Workout and Diet Advice for Women over 45

  Looking for something a little different this week I found a set of poses (courtesy of Self.com online magazine) that make you work your core.  Nothing revolutionary, but useful and it came with some nice illustrations.  I have edited where I thought a little more explanation was needed.  Remember, tighten your abs to hold your body aligned, and blow the air out of your stomach and lungs as you tighten.

Yoga for abs and core

In Parts 1, 2 and 3, I covered the leg workout, the chest and front delts workout, and the back and rear delts workout respectively, that I do in 15-20 minutes.  I add in 15 minutes to warm up and stretch, so in 30 minutes I can get a good workout when I am pressed for time.

This is part 4, and the final of the four-part series.  And to reiterate  –  the split I use may seem  a little unusual, though by now I suspect some of you are waiting anxiously for the final part.   I split the upper body into back, chest and arms and I split the shoulders over three days as well, so that I do some shoulders on each of the upper body days.  Any and all feedback on this routine is welcomed.

In my previous blog post I discussed getting the most from your trainer; how to do it and what your responsibilities are as a client. So why are we talking about whether to end the relationship with the trainer? Fact is, like any relationship, things can feel ‘old and stale’, or we reach the point where we are no longer ‘feeling the love’. Though these generally apply to a male-female romantic relationship, the metaphor applies equally to the trainer-client relationship.
As women we are pretty sensitive and intuitive and can sense when things are ‘just not working’. If you are unsure of your instincts, then ask yourself the following questions:

I have had personal trainers for short periods occasionally over the years, and I have been a personal trainer.  I have seen what works and what doesn’t work from both sides.  I am also a keen observer of current personal trainers when they are training others.

The title of this post comes from a sentence in an article on abs from a guy with really great abs.  Yeh, I know there are a lot of hot guys with great abs – see the plethora of calendars, online and offline, making the rounds now that 2010 is in sight.  You haven’t seen them? Maybe I can find some links to help you out.  In the interim – our focus is on our own sixpacks!  Or on our journey there.  The “hot guy” contends we all have Sixpacks!

A few weeks ago I blogged about “mixing it up”  –  changing and adding variety to your fitness schedule.   I made mention of some ‘Butt’ exercises I had found and planned to try.  Amazingly I couldn’t find that great set of exercises again.  Found similar but not the ones I was so excited about when I blogged.  This has bugged me  –  and I am now working on building up my own list and finding individual exercises to include.   I was annoyed to ‘lose’ the list and it kept me from blogging ’till I could find it’.  Really silly how our minds work.  So I am moving on while I build the Butt List.

I don’t know about you – but I have been working out with weights for a lo-o-o-o-ng time.   I really notice it when the workout routine comes around to the start of the cycle and I think “man I just did legs….  or so it seems”.   Does no-one else get that feeling?  Is it just mydays and weeks that fly by, along with the workout cycle?

In a recent Tweet I said June would be the month to focus on stretching tips.  Well we are still in June, so this is just in time.   Summer is the time we think about getting to the beach or the BBQ or the County Fair – so we want to work out and get going.  The activity that generally suffers is the stretching.  I raise my hand – I am guilty of this oversight.  And am I the only one who has said ‘well I will stretch tonight when I get home’ and that is the last time the thought entered my head?  You don’t have to be a Boomer to forget to stretch; I think a lot of people forget.

I like the quote from jacket:

”The Slow philosophy is about giving each task the time and focus that it deserves so that you do it better and enjoy it more.”

It got me thinking about the power of slow in relation to training/working out.   And as in previous blog entries, I aim my comments (sage advice?) at  my primary audience – the female boomer weight trainer/bodybuilder.  We really need to train smarter and I believe we can see better results if we give each set, and each repetition “the time and focus it deserves”.  I offer this perspective:  get more from your workout (efficiency, effectiveness and enjoyment) through the power of slow.  I think your joints may thank you as well.

Today I am sore. I am excited. I used muscles I had been avoiding; and at least I am admitting that here.

When it comes to body-building, I love sharing, and I love learning – and this week it was learning.