Exercise and anxiety

[MyNameIsTerry]

The table pull up is a home version of the Australian pull up. If you have cables (like Olympic rings) you can do it from those. They are a good assisted version until you are ready for standard pull ups.

Push ups are good for us older guys as we lose it around the chest. The back gets plenty of work if you have a manual job but little requires the chest in a powerful way. Shoulders too.

Do the push ups on your knees until you are ready. Reduce the weight. Also do vertical ones in a door frame.

Dips are excellent for chest but hard for the same reasons as the pull up (just the opposite plane). But you just create an assisted version whether less range of motion with your heels on the ground and something raising the starting position of your hands behind you (sitting on floor, hands next to or behind the body on some books), even something like lowering yourself from a bath or table. It will all get you closer to the full version. You could even add weight to the assisted version e.g. backpack with weight in.

It will add up. You don't need to be deadlifting massive weight unless you want big & strong. You can achieve enough just through more stress on the body to increase some size if you don't want more.

Dumbbells are good. They are harder work than barbell because you can't hide. Your imbalances will show. But that's a good thing as it will focus more on them than the stronger side compensating. You will have to focus more on form because you just won't have the extra power a 2 handed lift has due to how you can try to power through. With dumbbells too heavy shows more easily.

[ankietyjoe]

Ah, you're a bit smaller. Smaller people tend to pack on muscle pretty rapidly from what I've noticed. Not sure if there's a science there. My partner is on the small side and she gains weight very quickly when she eats junk. Are you eating junk over there Mr. Joe? I'm guilty of it recently. I've done a fair but of comfort eating.

People in prisons have long rest gaps because it's hard to get gym access. Once a week if you're lucky in the B cat prisons. But there's lifers in there who are very big in size. I always wondered how they managed to gain that size with little gym access, and crap prison food. I wonder if the resting actually has benefits now. One thing is for sure, you don't need to eat healthy to look good.

Talking of which there's a builder on Youtube who does mad challenges like eating cereal for a whole week. Or Doughnuts for a week. Cuts out normal food and replaces it with something crazy. The guy is built like a tank. I'll see if I can find it. Would be interesting to see what his bloods are.

I think you mean Matt Does Fitness? He's a (exceptionally successful) Youtube clown, but I wouldn't believe everything you see in his 'what I eat' videos. And even if you do, there's a finite limit to what his body will take before it starts to collapse due to a lack of real nutrition. He's still young enough to get away with it, but we all know the damage that is done over time adds up.

Personally I eat a 90% freak health diet, but dip into junk food a couple of times a week. My diet is mostly organic green juices, 10-15 portions of veg per day, nuts and seeds, some fruit and the highest quality meats I can practically spend money on. Of course I'd love to eat wild caught salmon all the time, but at £40/kilo....no. Then other days I'll order a Dominos

My own weight 'problem' started when my real stress began about ten years ago and I didn't pay enough attention to what I ate, or how much I moved around. The flip side of the problem is that my frame is very big, I have big shoulders, I still have high muscle mass considering my age and activity level and even when I'm 3 stone overweight I don't look fat, so I never really felt the need to do anything about it. The ongoing stress levels meant that if I did try and exercise too much, my body would kick my ass into submission, so I have to take it easy. That's fine. I can still bench over 100kg for reps, but if I do I can literally feel the cortisol ramp up over the next few hours, so I don't. It's frustrating, but I've accepted where I am for now. Oh, and deadlifts are a big no no unless I keep reps low and use practically no weight.

In terms of the diet though, I can't stress enough just what a difference it makes to your mental health and ability to recover from stress.

It will add up. You don't need to be deadlifting massive weight unless you want big & strong. You can achieve enough just through more stress on the body to increase some size if you don't want more.

Dumbbells are good. They are harder work than barbell because you can't hide. Your imbalances will show. But that's a good thing as it will focus more on them than the stronger side compensating. You will have to focus more on form because you just won't have the extra power a 2 handed lift has due to how you can try to power through. With dumbbells too heavy shows more easily.

Much truth here. Dumbells are the best way to train overall in my opinion, and it doesn't need to be heavy.

I would actually focus more on functional training (the new buzzword) where larger compound movements are used, and bigger groups of muscles are activated. I spent a lot of time in the gym in my early 20's, but the largest I ever got was working on building sites in my mid/late 30s for a couple of years. I packed on so much muscle then and I was freakishly strong. It's just because you're activating muscle all day. I miss those days lol, some days now I don't feel strong enough to sit upright

[fishman65]

I feel a little out of my depth listening to you guys. I'm 55 now so its a bit late in the day to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. However I have never really wanted to, even when I was 19 while working on a building site and doing 70 press ups, 70 sit ups and 30 chin ups every evening. The latter off the roof beam in my Dad's conservatory, he never knew though as it wasn't designed for that

Anyway fitness will do me fine and I've got some of that back already in my legs and cardiovascular. The steep road I walk up still with our black lab, 2 years ago I was like a beached whale reaching the top. Now it barely raises my breathing. Anyway I've looked on local FB groups and I'm picking up a bull worker and this other thing, can't remember its name. I did own a bull worker when I was a teenager plus chest springs but this one is different. But its a healthy weight I'm after, I want to get to 15st which is about right for my frame being 6ft 3.

[ankietyjoe]

I feel a little out of my depth listening to you guys. I'm 55 now so its a bit late in the day to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. However I have never really wanted to, even when I was 19 while working on a building site and doing 70 press ups, 70 sit ups and 30 chin ups every evening. The latter off the roof beam in my Dad's conservatory, he never knew though as it wasn't designed for that

Anyway fitness will do me fine and I've got some of that back already in my legs and cardiovascular. The steep road I walk up still with our black lab, 2 years ago I was like a beached whale reaching the top. Now it barely raises my breathing. Anyway I've looked on local FB groups and I'm picking up a bull worker and this other thing, can't remember its name. I did own a bull worker when I was a teenager plus chest springs but this one is different. But its a healthy weight I'm after, I want to get to 15st which is about right for my frame being 6ft 3.

I'm only a few years behind you dude, I'm 49 now. There's no such thing as too late, and I doubt I could relive my 'glory days' now no matter how hard I tried, but you can achieve significant increases in fitness and strength at any age. You've already described your own improvements, so just work on those.

[fishman65]

I'm only a few years behind you dude, I'm 49 now. There's no such thing as too late, and I doubt I could relive my 'glory days' now no matter how hard I tried, but you can achieve significant increases in fitness and strength at any age. You've already described your own improvements, so just work on those.

Thanks Joe, I picked up a bull worker and chin-up bar today, plus a strange looking contraption that is supposed to tone your abdominal muscles. 16st 4.5lbs today so the bike work is paying off.

[pulisa]

Arnie's in hospital recovering from heart surgery..He doesn't look so good at the moment.

You've done really well, Fishman. Everything in moderation.

[fishman65]

Thanks Pulisa. I didn't know that about Arnie though but I suppose he must be knocking on a bit now.

[ankietyjoe]

Steroids, plain and simple. Always messes up the heart eventually.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I had a bullworker. I'm not sure if it increased by BS output rate though

[fishman65]

I have an emergency guys. My exercise bike pulley/strap has broken. Its an old model that we got second hand so its done well. I do have a traditional bike but I can never get the same degree of intensity and then with the winter on its way. Any tips on leg strength/cardio while trying to sort a replacement?