Weightlifting and Cardio...

On Halloween day, my wife and I joined Life Time Fitness. I have been diligently working out 5 days a week since that point. I have focused on cardio, doing 30-60 minutes a day of recumbent bike and elliptical. I often warm up and cool down on a treadmill as well. Tonight I did 30 minutes of recumbent and 12 minutes on the elliptical, and then hit the weight room. I have been lifting fairly light weights the past few weeks working on form. Tonight I moved on to some heavier weights (nothing really heavy honestly, just in comparison) and I felt amazingly strong.

When I last lifted with regularity, I had maxed my bench press working weights at 395lbs (I hadn't maxed yet on that program, but I know I could bench 435 naturally for sure). That was November 2002. Since then I have gotten weak and flabby while strengthening my mind in Seminary. Tonight I did reps with 185 - 3X10. It will be interesting to see over the next few weeks how my body responds to lifting. I am naturally inclined to moving heavy things. I'm a big guy by any measurement. Additionally, I actually enjoy lifting heavy things. So we'll see how things go. I know my testosterone levels are lower than they were 5 years ago (part of the aging process) though I suspect they are still high enough to get good gains. The thing that different for me now is that I'm doing cardio like never before. Cardio was a swear word in my mind. I would play basketball or something, but never intentionally work my conditioning.

So from time to time I might post on how I am doing. We'll see what kind of body transformation I can enact. I will say I am already feeling a lot better. I can go longer and harder during my cardio sessions. I am sleeping better. I feel like I have more energy at the end of the day than before. So far so good!

Technorati Tags: Weights, Weightlifting, Weight Lifting, Weight Loss, Cardio, recumbent bike, Elliptical Machine, Bench Press, Strength training, Life Time Fitness, Lifetime Fitness