Guest guest Posted December 29, 2002 Report Share Posted December 29, 2002 Doss wrote: <<The problem I have encountered is it takes a LOT of work to add much muscle for a woman of my age and body type. In my fifties I am noticing the recovery time is longer so it is hard to work a particular body part often enough to gain much. And you have to be careful of the ligaments as they do not build up as fast as muscles, I have read (not sure where). **** The trick to much of this is the right routine or doing the exercises in the right way. Like you, I'm pretty much at the end of my game, or so I thought. There is simply no way I can work out at 60 as vigorously as I did even when I was 55. OTH, I have actually put on muscle mass in these past 5 years simply by not being overzealous and changing exercises so that I don't put stress on the muscles and joints in exactly the same way all the time. Even with an exercise like squats, there are a lot of variations and each one is just different enough so that you're not doing EXACTLY the same thing at every workout. Giving yourself the opportunity to recover is essential. If this means you can only train with weights twice a week, then so be it. This might be a problem for an elite level or competitive athlete but even they have to learn what they can and can't do to make progress. My last little slug of muscle mass went on quite recently by following Jerry Telle's biomechanical advantage style training called Tellekinetics, which demands light weight and is thus joint sparing. I certainly know I've trained after one of these workouts, but only very slightly. Dolfzine will be running a series of these little gems over time, but the chest routine is now up. It takes practice to get it correct but is well worth the time and effort to perfect it. To this I have added Davies' recommendation of Bradford Presses (a press done with an EZ curl bar in my case, pressed first in front, then to the back, but not so low as to rake over the shoulders) and plate raises (with a light enough weight to be able to do one set of 20 reps). I will have to change this workout after the next couple of goes so that I don't overtrain. Both Telle and Davies would tell you the same thing and they have a great deal more knowledge of the subject than I do. My recommendation is to try new things, new exercises or new ways of doing old ones. First you won't get a repetitive injury, secondly you will be challenged and have a lot of fun, and third, you will find some things that work better for you than others. When you find something that works, you can use it more often than others, taking care not to overtrain, or really " over use. " And remember, , even though you don't think you're muscling up, you are doing the best possible thing you can do for yourself. Even TIME Magazine finally came out with a blurb in the latest issue about the fact that for women over 50, HRT is problematic and the best thing they can do is exercise and stay slim. Unfortunately they put this in a sound bite. They needed to qualify " exercise " as resistance training, or at least the top priority exercise, with everything else following. Rosemary Vernon, Editor Dolfzine On-Line Fitness, Inc.® A Not-For-Profit Corporation www.dolfzine.com Marina del Rey, CA IronRoses@... http://www.chuckietechie.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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