OK I am 65, how do I make spin classes work for me?

I have moved one more notch down the BIM scale and into another level to be reached. One bowling ball lighter, I can get my mind around 6 to 7 lbs. at a time. 

Spin cycling using an indoor recumbent bike.

Similar to using Leslie Sansone indoor walking one uses the cadence of this music to keep pace. The same is true in indoor biking. Try to follow the beat of the music. 

The workouts that I have experience from YouTube I have to make adjustments from my recumbent bike which differs from the upright bikes for spin classes. My next recumbent bike will I have an RPM measurement. Cycle routines measure effort by RPMs and resistance. 

Ah adjustments

One thing is clear the bikers in the spin classes and young and fit. So what ever they are doing it was clear to me that I would not keep up. The fact is I shouldn’t. Their bikes have ten levels and my has 8 levels. 

They are able to bike 8, 9, 10 and I am able to bike up to 5 levels. I really haven’t tried level 6, 7 and 8 yet. So when they are at level 8-10 I counter with levels 4 and 5 on my bike. When they are at 4-7 I am at level 2, 3. When they are at levels 1-3 I am at levels 1, 2. 

These bikers are fit and are trying
to push their heart rates faster than
we should. So we adapt.

Two things change my biking to gear down is breathing and heart rate. If my heart rate goes close to the high end of my targeted heart rate I gear down and my heart rate moves to an aerobic safe zone for me. I want to take deep breathes but I don’t want to be out of breathe. My goals at 65 are different then their goals as younger adults.

In senior fitness we have to push within our limits and not the limits of a twenty something. I want to improve my aerobic capacity by 12%, not to enter the olympics. As I improve I can adjust my goal. Maybe I can be as fit as a fit person in their fifties. Right now I am trying to be fit for my age in the 60’s, I got a way to go. 

Cycling fitnesses using interval training where you have a base line that is aerobic in pace with brief periods of higher intensity of resistance (higher levels of adjustments on the bike). 

How do you make it work for you? 

It always starts with a visit to your doctor. You want to start at where you are now. For your age and weight what heart rate can you have at your highest level of intensity. You do not want to bike into a heart attack or stroke. 

Your number will be different from mine. If you are starting out from sedimentary or low activity your bike should be at low levels until you improve your fitness. Your doctor and physical therapist would be most helpful here. 

Your stationary bike should have a heart monitor on it. 

Where to start

There is nothing wrong with a ride at level 1. I have done it many times. (Even now when I am recovering from an illness or had a day of to much sitting easy biking at low levels really gives me a boost.) Breathing and heart rate in mind. My goal here is the mindset of a stroll on a bike. Biking at low resistance and slow steady cycling where you keep the pedals moving but taking it easy. In 10, 15, 20 minute ride you have gently moved your muscles, improved blood circulation, and taken in relaxing deep breathing. Peddling you are steady but you adjust as your heart monitor tells you your heart is pumping in a safe zone for you. Sometimes I visualize walking a beach hearing the sounds of the waves and gulls. A sound app may have relaxing sounds to achieve the ambiance. Listening to a book I have also done this biking. Great for the end of the day to unwind the tight muscles and prepare them for sleep. With my CP I have eased tightness and pain this way many times.

As your fitness improves

Beginning work out

Warm up level one 2 to 5 minutes

Core level 2 where you return to for most of your ride 1-3 minutes

Short intervals of 1-3 minutes at level 3. 

You can start with a 4-5 minute ride or increase to a 10, 20, 30 minutes ride by repeating the routine as fitness improves.

Where I am now This workout is now possible for me in my heart rate limits. My cadence is a little slower than my young friends in the videos. Different bike and age.

3-5 minutes at level one for warm up

3-5 minutes at level 2 part of my base level

All movement is good

3 minutes at level 3 part of my base level

1-2 minutes at level 4 or 5 for intensity. Based on my heart rate level 3 can also be part of my intensity movement

2-5 minutes cool down at level 1

My minute count is from 20 to 60 minutes in my work out.

Throughout the work I am monitoring breathing and heart rate and I go to lower levels as needed.

Following a routine from a class

If they follow a 1-10 level program you adapt your program to a 1-3, 1-4, 1-5 levels on your bike. 

Actually I believe it is OK to adapt using a 1-2 program. Level one being your warm up and controlled biking and level 2 being your resistance. If heart rate jumps to high for you, lower to level one and feel free to slow biking down to lower your heat rate. Stop at any time if you need to. Recumbent indoor bikes are great for rehab and instead of this type of work out you may need to follow your doctor's program which is better for you. You and your doctor know your body. Keep walking

When sick what helps you?

