Over exercise?

[Cugel]

All this talk about "resting" or "not overdoing it" is for pencil-necks!

Cugel

What's a pencil neck ?

An ancient phrase of derision employed by body-builders for the feeblings found in modern life, as they sit for hours in their car seat, office seat or sofa, their muscles literally wasting away with disuse. When clothed, it's hard to tell if a slim person is so because of their basic physiology or because they have wasted away with inertia - but the neck is exposed and may indicate the condition of the rest of the body by being thicker or thinner.

A strange phenomenon found in many physical development scenarios is as follows: development of one type of body part in one body-location often causes some similar development in another corresponding body part. For example, If you do bicep curls only on one arm, any eventual muscular development will see the other arm grow too, despite it not doing any bicep curls. However, that other arm may still be relatively weak as not everything in the arm grows like the muscle. The sinews and nerves involved, for example, don't seem to develop.

If one does a lot of any kind of exercise, various parts of the body not employed much in that exercise may grow. Others don't. Cyclist sometimes have immense quads, calves and glutes but scridgy chests and arms, for example. But most kinds of exercise seem to cause the neck muscles to thicken a bit, even cycling. I suppose the head gets tossed about or cantileverd out in most kinds of vigorous exercise, so the neck too must do a bit of work.

Cugel

[cyclop]

You know when you over exercise.Your body and mind tell you in many different ways.Learn them and listen to them and remember,"wasting time isn,t a waste of time"

[bigjim]

I ride about 100 miles a week. that's three 2 hour sessions. I lift weights three times a week and often go for a run for 3/4 miles. I walk everywhere if possible, including the school run and also play football with my older grandkids a couple of times a week. i reckon I'm quite fit.
I used to do the Sunday club run. 60 to 100 miles. really enjoyed it. But every time I've been utterly exhausted in the evening. Did not sleep well and always took my a full day to get over it. I've never found out why and club-mates suffer the same. Since I've stopped the club runs I feel a lot better and have gained a day in the gym.
So I expect I was over exercising and my body was protesting. It seems the long constant exercise does not suit. A couple of hours does not bother me and I sleep well

[Cyril Haearn]

+1!
All-day rides in hot weather are very tiring, it is hard to drink enough
I did about 140 km one hot day, needed two days to recover

Plan to do a century in autumn, that should be easier

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

+1!
All-day rides in hot weather are very tiring, it is hard to drink enough
I did about 140 km one hot day, needed two days to recover

Plan to do a century in autumn, that should be easier

A century is 160K......oh I see 60 miles

[gbnz]

You know when you over exercise.Your body and mind tell you in many different ways.Learn them and listen to them and remember,"wasting time isn,t a waste of time"

Perhaps, but the difficulty with that approach is that all exercise could seem to be too much!

The only way to improve is to over exercise to some extent I.e. I've had a four fold increase in lengths at the pool over the last five weeks (NB. Had a focus on improvement) - muscles may have ached, but I'm now doing the first hour without really noticing it.

Same on the bike, though my weeks with +200 miles have been offset by weeks in between only doing 40-60. Still, when I want to put the foot down as on a quick ride this morning (NB.Or last Sunday, which really stood out), all the stats show quite a difference. More importantly, it's pretty fantastic heading over the moors with the foot to the floor!

[gbnz]

+1!
All-day rides in hot weather are very tiring, it is hard to drink enoughr

I'd agree, still haven't found a satisfactory manner to improve rehydration - water, milk, diluted fruit juice (NB. Other than trying to max those forms of exercise where dehydration isn't a problem I.e. swimming ).

Always have to give cardio down the gym a miss from June onwards - quite easy to drink 2 litres of water and still find my weight dropping by a full stone within an hour- a sweatbox doesn't quite quite describe it, humidity levels are unreal

[bigjim]

I can't do Cardio in the gym. It is just too boring. It does not make sense, in my case, to drive to the gym to run or walk/ride on a machine. The gym is a social place for me and I enjoy lifting weights and having a laugh. Replaces the social life I missed from work.

[gbnz]

to drive to the gym to run or walk/ride on a machine

. Drive to the gym? I presume you're being ironic, it's only motorists who do stuff like that

It's a bit like those people who drive to the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales to go for a walk

[bigjim]

to drive to the gym to run or walk/ride on a machine

. Drive to the gym? I presume you're being ironic, it's only motorists who do stuff like that

It's a bit like those people who drive to the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales to go for a walk

I didn't say I drove to the gym. Although I have done, I quite like getting the bus with my free pass. You are lucky to get a parking place at my gym. Hiking is a bit different I think than walking on a machine looking at a screen.

