body mass

j3gq_imp

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With mass loss (mainly muscles) of about 2% per year after age 40 ...
what do you do to keep your fitness up ?
PS: good drink and food doesn’t help or count !
 
Gezzalou I've lost 60% of my muscle? ( 30 years x 2 % per year). That stinks lol

Honestly other than riding, I dont do much of anything athletic. Cooking, laundry, cutting grass in the summer, watching grandkids.

Plan to start walking in the spring ( mrs Ferret tells me)
 
j3gq_imp said:
With mass loss (mainly muscles) of about 2% per year after age 40 ...
what do you do to keep your fitness up ?
PS: good drink and food doesn’t help or count !
Trade in your wife for a younger one .....?
 
Sometimes workload gets in the way, but I try to walk at lunch every day for at least 45 minutes to an hour. Also, I work in outdoor events, and nine to ten times a year, I'm working very long hours outdoors for a week at a time.

My wife and I used to go to a gym within walking distance of our house, but with the COVID shutdown, we started doing yoga on YouTube. We sold our coffee table to make more room in the middle of the living room, and even in a small condo we can roll out our mats. There are several online options, and we are currently watching the "Yoga with Adrienne" series.

We also have a long-distance walking routine that we follow on Sundays when we're not otherwise engaged taking care of either of our elderly moms. Still, we both feel like we need more. My wife was down for most of 2020 with a long-term medical recovery, and much of my travel schedule was cancelled, along with my lengthy COVID recovery. We both feel the effects, and know that being inactive for a very long time set our strength and endurance back. We're trying to build back in both of those areas, but it's a long, tedious process, and with both of us in our early 50s, not as easy as it was when we were younger.
 
This has come up before, Weight Lifting for Riding Fitness. It is said that 150 minutes of exercise a week is all you need, including some cardio, but I suspect if you really want to retain muscle quality you have to find a way to work them.

To be clear: this is hearsay evidence. I am deeply committed to avoiding exercise whenever it appears.
Houtman_imp said:
j3gq_imp said:
With mass loss (mainly muscles) of about 2% per year after age 40 ...
what do you do to keep your fitness up ?
PS: good drink and food doesn’t help or count !
Trade in your wife for a younger one .....?
Can you please send me the email addresses of what must be a catalogue of former Mrs Houtmans so I can get some external evidence of how that’s worked out for you? :P

Oh ... some advice on how to afford the alimony would be helpful too.
 
^^ :rofl:
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^^
 
Cormanus , just meet me for a beer and I can give you some very useful advise in this matter. I will not tell your wife and will NOT black mail you later on ......

PS I have been married to the same lady for nearly 47 years .
 
With respect, sir, it's not advice from a man with 47 years marriage under his belt that I want; rather, testimony from the wives discarded in pursuit of your alleged fitness regime.

Congratulations to Mrs Houtman, by the way. She must be a truly remarkable woman. :clap:
 
Thanks, Long. When my wife started rounding during nursing school, she was working with geriatric patients. It inspired her to push us to get healthy so we’d be in our best shape later in life.

We started exercising, eating well, and lost weight. We’ve slipped a bit over the past year with everything going on, but are still doing what we can.
 
+1 for walking every day. Gyms, public swimming pools etc all shut down and have been all year really. We’ve got an energetic dog that needs decent walks twice a day so I have to go out no matter what the weather is doing or whether I feel like it. When the weather improves I will dig out my mountain bike. I enjoy riding that. I’m trying to stick to the BCC diet, which is no Biscuits, no Chocolate, no Cake. Started Jan 1. Never used to watch what i ate, enjoyed sports and never put weight on. Can’t get away with that now, used to take a 32” waist trouser, that’s about one leg now :(
 
Thread starter
@Ferret, you are in luck,
starting at 100%-2% = 0.98, you multiply this 30 for 30 years (0.98 x 0.98 x0.98 ...) the result is 0.5454. In other words you lost only 45% of your muscles, not 60%. Yabadabadoo !!!
@ Cormanus
on the serious side, it seems (evidence based ) 3 times a week 20 minutes is enough for your cardio. But for rebuilding muscles you need much more. Your idea might work much better, ... in a round about way. First you put the make on her, then you look in the mirror - naked, after the shock you start thinking about solutions, then you get into the gym without thinking 'how long' ... getting my drift ?
 
Please, Mr J3gq, don’t credit me with Brother Houtman’s master plan. Note also that he’s been less than enthusiastic about adopting it.
 
Cormanus , you probably heard about men NOT using their own advise they give to other people ; that is me !
Being married to a nurse we eat well , walk nearly every day and as said before keep fit and your aging will be a lot more bearable . For the last 15 years I eat rolled oats, Greek yoghurt and orange juice all mixed in a bowl for break fast, very good for your immune system and digestion. Also important is : Happy mind is Happy body.
When you die there is no use to in being the richest man in the cemetery , you be the happiest man in the cemetery because you rode a CB 1100 !
 
I’ve read that it’s 3-5% per decade, not 2% per year. All the same, most of us are on losing muscle mass side of the curve, to put it delicately.

I used to be fairly disciplined with strength training. I’ve alway believed that a well designed weight training program had enough cardio sort of built in to it to reduce the need for pure cardio workouts for someone with decent heart/lung health.

“Used to be” is key here. I am currently not doing much except being careful of my diet and I need to reinvigorate my exercise program. Until I stop working full time, I cannot adopt Houtman’s fitness regimen (the one about working about the house, not working the bars and clubs) and so I’m in the process of getting back to my home gym in a more serious manner. This thread proved to be a timely reminder so thanks for posting.
Having said all that and after looking out my window at the blanket of white, I believe my new commitment to exercise will start with several sets of “shovel curls”.
 
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EmptySea_imp said:
I’ve read that it’s 3-5% per decade, not 2% per year. All the same, most of us are on losing muscle mass side of the curve, to put it delicately.

I used to be fairly disciplined with strength training. I’ve alway believed that a well designed weight training program had enough cardio sort of built in to it to reduce the need for pure cardio workouts for someone with decent heart/lung health.

“Used to be” is key here. I am currently not doing much except being careful of my diet and I need to reinvigorate my exercise program. Until I stop working full time, I cannot adopt Houtman’s fitness regimen (the one about working about the house, not working the bars and clubs) and so I’m in the process of getting back to my home gym in a more serious manner. This thread proved to be a timely reminder so thanks for posting.
Having said all that and after looking out my window at the blanket of white, I believe my new commitment to exercise will start with several sets of “shovel curls”.
Wish I could support this seeming relief with some science, but instead of arguing about statistical observations let me I suggest you look at (m)any average old man you see downtown in the park, age 80+. What you see quite often is ultra thin legs - very noticeable from a distance. His upper legs had once a circumference of 40+ cm. Now it's down to 25 - bones + skin. This is not the result of 4 x 4% (from 40 to 80) = 16% muscle loss. It is a disastrous 50% and sometimes higher.
Such can turn your motorcycle years (and -memories) literally into motorcycle fears.
 
Since Nov of 2019 I've lost 40 lbs and managed to increase my energy level. Arthritis and old injuries to my shoulders have contributed to muscle loss there and my reason for selling my CB1100. Been walking couple miles a day and Sparky has me outdoors doing a lot of property maintenance. Hope I can keep riding until at least 80 years; little over 7 to go.
 
I have to look at my own legs when I do "downward dog". Definitely not attractive. There are much nicer legs at the park, as long as you remember that you can look at the menu, but you have to eat at home.
 
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