Leg Day!!!!

Remember that… Wednesday is LEG DAY!!!! This workout will give your arms and upper body a break for at least a day. Before I get into that a little more I want to discuss one thing that needs to be brought up and it is in the area of rest.
Just recently my son and I were working out and pretty hard. After the workout we were both tired and need a break and I felt good that I was able to keep up with him. That next day we went at it again and once again we both went to total fatigue. This went on for a number of weeks. Then something began to happen, I began to find myself needing more sleep and I was feeling really fatigued most of the time. I was seeing real good gains in his strength but I was feeling as though I was losing whatever strength I had or at least it was getting harder and harder to keep it up.

Everyone was telling me that it was my AGE that was finally showing and I would roll my eyes and think to myself, “Whatever!!!!!” I even consulted some doctors on the subject, and their response to me was that I was just getting older.

Now, I’ll admit that there is truth to the fact that I am getting older. But it still doesn’t answer the question why. Then just the other night I was pondering this question and I began to remember an article I read on a real famous distance runner and the frustration she was going thru as she was trying to keep up with her younger counterparts. She states that at first the workouts were pretty hard but as time went on those same workouts, where she should had been excelling in, she was actually getting slower and feeling weak. “What was the problem”, she thought to herself. Then her coach had a brain storm of an idea, “Let’s not scale your workouts down but let’s not go at it every day like you use to but space them out every other or every third day and let’s make those workouts count.” Well, they did that and what she found was that she began to get her energy back. That coupled with a minor tweak in her diet plan put her back in contention for the Olympics.

I look at her example and I notice one thing, she needed more rest than her younger competitors and the reason was because her body was not recovering as fast as it use to. In a nut shell I have learned that as we age our recovery time slows down and we need more and more time to recover. Our muscles won’t respond as often or as quickly as they once did. Now that doesn’t mean that you are done, but what that means is that what you once took for granted, you can no longer take for granted. As we age, we must be more specific in what we are trying to accomplish. It is still important for us to workout with our younger generation because it keeps us on our toes and keeps them pushing harder. It slows our aging process down and in the end keeps us feeling pretty good.

Now back to Leg day… Today get a good leg workout in. Make sure that it includes Lunges and Squats. Those are the two best exercises one can do for the legs. Now after your workout, enjoy your day…..