Episode 6, How to Train

After reviewing the optimal training (episode 4) and more or less supportive equipment (episode 5), this episode sheds light on the question how to train in your best years. It is the final chapter of our little health and fitness series and most likely not the final “how to” guide that I will address in Midlife Man. Fasten your seatbelt and let’s go!

Everyone knows the saying “age is just a number”. And everyone who reaches such a number knows that this claim is bullshit. I can even affect your health when you ignore your age, and you keep on training like you did during the last ten or twenty years. We will investigate three things that I think are key to stay healthy.

1)      Warm Up

We all heard about it, and I guess most of you are just like me which means ignoring it successfully for a long time- “it” is warming up prior to working out. This is especially important for strength training but should be taken seriously for all kinds of exercises. Why is this the case? As we get older, our body becomes more prone to injuries. Men’sHealth (Si apre in una nuova finestra) describes that quite illustrative. A well-structured warm up can prepare yourself and prevent injuries. Ten minutes are already sufficient and well invested.

2)      Recover

Drinking and partying with 20 was somewhat different than with 40. I guess every one of us has had this painful experience. The reason is that our body needs more time to recover. Since this is generally true, we need to consider it for our training as well. This includes the duration of our training and the amount of training days per week. The duration of our training shouldn’t exceed 60min when it comes to strength training and the amount of training days per week is 2-4 depending on your personal level of fitness.

 3)      Be mindful

The third and final point is being mindful when you train. What I mean here refers to strength training. Firstly, it is important to select the exercises that you like performing, stimulate muscle growth and pays attention to pre-existing conditions you might have. Secondly, execution matters. I can truly recommend performing your repetitions as follows: Very slow negative phase (five seconds), pausing for two to three seconds at the lowest point and then going as fast as you can for the positive phase. Such an execution enables you to tackle your muscles with much lower weight which again prevents injuries. I can recommend including the time for those of you (like me) who struggle to perform exercises with much lower weight than before. Here is a simple example:

-          Bench press with conventional execution:

80kg*10 repetitions with 4 seconds for each repetition = 3200

-          Bench press with mindful execution:

60kg*10 repetitions with 8 seconds for each repetition = 4800

Alright folks know you are good to go and there is no reason for excuses! Let’s get our trainings done! I hope you enjoyed this little series and it had some enlightening or at least entertaining elements for you. I am looking forward to move on to the next subject. Stay tuned for what will come and have a stress-free Friday!

Visit Midlife Man (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to read all previously published episodes.

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