dry land watersport

Posted on by Fit255

I turned some frequent flyer miles into a rowing machine a year or so back… I like my exercise in ‘full body’ mode rather than being too specific about focus on muscle groups… mind you a bit more attention to the chicken legs wouldn’t go astray!

Rowing provides a good cardio workout during times that the pool is harder to get to (for whatever reason). Good form – beginning with the leg push, pressing through the abs and finishing with the arms – works everything progressively. I understand anything that activates the hip flexors can’t be too bad for you and your metabolism.

I have to watch that I don’t overdo cardio, generally… it’s a killer for us “hard gainers”, so I favour high intensity interval training. in the pool this means a 500m warmup, then sets of a sprint lap freestyle followed by a steady breaststroke.

Before settling into familiarity on the rower, I started with 1min rowing and 30secs rest, increasing intensity each set, but now I just mess around with intensity during a straight 6mins/1500m usually in 250m blocks.

Swimming is still better engendering fewer memories of the childhood asthma, but at least with the ‘water rower’ I get a comforting slosh of liquid with each stroke.

As I reflect, I’m happy enough that the bod is generally still holding shape now well into the 58th year and surprisingly responds quickly to a bit of this discipline. Keeping the skin elastic seems increasingly important.

into another year…

Posted on by Fit255

I finished 2018 a bit despondent about the direction the bod was heading…was starting to seem like the beginning of the end and just ‘aging’ left to come… but a week by the beach over christmas with just a bit of exercise every day seems to have pulled things back into shape.

There is still hope on the horizon as I rush inexorably toward 57.

55 in REarVIEW

Posted on by Fit255

Looking back on being 55

This could be the year that bought the bod undone. To say the least, it’s become a struggle.

It felt a strong start – sun, surf, strength. Managed a few extra weekends in fun places, stretching the summer into early autumn bush camping and thru Easter in the national capital with the push bike.

Through May/June staving off the flu that began to grip the rest of the family, until… July. We packed 3 germ riddled teenagers in the back of the 4WD to escape north for a winter week by the beach… a perfect incubation, and I was done for. The next 4 months with rolling virus/head colds, soreness and lethargy.

Motivation drained, time poor, stress overload, every attempt to reestablish good habits thwarted.

Only the occasional glimmer of muscle memory in otherwise seriously reduced reps.

Inescapable mortality!

Scientists call it entropy. The bible knows this is the direction of all things without God’s intervention.

So looking back might prove a good balance to rushing forward in unbridalled reliance on shoring my own strength.

Now turning toward 56, in hope of balance and illumination, not in new light, but in the warm glow of salvation already attained.

Toward modest gains and strength from core doctrine.

And that’s about as much double entendres as I can fit in one post, so, till next time…

holding it together

Posted on by Fit255

You know the continuing struggle… an aging body, a busy schedule, an aggressive flu season. Any chance of maintaining some kind of fitness seems as a fading dream.
but small things can be an encouragement to keep trying.

Last night I was in the foyer during intermission of the ballet and a stranger asked “so, are you one of the dancers?”.
The performance of Giselle was a regional tour by the young members of the Australian Ballet. At 55 I’m going to take whatever flattery is on offer… thank you to the unknown encourager.

Sometimes a kind word, sometimes it’s an example that can give us hope. So I thought I’d share a few images even as I struggle out of a long desperate winter. Perhaps we can spur each other along the fitness journey…

Iron(ing) man

Posted on by Fit255

i knew I would never keep up a regular posting blog. So if there was anyone out there you will have all turned and wandered off by now… but anyway,

been a while since I’ve been in a regular rhythm for anything lately, which means I have struggled to maintain any fitness regimen, but still trying to do something whenever it’s possible to grab a few minutes. Got me to thinking about that old question “when is a good time to exercise?”

Here’s my favourite for the start of any week… Exercise while ironing your shirts for the week. I find that to include 1 shirt in every superset is about right for a reasonable rest period AND to convince the Lovely One that I am actually being productive while she is doing the real hard yacker of getting the kids to school.

So, if the dream is be an iron man, perhaps the start is to become an “ironing man”.

My usual ironing superset:

  • 8 pull-ups with ab curl
  • 6 inverted rows with 16kg kettlebell
  • 8 lying on back, kettlebell over head to over end of bed then back to over groin.
  • 12 x 2 handed kettlebell swings
  • 1 dress shirt
  • (repeat till you have a shirt for each day of the week)

Welcome

Posted on by Fit255

G’day,

so here’s a mad idea… entering the 55th year and wondering about preserving the man frame for a few more, at least till the kids are too old to need me mobile and the lovely one loses interest… so I thought I might dive into infested waters with the rest of the threatened species.

There’s a danger the whole thing will look pretty narcissistic – it is on the web after all – but hopefully, instead, we might explore the frailty of humanity and the artistic potential of the form it’s packaged in.

We’ll try and keep it ‘safe for workplace’, but I’m not sure why you’re checking  blogs at work, anyway. I can’t guarantee not to offend anyone, so perhaps don’t show it to your kids and then they can’t show it to mine!

If this starts to masquarade as a fitness blog I need to be sure you understand I have no training or qualification in the fitness or health industry. Part of the reason I can contemplate fitness in my 50’s is that I didn’t wear out the body in my teens with anything that looked too much like sport. Looking from this end there is an advantage in being a late bloomer… even if to be reclassified from a ‘weedy kid’ to a ‘hard gainer’ in a politically corrected world. This means that I set out with a fast metabolism and when fat tissue looks like lingering I can usually chase it down the pool or around the block on my bike. The Gurus seem to be saying these days that you can speed up the metabolism… presuming this is true, I reckon it’s worth you pursuing if you aren’t naturally “the runt of the litter”.

Its probably time to post an image so we can critique the subject matter and decide if there is a conversation to be had.

image

So, here’s the man frame as it approaches 54 (entering the 55th year!). We’re not looking at mr universe and not graced with a model dial.

With exhibit ‘A’ we’re introducing a few themes for later on:

  • when are pecs deemed to be manboobs by anyone other than an impertinent teenager?
  • does a flat stomach at 50 constitute a 6pack?
  • is manscaping a vanity, ‘form cheating’, or an artistic preference for photography?
  • speaking of photographic art… can a selfie constitute ‘fine art’?
  • And is there still a place for composition and lighting in iPhonography?
  • why is a man with too much to do already, starting a blog he will probably never have time to continue?
  • “who is man that you are mindful of him, the Son of man that you care for him. You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour…”

hopefully some of these will find expression and debate in the coming posts.