ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

It's not feeling like crap it's the reasons below.

I'm 48 and have trained in one form or another most of my life, as a grown man I don't want to look like a guy in his mid 20's that spends half his life in the gym just skin and muscle, been there done that and I'm just not prepared to go to that level of commitment at this stage in my life, I like to enjoy the finer things in life while I'm still able.

I'm not talking major fat here just a set of love handles and maybe a few extra kilo's on on my legs and ****. At 5'11" and 13 stone (84kg) I'm hardly overweight and I am quite well muscled although not ripped, I'm not worried about my weight or general fitness, I just have a bit of what I call excess fat that needs to be burned off.

I'm sure you know the best way to do this for me anyway as we are all different, is as mentioned before to get into the fat burning zone of 120 bpm and stay there for 30mins or more, like I said in my earlier posts walking / marching used to do that for me but that's off the cards at the min due to the state of the roads and paths, it's no fun marching through clay type mud in the p!ssing rain.

I have no interest in going on some major calorie controlled diet, not drinking alcohol and eating fish and chicken and salads and weighing my meat and carbs out as though I'm trying to become Mr Universe, that ship has sailed I just want to do what works for me and can be maintained without too much in the way of effort, it's taken me a very long time to get to know my body as well as I do and find a balance that I'm happy with, I'm just slightly on the wrong side of the line and would like to go back to where the grass is greener.

Over the years I have seen these cross trainers and recently looking at them thought it may be a good way to burn fat due to the full body motion and target the areas I want to hit without the need for a 1000 sit-ups a week hence this thread.

Matteeboy

Ditchy - I know where you're coming from.
I just worry that a cross trainer might play havoc with your knees. Can you trial one in a gym somewhere before committing? Maybe use a HRM just to see how effective it is.
A cycle machine (or turbo trainer if you have a bike) or rowing machine might just be kinder to your knees. If a trial works well on a cross trainer, maybe take the plunge - I've never really used them (I use other cardio machines occasionally) though and I'm quite a fitness bore.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Mattee, that's part of what I wanted to find out and why I asked if they had variable resistance to go easy on my left knee, I think like you say I'm going to have to go in the shop and make like I want to buy one and get the full demonstration & have a play for 10 mins to see how it feels.

I used to have a rowing machine years ago but it wasn't a very good one and something broke on it, not even sure if that would be very good for my knee either as they do tend to work the knees quite heavily from memory.

My knee is ok under normal circumstances and I can run, it's just that after a mile or so I can feel it and if I continue for a few times a week then it starts to give me grief. If I have learned anything over the years it's not to aggravate it as it takes a lot longer to get back to normal than it does to screw it up, as with most injuries as you start to get older the recovery time increases and it becomes counter productive, so I avoid high impact activities for that reason.

scoobydooooo

go for long walks in the hills then mate , buy some outdoor gear and away you go easy but people will spend that much on a TV to sit on their fat ***** cultivating a coronary makes me laugh

Matteeboy

Do you know what the knee issue is?

I crashed on my bike a while back and whacked my inner right knee on the top tube. No major issue but three months later it still hurt a lot.

Had some physio in the end and it brought up and issue I didn't even know I had - a flatter right foot which in turn destabilised my knee. Later on is also affected my hip.

But with the right exercises, I got it back to a decent state again.

I've also had a bad right shoulder most of my life. I've "fixed" that too and now the left shoulder is unstable. Sometimes you just can't win!

The trouble with being very active is that it seems to exacerbate problems that might otherwise have been okay. Better than being a far bar steward though I guess...?!

hodgy0_2

I did the Peterborough Half marathon the other day, my training had been hampered by a nagging groin injury (and inherent laziness)

About mile 6 and I was really on my chinstraps - my groin hurt and so did my knees, but ultimately I reasoned that if I was expecting, at my age, to run hurt/injury free I may as well give up

So I wound my neck in and carried on

Matteeboy

Hodgy - respek!

On my last triathlon I sliced my foot open exiting the swim stage (which was minging - in a very choppy sea). I didn't quite realise the issue having been numbed by the cold so cycled; I got weird cramps in my right foot and seemed slower than the previous year (when I was 19th out of 250ish - the first time I'd ever raced a road bike). Knowing I run fast, I thought I'd make up places in the run - by this time my foot really was moaning but I overtook a load of people.

