I was hesitant to reply, although this is a topic of great interest to me.
Recently entered my 6th decade on this planet, and have no serious health issues at present, and while my diet is spotty, I have been on a regular workout regimen since the gyms reopened (Fall of 2021?).
My hesitancy is in “absolute statements” from anyone about anything they do. Things generally work different for different people. That could be due to pain thresholds, genetics, their adherence to good form to avoid injuries, and their free time, or discipline, to actually exercise.
Here is what I have seen, and a bit of background:
- been familiar with gym/weights since Jr/Sr year high school…and liked playing basketball a lot.
- had sciatica issues in early 20s…might be genetic predisposition or just wasn’t watching form much back then. Issues went away with sleeping on my side and not being reckless with form.
- strained one of the “L’s” in my knee about 15-20 years ago and that ended racquetball and basketball pickup games for a long time. With family and work, basketball time was less available and racquetball died off a few years ago it seems.
- my weight fluctuates…never been thin but usually go from average to “need to lose 15 pounds” and back.
So covid hits and the gyms close and honestly I had been getting bored to tears of going to gyms…often starting a membership and then immediately regretting that decision when I realize every exercise I have done a ton of times.
But related to this thread, I started researching Sprints and all the benefits. Just go look at long-distance runners vs Sprinters to visually see the difference, from a muscle-building perspective. I was long wary of squats due to sciatica popping back up, and didn’t want to however be the guy skipping leg day. But I really like sprints and saw the benefits. I could only do about 5-8 sets a week, to keep my knees fresh, but saw muscle development in my legs and it just simply feels great (not in the moment of the last sprint perhaps, but afterwards and days that follow).
It may be controversial to many, but I much prefer walking mixed with sprints vs any jogging. All jogging seems to do is increase the amount of time my knees take a pounding. Sprints may be more intense, but the total amount of time impacting the knees is drastically lower than a long jog. So I never jog. I do bike a bit, but more to get to a forest preserve path to then walk…I don’t bike for exercise. The form of a bent-over bicyclist isn’t good, imo, and I see it only slightly better than jogging as it is at least easier on the knees.
If you haven’t done sprints in a long time, I HIGHLY recommend you really ease into it. Run at about 60-75% speed once or twice. Wait a few days. Increase slowly and stretch a bit in advance. I prefer to run on grass, and I always walk the area back and forth a couple times, removing any branches and looking for any obvious unevenness in the chosen path. There is a long underpass off a forest preserve I will use as a backup, but that pounding is harder on the knees than grass. The indoor track at gym is more shock absorbent, but often a bit too crowded for easy sprint sessions.
If you think you can do them, highly recommend you add the sprints.
For muscle-building:
I came across athleanx.com and highly recommend the youtube videos. The founder (Jeff C.) appears to be from a physical therapist background and is his own case study as his body is incredibly consistent for well over a decade now. Now a buff monster, more a lean monster.
What I liked most about Jeff’s approach is:
- no diet fads, no keto, no fasting…just common-sense. He does advocate removing sweets and alcohol from diet, which isn’t issue for me.
- shows a lot of examples of exercises NOT to do, helping keep you from being injured.
- shows a lot of new exercise types, which I really needed to combat that gym boredom of doing the same old routines over and over.
- I have seen results over the past 1-2 years that validates all of this.
Probably not at peak muscle mass in my life…hard to match my late 20’s. I definitely don’t stay slim easier as metabolism craps out for me in my 40s. And while I don’t concern myself with matching my bench press peak in my late 20s (I don’t do any max 1-2 rep lifting at all) I feel I am stronger now than ever in most areas, as I can lift heavier weight for 8-12 reps in a variety of exercises that I am fairly sure I wasn’t doing in my 20s/30s/40s.
The key is being very controlled, and I get tons of recovery time.
I have 3 main gym days a week, keeping at least 1 day off between each, and so I only do certain exercises once a week (shoulders, chest, etc…).
I am intense in my approach as I tend to alternate “push” and “pull” exercises and don’t really rest. This has benefit of keeping me moving and out of the gym before too long.
Final comment is that if I wasn’t such a crap swimmer, I would try and regularly do laps (much like sprinting) due to low-impact on joints and all benefits of sprints. I have considered taking swim lessons to fix my form to better do laps and may still do that. Maybe my 60s will be the decade of water.
good luck to all,
Dreamer