Work Out Wednesday - Dude, Do you Even Lift? Confirming Health Benefits
Mates,
Months ago we talked about how to cobb together workouts during the shut down. I think unfortunately some (most?) gyms in the state are still closed - maybe good for virus but not good for continuing health in other areas.
This article I'm linking talks about some pretty expansive studies that show the benefits of strength work, not just cardio. The strength work can be body-weight stuff (push-ups, pull-ups, etc), it doesn't have to be iron.
Some of their findings are here:
The first is an analysis of the link between strength, muscle mass, and mortality, from a team at Indiana University using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The design was pretty straightforward: They assessed 4,440 adults ages 50 or up who had their strength and muscle mass assessed between 1999 and 2002. The researchers checked back in 2011 to see who had died.
For muscle mass, they used a DEXA scanner to determine that 23 percent of the subjects met one definition of “low muscle mass,” with total muscle in the arms and legs adding up to less than 43.5 pounds in men or 33 pounds in women. For strength, they used a device that measures maximum force of the knee extensors (the muscles that allow you to straighten your knee) and found that 19 percent of the subjects had low muscle strength.
The results, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found that those with low muscle strength were more than twice as likely to have died during the follow-up period than those with normal muscle strength. In contrast, having low muscle mass didn’t seem to matter as much.
Another study from the same article here:
Researchers in Australia analyzed data from 80,000 adults in England and Scotland who completed surveys about their physical activity patterns starting in the 1990s. The headline result was that those who reported doing any strength training were 23 percent less likely to die during the study period and 31 percent less likely to die of cancer.
Link to article here: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/to-delay-death-lift-weights?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Today's questions:
1. Are you doing any weight work these days, and if not, will you try to get to it if/when gyms in your area open up?
2. I have maintained for years that your muscles are the greatest producers of anti-bodies to fight infections/viruses. Maybe that's an old wives tale but I will say I have been blessed with pretty good health (despite my dough boy physique). What do you think is/are the most important keys to maintaining your health in the face of flu, or more seriously, C-19?
Stay well,
XM
So much easier to lose weight if you are carrying extra muscle around. Just hard to keep all the muscle on when dieting.
I'm 48 and my recent college-grad daughter is 22. She's (fortunately) started her first job, but has been living at home and working from here since March 13th.
She belongs to a gym that is affiliated with the F45 program. She used to do workouts there, but once Covid hit, they started doing them via FaceBook Live. They now are reopening in Chicago (where her new apartment will be) but still plan to offer virtual options for some time.
The F45 stands for a "Functional" 45 minute workout. Each day it changes, more or less alternating between a more cardio-focused workout or a more strength-focused workout. The patterns also change (number of exercises, number of sets, laps, time in each set, etc.). You do exercises for certain amounts of time. Lots and lots of variations on squats, dead-lifts, pushups, burpees, etc. We have a 110" screen with a projector in the basement, and we ChromeCast the workouts and do them together.
Part of what has been awesome about what they've done throughout is that knowing that at home equipment is limited, they describe alternate weight and body-weight options. So if the exercise is to lift a dead-weight ball and then throw it down, they will tell you a way to do the same move (sans the throwing) with a backpack full of books, or light weights, or the best way to replicate the movement if you have no weights.
We started quarantine with large Gatorate bottles, two ~15 lb backpacks. and two ~25 lb duffles. We have, piecemeal, upped our equipment to include 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, and 15 lb dumbbells. Between the two of us, with that, some paper plates for "slides", some folding chairs for step-ups, and some improvisation, we're getting a great workout.
My old routine was to play basketball M/W/F from 6:30-7:45 and then do a workout at my gym Tu/Th/(and sometimes)Sat. Now I'm doing F45 five or six days a week. The workout is focused, high intensity, and exactly what I need. I recognize I'm not precisely getting what I had before with a squat rack and a bench press with real weights, but I actually feel a little stronger. I think it is because I'm engaging my core more and doing things with more intensity, although with lower weight. The program is designed around functional movements that should help with any sport you like or fitness level you want.
I really miss my basketball buddies. This is the longest I've been away from them in over 20 years. Even when I broke my ankle, it was only 2 months before I was running again. But I'm not sure what I'll do when the gym opens back up.
