UncleNasty
Posts: 1108
Joined: 3/20/2004 Status: offline
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Congrats popeye. I hope you're eating your spinach! Nothing burns fat like muscle. Nothing builds muscle like resistance training. So once you've got it, doing even the simplest things, like reaching for a book on a shelf, you'll be burning more fat. The isolation that machines offer comes at a price. Free weights use all kinds of secondary and stabilizer muscles that machines don't so the workout, and the effects of such, are spread to a larger and more inclusive area. I consider a routine that eliminates either 1) cardio, or 2) resistance training, to be a deficient routine. I started my routine just last Sunday. It has been 2 1/2 years since I've been able to workout. Initially I had an issue with my left arm at the inside of my elbow. Then the accident of 10/30/07 and associated injuries. Surgery last November, and rocovery from such, should leave me with a clean bill of health. I do a split routine working chest, back and shoulders on the "A" days, and legs and arms on the "B" days. Cardio, ab work and flexibilty on all days. I get 2 workouts per routine per week, and have 3 days rest per week. I'm starting very slowly at one set of light weights. It will take perhaps 6 weeks to work up to 3 sets with the light weights. Then I'll begin increasing the weight. The last thing I want to do is injure myself, even in minor ways, before my body is used to the increased stresses I'm placing on it. Hopefully I'll be able to increase the weights to levels I was at several years ago, when I was quite fit, by sometime in the fall. Fortunately I'm only trying to "wake up" muscles I already have and not having to build new muscle from the ground up. I've really missed being able to excercise fully, and enjoying all the benefits of such - feeling AND looking better. I encourage all of us to spend more time on ourselves physically doing healthy things. Uncle Nasty (happily typing more or less fully with two hands {the months spent adapting to my disabilities have casued what seems to be a permanently different style} )
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