Wouldn't you know it, minutes after I finished writing the last blog, I became chilled, and noticed my bones were aching. Within a couple hours I became aware that I was fighting some kind of virus. For the next few days were miserable. It did not help that I was thinking I caught some bug from the hospital and other possible conspiracies. So with a prayer and the positive thought that I'll get through this. Sleep, fluids, music and various soups I was on he mend. 

Recovering I found my recumbent bike helpful to relieve muscle pain from too much resting. I put the resistance on the

lowest level and I just peddled for a 20 minute ride each day. No sweat just moving my legs to stimulate the blood flow. Listening to an audio book was perfect.

As I was getting better I found sleep to be easier. It seems like when we're sickest sleep is harder for me. While I was taking fluids I would practice my relaxation breathing. An audiobook, music or comedy would distract my thinking and keep me more relaxed to keep the fluids down. Relaxing helps the automatic nerve connections to the stomach and body less stressed. 

When I was at the sickest point, it was really cold outside. Thank God for our comforters and living space that allows us to be warm. 

It feels good to feel good. Yesterday I was really able to get a good workout biking. I really like the intensity training using various speeds and resistances.

How do you get through the bugs especially in winter? We know a lot more about keeping our immune system healthy which we really need number sick. But a virus can really run us down. But back to the basics, faith, sleep, fluids and easy to digest food that helps us mend. 

Good to keep walking 

Can I lose 7 lbs? Baby steps pt. 2

“Baby steps” is my new plan to lose weight. Weight-loss is based on 7 pound increments in the BMI chart. About a 5 weeks ago, I topped the scales at my heaviest weight. I paused my thinking in reflecting on observations about myself and others. My new hypothesis “It is hard to lose weight”.

Is their research that supported this hypothesis? How many people are really that successful losing weight? As we age, we can lose weight because we become unhealthy. We pick up a serious disease and our bodies don't work right and the weight comes off. 

Losing weight that way is no good. 

Observation heavy people usually remain heavy. Skinny people as they age lose muscle and gain fat. As we move along in life we share different yet common problems. Muscle loss happens and fat is too easy to put on as we age. When we were younger we may have pushed physical fitness to maintain are vim and vigor. The older we get that still may be a motivation but for most it evolves into health and feeling good.

Do a science medical search as to why we remain over weight. There is real evidence to the reality of weight-loss being difficult. Here is few new things I learned:

• We know fat cells die. About 10% of our fat cells die each year. Unfortunately our body replaces those fat cells.
  
• Fat cells communicate to the brain at an unconscious level with the loud message “feed me!” A fat cell wants to be big and healthy. Fat cell’s resistance to our efforts to shrink the fat cells is more significant than we have paid attention to.
• According researchers from Australia, Brown & Meerman in a report titled When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? When we breathe our lungs are the primary excreteory organ for a fat. With each breath we lose a little fat. Now don't hyper ventilate! Fat loss happens by breathing. “If you lose 20 pounds, just over 80 percent of that is going to be exhaled by the lungs, and the remainder will be excreted via urine, feces, sweating, and tears (happy ones, we hope)”. Where Does Fat Go When We Lose It? 2017. The best way to increase our breathing is to move. 
• The primary loss of fat is the actual fat cell shrinking.
• Obesity is a chronic condition. Most people will continue with a weight problem. It is extremely difficult to get to a healthy BMI. To make matters worse it is extremely hard to stay there. We have to develop a lifestyle a gradual weight loss. It is quite possible that we will never reach an ideal BMI weight. But our gradual moving that way is very healthy for us. 

I will make this first personal, how will I lose weight? 

1. I plan to continue researching weight-loos difficulties as well as good ideas that may get me going the right direction. 
2. My goals will be based on one 6-7 pound goal at a time. This is based on intervals in the BMI chart for my weight and height. I believe I've been working on this problem for about five weeks. I have already lost my first 7 pounds. I am actually one pound ahead for my next goal. Hoorah! I am only going to focus on baby steps. On step at a time.
3. Throughout the day small meals, cutting carbohydrates and protein portions five is fine and nine divine in fruits and vegetables. Lots of water
4. Enjoy what I eat and life just cut back.
5. Move an exercise throughout the day, simple moving breaks and workouts that include aerobics, strength, flexibility and balance. I have had success here that encourages me in step #2. The motivation here is about aging and excreting that fat out of my body. Keep walking 

Baby Steps to lose weight p. 1 What can we learn from Bob Wiley?

