A little about me...

47, male. 2 years ago, my wife decided to get in shape and started getting personal training from Tony "the Punisher" at the local gym. After seeing her lose 25 #, I joined in August, somewhat lackadaisacally. By October, I was more serious, but had a major setback when I had a coronary occlusion (blocked heart artery) and needed an angioplasty and stent implant. (I became aware of the problem because of my exercising, so it is plausible that the exercising saved my life.) I took a month off and after getting cleared by my cardiologist took off on the most aggressive exercise program of my life.

I typically work out 3X or 4X a week with weights which has been gradually increased to:

5 sets of 20 reps of 20# dumbbells left and right
5 sets of 20 pushups
5 sets of 20# weights lifts to build deltoids (don't know name of exercise)
3 sets of 10 reps of lat pulldowns
Some ab work
Some other work on other machines

On alternate days, I ride road bike for 1 hour, about 16 miles, or 30 - minutes to 1 hour on stationary bike keeping heart rate over 125 (70% of max.)

I have increased my biceps to 15" (from 13"), lowered my pant size from 36 to 34, increased the number of pushups I can do from 10 to 5 sets of 20 reps. And lowered my body fat from 30% to 18% (estimated from calipers).

I have only lost about 5 # over the last 9 months, but I am okay with that.

Goals for the next few months include continuing the improvements I have already made, lose 20# of fat by lowering weight from 215 to 195, improving cardiovascular strength, and improving leg strength on bike.

Richard

welcome and good luck


+rep

Good to have you....welcome!

Welcome, read the stickies. Good info in there.

Rats! I blew out my right elbow (tennis elbow) doing bicep curls last week and will have to baby that elbow for it to heal. Oh well, that'll give me a chance to work on my aerobics and cycling....

Welcome. I don't see any leg work in there, this might be a nice time to start doing some lunges or squats.

I bike a fair amount, usually 1/2 hour - 1 hour 3 - 4 x / week and will probably increase that until my elbow heals. Do you think I need to do lunges as well?

Walking nor running will increase leg strength. Lay off the bicep curls for a long time.

Are you working with Tony the Punisher?

I hadn't been seeing the Punisher for the last few months as I don't need the motivation - I have plenty of that. I didn't think the bicep curls would have triggered the tennis elbow, a problem that developed and healed up about 4 years ago, but maybe I would have avoided this. That's water under the bridge now.

I would consider going back to the punisher if he could direct my training so that I don't re-aggravate my elbow. Is that something that a certified trainer should be able to do? I don't know what specific certifications Tony has. Or, would his advice be to do other stuff until the pain goes away, which I already know.

A good trainer should be able to help.