What do you do to get/stay in shape?

[Sailfish]

Yesterday we had a good ol' fashion family cookout.
Complete with bbq chicken, corn on the cob, all the fixins.
 
I woke up this am feeling very well.
Got to the gym and did a warm-up set, felt great, and said "Just do it, you know you can"
 
300 on the bench press goal complete.
I think I had a 305 in me.
 
Next stop 3 plates (315). Going to shoot for mid-june.

[JPH]

Nice work Sailfish!
 
How has this affected your cardio or bodyweight, if at all?

[Sailfish]

Cardio is fine. I am doing great in the gym on the stationary bike, really pushing it making some good strides.
At lunch I have been doing an additional 25 minute run. It truly works the best for me to shed the unwanted pounds (I need to lose about 8 to be happy). But I just am not responding to overall body fat loss like the ol days. LOL. After I turned 40 it has been HARD to keep the abs. HARD!
 
So far I think all the cardio has actually helped me with my leg strength since I had been lacking the legs for a good while. They are responding to all the physical loads I have been placing them under.....for now.
But it has slowed the bench press gains.
 
It'll take some time, i'm sure i'll get closer to the form and strength I have enjoyed in the past.
 

[nhdeerchaser]

I ride my roadbike 15-17 miles a day, 5-6 times a week. I stay within 80% of max hr on most days. For at least one day, I stay down around 70% as a recovery/easy spin.

On at least one day, I push it to 80-90% of max.

This is fun for me. I love cycling, so it's easy for me to stick to it. A lower leg injury has kept me from running, so in the summer, cycling is it!

It makes those long hikes alot easier come fall!

[JPH]

I put it out there early in the year that my goal was to run a sub-20 minute 5K before the end of the summer. Our union sponsors a 5K every year and I am a fitness trainer as one of my duties at work, so I was pretty well locked into it.

I have largely put strength training on the back burner and focused on sprint work and 3-6 mile runs. The race course came out last week and I was shaken by the intensely hilly path that it took. But it was too late, I'd already named sub-20as my goal.

Well today was the race and the hills sucked! I finished with a 20:35. That beats my previous record by over 60 sec. and while I was disappointed in not breaking 20, I was happy overall.

Our three-man team won the firefighters team challenge with a total time of about 59:10. You can do the math and see that I was in pretty fast company.

Anyway, that's enough running for a while. I think my legs are ready for the hills this fall!

[buckhunter21]

Congrats JPH, that's great!  Saw your pics on FB too...What a great feat!  Keep up the great work!

[JPH]

Thanks Ryan!

As an aside, there were about 90-100 people in the race and I finished 4th overall. My two teammates (an Army Ranger and a Ironman Triathlete) were ahead of me along with one other guy. But here is the really interesting stat. While I was 4th overall, I was 3rd in my age group and we all beatthe 20 year olds! The ages of the top 4 finishers, in order, were 31, 50, 36, and 37.

This just goes to show you that age is just a number. My triathlete buddy improves with every race and the Ranger is getting ready to go away for Special Forces selection. Helps to keep me motivated!

[buckhunter21]

Wow, that's amazing...Must be the Iowa water down there that keeps you going!

[msbadger]

DoeEyed...I'm like you in the scheduled work out thing...but besides the work I do ...on rainy days...we've had alot ...or the winter storms are bad...I put on Sirius Radio ...crank the speakers and dance around the living room and dinning room like I was 20 again .....your probably to young  remember disco and a lot of the 70's music ...but if you want cardio and muscle limbering activity put on channel 7...for an hour or so and let loose....You'll find muscles you didn't know you had...saying HELLO! the next day[;)]...getting old should be fun!!

[DoeEyed]

msbadger, I had to laugh when I read your post. Cuz I do the same thing! Especially when I'm cleaning the house. Only my choice is country music.[:D]