Bill Murray & Richard Dreyfuss  gave us an over the top comedy, "What about Bob?" Dreyfuss plays an uptight psychologist who has written a book he hopes becomes a  best seller and thus fulfilling all of his dreams. The book becomes his magic pill for happiness. What comes into his life is a tornado personality, Bob.

Murray the perfect obsessive-compulsive personality cannot leave his apartment without having a perfect meltdown. He wears psychologists out like bad underwear. He is happily referred Dr. Leo Marvin who himself just under the skin is a meltdown waiting to happen. He named his son, Sigmund and his daughter, Anna Freud's famous patient. 

The running gag in the film is the conflict of Bob needing 100% support and time of this soon to be famous psychologist. Dr. Leo runs his life on his own obsessive compulsive schedule. Patients are seen at the office and only in their time frame. He also has order beyond normal of people in his family. We like him because he likes his family despite himself.

Bob’s need to have 24/7 healthcare drives him to impossible situations. He has a way to have people like him, at the same time they can't wait to be released from his overwhelming energy.

Dr. Leo Marvin's contribution to psychiatry is his idea of “baby steps” small steps of a successful behavior repeated until the next step. Bob gives the impression that this is what he always needed. But it is a ruse because what he wants is around-the-clock attention. 

The only was the kids could get Bob to sail was to tie him up

Bob's personality has his fans. A couple who takes Bob to the psychologist's home and  sees Bob as the perfect weapon to make Dr. Leo Marvin miserable. Marvin bought the couples home which they did not want to sell but had to. Bob wins over Dr. Leo's family and they adopt him and Bob has all kinds of fun with the kids that Dr. Leo Marvin has a problem doing. In the long-awaited interview on TV, Bob dominates the interview and becomes an instant celebrity all the while praising “Baby Steps” in helping him enjoying a normal life with the doctor's family. Doctor Leo goes rapidly downhill from there. 

 Rent the movie and watch the gag develop.

In my next blog I hope to show because obesity is a chronic problem in which few ever return to a healthy BMI. The numbers are stacked against us. Losing weight happens about 20% of the time. Most of us regained weight. Can we lose weight as we get older? Is there way to move the weight scale in the right direction for the rest of our life. Added to this is the problem we have as we get older to lose muscle but again fat. All of a sudden, thin people with lack of muscle lose their independence and risk heart disease. 

For those who are are overweight liked myself we need to eat better. All of us as we age need to learn to exercise better to gain muscle to maintain our lives as independent people longer. Exercise can help weight loss, but what we eat is the main problem. Learning to rehab and recover; Learning strength training to slow down muscle loss and even be able to add muscle into our 90's is actually possible today. Keep walking

New Year's resolutions from the fat man

Resolutions for the most part are thought of then practically forgotten. It is hard to be guilty what you forget about. So this year, 2018, what do I resolved to do this year? In attempt to make it meaningful resolutions point to something of change in particular, shortcomings, needs, experiences from last year seeking a better action, feeling, result or thought. 

My recent experience in the hospital has strengthen my resolve to bring my weight down to help the swelling that occurs in my right leg where the cerebral palsy has affected it more. I have since purchased compression socks that seem to really be helping it. Right on cue I did half an hour of aerobic biking this morning to get the blood pumping early. If I can repeat this behavior five times a week it should help. In keeping with this I am been resolute already to improve my aerobic capacity 15 to 18%. It helps weight loss to be more active, weight loss is 90% of diet. 

Recent research that I am done points to the very difficulty of losing weight. I have come to the conclusion that it is harder

"Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy"

then willpower, programs, or the growing industry to address being overweight. My own difficulties have showed me  that it's hard. My observations of others show most people that are overweight remain overweight and those who lose put it back on. And as we get older it seems fat replaces muscle, which can put thinner people in more of a health risk. It seems most of us as we get older put on the put on the pounds.

In the face of this difficulty to lose weight I want to work at strategies that will help me bring my weight down. On the BIM chart I first want to hit of objective of 7 lbs loss. If I hit 4 7 lbs losses I will be out of the morbid obese class to the obese class. Now that seems like a noble goal or resolution for the year. But it starts with the first 7 lbs. If I don't reach first goal, it would be pure fantasy and magical thinking for me to reach a normal BMI. 

In the face of what seems like impossible goals there is a silver lining. Our attempts to eat a heart healthy diet, to reach 150 minutes of exercise per week, our efforts to improve our sleep, deal with stress all make a difference just in the attempt. By making an effort to do these things we are healthier for it even if we fall short.

The good news, we made it to 2018, we are alive. Thank you Lord.  It is -8º below, but sunny. My indoor plants have flowers on them and the sunshine is on my skin. Barbara and iron going to enjoy a delicious lunch together and watch a movie. Keep walking