I have been a dedicated walker for years. I would do a 5K walk at least 5 days a week. I added in yoga a few years ago to help with back pain after I totally pinched a nerve lifting a big old CRT TV. The physical therapist recommended yoga as a way to continue my recovery program. It worked and it helps both strength and flexibility. It fixed all my back pain issues. I recommend yoga to anyone looking for low impact exercise.
This spring, given walking was about the only thing you could do, the wife and I would do walks during the day and I'd do my usual walks in the evening. Turns out that was too much walking resulting in a sore right knee and a diagnosis of osteo-arthritis. That shut me down for about a month, so I started lifting again instead of just sitting around with a sore knee. Just doing some upper body for now. I'll leave the lower body to yoga until my knee feels better, but the reality of the situation is I'll be looking at a knee replacement somewhere down the line....
So, I now do lifting 3 days a week, yoga at least once a week, and walking 4 or 5 days a week, but I've taken about a mile off the walk on days I lift. Because I was a pretty dedicated lifter at one point, I have all the stuff I need at home in my man cave.
1. Are you doing any weight work these days, and if not, will you try to get to it if/when gyms in your area open up?
Luckily up here in Maine, Covid is still not taking a hold of us in the way it has other states. We had about 8 weeks of gym closures in April and May, but we've been back with gyms open for about 6 weeks now. While my gym was closed I borrowed some dumbbells and benches from my gym owner and from my school's gym (I'm a HS PE teacher). It was far from ideal, but it was enough to maintain and get in a total body workout, albeit not at the level of what you can do in a commercial gym.
2. I have maintained for years that your muscles are the greatest producers of anti-bodies to fight infections/viruses. Maybe that's an old wives tale but I will say I have been blessed with pretty good health (despite my dough boy physique). What do you think is/are the most important keys to maintaining your health in the face of flu, or more seriously, C-19?
I've long thought gyms being open in a limited way, such as only allowed 10-20 people in at a time, increased sanitation, social distancing, mask wearing, etc. was a better way to keep people healthy than other things that stayed open like liquor stores. The 5 components of health related fitness are an ideal way to maintain your health. They include cardio, flexibility, a healthy body composition, and muscle fitness (muscular strength & muscular endurance...ie lifting). I think you need them all to be fit and healthy. Brad Schoenfeld is one of the worlds leading researchers on hypertrophy (building muscle). He cites some of the health benefits of strength training:
- Boosted metabolic rate
- Improved physical function
- Prevention or management of type 2 diabetes
- Improved cardiovascular health
- Reduced blood pressure
- Improved blood lipids
- Managing chronic pain
- Increased bone density
- Improved mental health
- Reversing the aging process
Since obesity, diabetes, and heart health are major risk factors that make people at risk for serious illness with Covid I'd say lifting is a pretty good preventative measure (as is cardio) and having a healthy body composition, both of which they have a positive impact on, in addition to a balanced diet.
We just popped over to your lovely state for dinner on Sunday night -- Chauncey's in Kittery. Good people in Maine, in my experience.
As you age , the best workout is weight training. Lower the weight , increase reps , and do super sets. Put your cardio into your weight training. I should add that I walk 4 to 8 miles a day.
I pay for beach body on demand; I try to do that 3-4 days per week on top of running for 20-25 mins 4-5 days per week.
I've done a lot of push-ups since the gym has been closed. My bench press has been decreasing since aging into my mid to upper 50s. I remember gaining strength through my 20s and 30s where my bench was about 250 lbs but through my 40s, tears in my rotator cuff have caused me to drop down to a 150 lbs bench. I think weight training is just as important as cardio as we age. Just don't go too heavy to hurt your joints.
Even walking like 1/2 hour a day has amazing health benefits.
Do it!
Our testosterone levels are nowhere near where they were at 40 years ago.
TRT best decision I've made for my health (and sex life)
What is 'TRT'?
I have exercised at gyms for about the last 40 years. Not a “huge” dude, but have been given unsolicited compliments about my build many times over the years. Been working out at home (mainly cardio on a treadmill and an exercise bike), but don’t have a lot of free-weights laying around. Since the COVID-19 panic I have lost 7 lbs of muscle. This situation sucks.
