@JLC you are awesomely strong. I applaud you!
I have practiced weight training since age 20 (1974) when I was the only woman in the weight room. I liked the way weight training gave me more stamina and combated depression.
Having injured my tendons over the years I now avoid heavy weights. I use 3 and 5 pound hand weights (which I combine for leg exercises) and also yoga body-weight exercises. That probably sounds pathetic to you but after age 60 (let alone age 70) healing is slower. The reality is that we can injure ourselves suddenly doing an exercise we have done safely 10,000 times before.
Muscles are stronger than tendons. Tendons take many months to heal.
By the way, my cardiologist would kill me if he knew I’m doing Zumba 3 times a week and getting my heart rate up to 160. I’m also doing cardiac rehab (guided by a very nice 30 year old exercise physiologist) which gets my heart rate up to 90 – not even enough to get a “cardio load” point from my Fitbit watch.
By the way, the worst part of my open-heart surgery 6 months ago was the weakness which is still somewhat of a problem for me. The pain wasn’t a big deal compared with my other surgeries but the weakness was terrible.
Wendy