[gbnz]

to drive to the gym to run or walk/ride on a machine

. Drive to the gym? I presume you're being ironic, it's only motorists who do stuff like that

It's a bit like those people who drive to the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales to go for a walk

I didn't say I drove to the gym. Although I have done, I quite like getting the bus with my free pass. You are lucky to get a parking place at my gym. Hiking is a bit different I think than walking on a machine looking at a screen.

I think we probably have different experiences of "cardio". Have to say that I've never managed to hit a HRM of 170+ "walking" on a machine. In fact, I can't ever recall having walked on a machine

[bigjim]

. Drive to the gym? I presume you're being ironic, it's only motorists who do stuff like that

It's a bit like those people who drive to the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales to go for a walk

I didn't say I drove to the gym. Although I have done, I quite like getting the bus with my free pass. You are lucky to get a parking place at my gym. Hiking is a bit different I think than walking on a machine looking at a screen.

I think we probably have different experiences of "cardio". Have to say that I've never managed to hit a HRM of 170+ "walking" on a machine. In fact, I can't ever recall having walked on a machine

My gym is packed at times. All the treadmills in use. I reckon a good 50% are walking, HRM? I've never measured it. I imagine you can get a high HRM reading on a fast walk. I know some people that walk/run in the gym have IMO genuine reason for doing that. Especially the Obese or women who are concerned about the abuse they can come across on the streets or the dangers of quiet areas after dark.
Oh. By the way they put you on a treadmill at the hospital to check your heart and raise the rate. They don't let you run. They got my rate to 145 walking on an incline but stopped me walking faster as they have a HR limit so I guess walking could trigger 170+.

[gbnz]

I think we probably have different experiences of "cardio".

.... at the hospital to check your heart .... 145 walking .[/quote]

[bigjim]

I think we probably have different experiences of "cardio".

.... at the hospital to check your heart .... 145 walking .

[/quote]
Tha'ts not my quote.
Heart had a clean bill of health. Told by consultant my results were impressive. Walking uphill on treadmill. 145, could still converse. Evidently it's not the rate anyway, it,s the time to return to normal that counts.

[fullupandslowingdown]

It makes me laugh (in a sad ironic sense) that you have these gym attendees who drive to the gym, go on the treadmill, set it to around 5kph on zero incline, and spend 15 minutes chatting to their friends. They then have a light meal at the cafe. Suppose it's a social thing but being antisocial I wouldn't get that
I was taught by a RAF guy that you have to set the incline to a minimum of 2% to replicate real life effort, and when they're testing the wannabe marines etc, they set it to 4%.
As far reaching MHR while walking, I'd have to set the incline to the max; 15% and lumber along at at least 6.5kph to get that level of stress. Far easier to run till I'm wheezing to reach my limit circa 170. Does anyone else have the sweat problem of shorting out the HR belt after around 20 minutes of intense cardio? It's annoying, I was wondering if to get a wrist watch HRM, though long duration cycling was why I stopped wearing a wristwatch as I had the tendency to flex my wrist back too much and numb my hand with the strap. I tried loosening the strap, only to drop the watch when I stopped and got off
As I age, I'm definitely finding higher work rates more problematic. I studied a cyclist's health book by er that Dr who used to coach Lance ********* many years ago. I rue the day when I tried following his advice on carbs Vs fat and protein. He said you need to consume at least 60% carbs or you drain your tank. My duration performance fell and never recovered, in fact I nearly became diabetic. Once I realized my mistake, a few weeks of Atkins dieting soon reversed that.
I'm a fan of EMESHIITs pronounced "Emma Sh!ts" for the amusement of the gym fraternity. I can now do a 800 - 1000 Cal session in the morning without eats, and feel great afterwards.
where I'm going with these useless nuggets of info is here: After reading dozens of diet books, exercise books and various research papers, and using a gallon of common sense to distill it all down, I conclude that.....
wait for it.....
Everyone is different
High carb diet might suit some cyclists but it ruined my performance for a while. Some people like to train in the morning, others in the evening. And the method of training varies from person to person. Some people will find greater value with doing long hours at level 2 or 3 only occasionally dipping into 4 for a hill climb. Others progress through doing a mix of short but hard workouts interspersed with long but easy rides. I reckon it's down to your muscle type, as well as genes which dictate how much you need to rest verses sprint. But I definitely think that us over 50s should focus most on rest periods, we just don't seem to repair so quickly nowadays. I've never actually tried it long enough to say whether checking your heart rate first thing in the morning can be a accurate predictor of recovery.
My last pennyworth is that for most of us, outdoor, real exercise is probably better psychologically than hours in the gym. Though it is a toss up between the assorted cleaning vapours, stale air and questionable microbes floating around in the typical gym verses the NO2, CO and bad driving out on the road.