Finally made it, took my shoe off to check my foot and was greeted by a trainer filled with blood.

Ambulance, foot sewn back together, months of limping around.

Oops.

I was 46th out of 300ish and am still beating myself up even though I had a fairly good excuse to be so lame.

hux309

ditchmyster - Totally get where you're coming from, 41 myself so i feel it as well.
Ever thought about swimming, i know many with bad joints who swear by it for keeping them lean.
As for diets, sigh if only it were that easy. There's no one size fits all, some need carbs at a high level to function, whilst yours truly can smash them low, do cardio and still not get hypo from it.
I only have to look at something carb laden and i'll pile it on, yet fats i can smash all day long.
Instead of lowering your intake, just change what you eat. So opt for low gi carbs, thing like oats, sweet pots, brown rise that sort of thing, replace sugar with sweeteners or something natural.

Instead of sauce, look into spices or waldens farm have a great selection of zero calorie sauces, you won't believe how some of them taste.

If you do want to try supps, look at usp labs cissus, i bulk buy this and run 3g daily as it's great for aches and pains, plenty of feedback out there should you wish.

Just look at the packets of anything you buy, you'll be shocked how many load up their food with sugar, they do it as it's addictive, gives faster gastric emptying making you more hungry etc.

The food companies know exactly what they're doing.

rb5_336

Xtrainers are superb for low Impact fitness

dpb

I'm a year older than Ditchy, same height as well - but at least 4kg lighter

Well I was last time weighed myself



Had couple beers tonight though

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Muscle weighs more than fat.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

No swimming baths around here unfortunately only the sea.

The other stuff is pretty much the exactly what I don't want to do, life is too short to spend it denying myself the pleasures it has to offer.

dpb

No water? No problem

http://www.proswimwear.co.uk/vasa-trainer-pro.html

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I think it's only fair of me to point out here that I am so tight I make Scrooge look positively frivolous.

I have seen these x trainers for between £2/300 and I was thinking in the region of half that for a second hand one, if I could find one, but looking at some of the figures I have seen I may well be back to shankses pony.

dpb

You must be right, I'm 78 kg. And havnt exercised for months

Matteeboy

I've always trained first, eaten "well" second - your appetite should vary according to how much activity you do - respond to that, not some artificial calorie guide.

And all these ridiculous supplements I see people guzzling after a light (and poor form) workout is just insane; you can get everything from normal eating unless you really want to be a competing bodybuilder.

An incredibly successful endurance cyclists "secret" fuel was jam sandwiches!

So yes, stick to the exercise, keep enjoying the food and drink as long as it's not silly amounts.

Anyone that disagrees should spend a few days at RM Lympstone; you get fed plenty of "normal" food and drink what you like - but you don't see many lardy Marines.

dpb

Do you see yourself keeping same regime in ten years time Matthew?

Matteeboy

It's always changing but generally has the "plenty of exercise" mantra which I hope to keep going for at least ten more years. Currently it's a lot of surfing and not much else, when there's no surf it's running, weights and swimming.

But I've had some weird illness for a few days and I'm twitching big time - missed great waves yesterday - arrgggghhhh!!

I imagine as I get older, I might run more, surf less and probably try and maintain the weights (which admittedly I don't do very often at the moment).

Cycling has seriously fallen at the wayside mainly due to change of location (two years ago) - I do miss it a bit but replacing it with non stop surfing and nicer running seems a reasonable swap. I do feel guilty seeing my rather nice MTB gathering dust in the garage though; took me years of riding non stop to get it "just right" - got it there and now it's used monthly at best!!

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Well I went to Intersports and had a go on a Xtrainer today and after about a minute I could feel it putting pressure on my knee, so that's that as far as they're concerned, back to the drawing board.

Matteeboy

I thought it might cause problems.
I assume you've exhausted the physio route for your knee?

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

It's a really old injury as in 40yrs knelt on a broken bottle bottom in the snow as a kid, it started to give me problems after a major roller skating off well more of a coming together with a concrete pillar in my late teens and dis-located it, I was told many moons ago that they could operate on it but it was 50/50 as to whether it would get better or worse, so thought I would leave it as is because it only bothers me if I run or really stress it over a period of time, so I just learned to live with it.