (My cyclometer died and I haven't replaced it.)

I can maintain a 20-22 mph pace on the flats for a couple of hours. A lot slower on the climbs of course.

I do squats, leg curls and leg extensions about once a week or so but I'm not religious about it. If you only do one it should be squats. Just make sure do them properly so that you don't stress your knees. For climbing you also need to strengthen your core muscles especially your back because it gets a lot of stress during climbing.

The other thing to do is try and improve your "spin." It helps a lot if your quads don't have to do all of the work. One way to do this at the gym is to ride "one legged." This forces you to work during the entire rotation and not just on the "down stroke." Obvously you need clips or straps to do this. Hard core riders/racers sometimes do this by training on fixed-gear bikes. I have never done that.

If you ride a road bike and you don't already have one you might want to look at getting a "triple." My wife hated hills. I rode behind her on hills just because I didn't want to be in her line of sight when she started to get tired. Then she got a lighter bike with a triple and now hills are not a problem. She may be slow as molasses going up but she can get to the top of pretty much anything.

Bike weight matters more on climbs. It is easier with a 20 lb road bike than a 30 lb mountain bike.

But the best thing is to just get out there and ride a lot

Weight training, etc. is work I only do it because it helps me do the things that I like to do.

But riding is fun and I do it because I love it, even the hills.

MB

 

[twaddle]

Long ago I read that people over 45 should exercise a particular set of muscles only every other day. That is, you shouldn't run every day, because the muscles need a chance to repair themselves -- they'll be built up more (and burn more fat) if they get a chance to rest. I think it was in Covert Bailey's Fit or Fat book that I read this.

This seems to be one of those areas where there are tons of opinions, but very little good hard data.

Windsurf recently posted this thread about a 70 year old he-man:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f38/picture-70-a-29904.html

I checked out the guy's site, and he takes some of the best scientific data and applies it to his work-out routine. I was impressed both with his research and his results. Some of it is summarized in this paper:

pdf link

 

[TromboneAl]

Thanks for the info. I will continue to not split firewood two days in a row.

I can't do hills on a bike for the life of me.

I was riding with a friend who's about 10 years older than I am, and I was impressed with how much faster he was, especially on hills. I think that mostly he was just better than I am -- better shape, better riding ability, more athletic body, etc. However, I have to also consider that his bike cost $5,000 and probably weighs half of what mine weighs.

So, if you're comparing your hill-climbing ability to that of someone else, make sure you take the equipment into consideration.