As a side note: Even though I have worked out at the “filthy, sweaty, germ-infested” gyms for 40 years, I hardly ever get a cold. You know why? Because I wash my darned hands after working out and I don’t touch my face or eyes while working out. No masks necessary and no social distancing either.
Funny, my son was just lecturing us about this very thing. He's an avid lifter, mostly for his sport. He was telling us that lifting helps stave off memory loss (thanks, kid, for telling me you think I'm old by going right to the memory study). He's right, and so are you -- weight bearing exercises are really important for so many reasons -- bone strength, memory, ability to get up out of a chair when you're in your 80's..... I need to do more of that in my mostly cardio workouts.
I have taken workouts up a notch since March. Though I have a gym membership, I also have both a treadmill and dumbbell set at home. Do at least a weekly 6 mile walk on trails with a good friend and shorter multiple daily walks with my dog. Have increased the weights workouts from 30 minutes twice a week to 55 minutes three times a week.
I too, am a big believer in resistance workouts and have been for many years. I had shoulder surgery about 16 months ago which curtailed this for several months. If I could go back and give advice to my younger self it would be to not do the negative dips at the gym. Also to maybe not be quite so obsessed with the bench press.
Mid 40s now. Not overly concerned about lifting, but it was my main workout activity for years. But I started over a few years ago: reset to light weights and focused on compound lifts, worked on form, did linear progression to heavy weights, then moved onto a 5-3-1 program. Plateau'd on that eventually, but it was fun and I recommend it. I was moving onto a maintenance program when the gyms closed.
Now I've switched from a 3-4 days lifting / run 2-3 times a week, to a run 4 times a week / lift only twice (bodyweight in a circuit at home). I don't miss lifting for "gains" or size, I'm too old to care much for that. I'm whole-body strong enough and things like cardio and posture are my focus now
Running is giving me challenges now that - once reaching a certain level of fitness - are fun, and I no longer dread my runs, I look forward to them
Supplement with morning dynamic/static stretches and posterior chain work for these old bones
PS. Shout out to those who suggested David Goggins' book a few weeks ago. Picked it up and it was pretty damn awesome and inspiring
I am a bit of a masochist. I actually enjoy strength training and enjoy it more the harder I train. I have lifted off and on since just before my 13th bday (I'm about to turn 39) and progress is addicting. I used to copy Arnold's workouts but now instead of heavy weight/low rep ranges I copy bodyspartan workouts which are low weight/high rep ranges. I have a couple benches and olympic plates and bars in the garage that are working quite well. I also run on a treadmill or get on the elliptical a minimum 4 times a week.
I just lifted an entire bag of hostess donuts into my mouth.
Does that count?
Lifting is great for attitude adjustment. Will lift more when gym reopen.
I did see a study that lifting once a week lifted the GPA and lifting more than that helped but only a little more.. So please, lift at least once a week.
I was increasing my running since the gyms were closed during COVID. I was running 4 miles every other day, so I started going up a quarter mile every week and I was up to 6 miles every other day. Though, now I'm worried since 2 weeks ago my neighbor's son was out running and he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 52 (about 5 years younger than me). I've met the son a few times, he was tall and skinny built like a distant runner. So, I wonder if your risks for a heart attack or some type of aortic or brain aneurysm increases if you start pushing that 40 plus miles a week limit?
Someone has to do it...... I will duck afterwards....but I have started CrossFit over a year ago (after having dabbled on my own in the past, weights and muay thai for a number of years) and love it. It is something that needs to be approached mindfully - you certainly can injure yourself if push weights too much and without proper instruction. My gym is great and most of the participants are around my age (45) or older and you see the same people again and again. Functional weight training, gymnastics and high intensity are incredible for your health and fitness so long as you do what you are comfortable with and rest when your body tells you. After awhile, I also noticed I needed to match my food with the workouts - cut out the sugars and the processed foods will take you a long way.
Check out this hype video:
Now ducking
I’ve always done a combo of hiit aerobics and weights. Used to be just 20 minutes aerobic and 40 weights 4 days a week. W covid I finally decided to buy f
September 15th, 2020 at 9:10 PM ^
I do go to the gym and I really enjoy it. It's almost half a year already and I'm feeling ok. Right now I'm collecting my sports clothes and other helpful things. For instance, I'm picking the best peanut butter because it has much protein.