After losing a lot of weight, I need something to get into shape and help me keep it off. Been looking at CrossFit and seem to recall you talking about it a couple or three years ago. You still doing it? How do/did you like it?

We have a CrossFit gym about a mile from here and their classes look like they are conveniently scheduled around the work day. Thanks!

Crossfit is an fabulous workout program based on the concept of neuro-muscular confusion.

http://www.crossfit.com/

Every workout of the day (WOD) is different and one will never plateau which is common in a more standardized workout/training program. Crossfit is not a bodybuilding muscle building workout. It is about getting you cock strong, work strong and able to handle your bodyweight. Very popular with highspeed military and the gogetters.

After my last Marine Corps Marathon (marathoning and CrossFit are mutually exclusive) I tried to get back into Crossfit but found that I hurt myself on a regular basis. Gave it hell for 4 to 6 weeks and then spring something...heal up for a month and get after it only to hurt myself again. I just could not handle the heavy weights over my head and the heavy deadlifts.

Currently, I do a combination of "Insanity" which is intervals of plyometrics and a program put on by a local trainer called "Warhorse" that involves exercise in sand and on unstable footing to develop strength in the core and all the little support muscles that are neglected in standard workouts. I like it. Lighter weights but many many reps.

I can't remember how old you are. My advice is to go for it and realize that you will have to take CrossFit at a gradient. Go slow and be careful. One of the most important things to accept about CrossFit is that you can get hurt quick. It is important to have a good focused trainer that will watch you and keep you safe. If you are deadlifting twice your body weight and get tired and sloppy and don't use proper form you will get hurt.

That is where a focused coach makes all the difference. It is great to get into a group of real tough guys (and girls) for these workouts. These folks are a different breed of cat and will bring out the best in you. They are fun be around!

If you are in the 50ish range you should get onto a testosterone/HCG supplement program. Man to man, I'm telling you right now that if you get your testosterone level back to where it was when you were 17 it will change things.

I will be 60 tomorrow. To answer your question, I hurt myself with real deal CrossFit workouts. Here most of the CrossFit folks are 35 year old Majors and top Sergeants who have been in the gym an hour a day for the past 15 years and when I try to keep up with them I hurt myself. I just do not heal up like I did even 10 years ago.

Byron

I turn 40 in September. Still need to lose some weight, but I'm down to where I can incorporate some more strenuous exercise without blowing joints (like when I was up to 350). I'm not looking to get cut, look good, or beat the next guys' performance. I'm looking to get and stay fit and healthy. After most of a lifetime of being some sort of fat, I'm happy with wellness.

At some point, I'd like to train for and run a half marathon just to say I did, but I'm not looking to become a runner. Backpacking is more my thing, and it sounds like CrossFit and backpacking would go well together.

"We have remember that our twenty-five year old minds, expect too much of our 65yr old bodies".

The three month-long "over-use to the point of damage" layoff I had, allowed about every muscle group to lose it's tone, and muscle weight was replaced by fat weight -- ie: skinny-armed, pot-bellied geezer who can't work hard and breathes with a slight wheeze.

Just had a very mild heart attack, that was caught in it's first stages. Stent now, and laundry list of meds 'forever'. The doc told me that my pipe-clogging cholesterol condition was "hereditary", and that no amount of exercise and conditioning will correct it, on it's own. Hence the full shelf of pills.Also, I'm not sure of the effect extra "T" would have on behavior? I'll have check with the Doc on that.

Congrats on returning to work-outs. Oddly enough, one the fittest guys I know for his age, sits on bicycle machine at the gym and reads the Wall Street Journal cover to cover while he pedals, hardly breaking sweat.

away from the table.
I'm not trying to be facetious. I have delt with weight issues for fifty years. At one time I could deadlift 3 times my body weght, swim four miles in an hour*, swim two lengths plus underwater in an olympic pool, a twenty mile hike in full gear at Fort Lost In The Woods was a breeze, the one mile run was a six minute stroll. That said between the ages of 16 and 62 I have gone from 245 to 180 to 250 to 186 to 255 to 190 to 265 to 203 and at 62 am on a down cycle again, right now at 242 from 270 working towards 210. In 2003 I had a heart attack doc put in a stent and a pacemaker/defibrolator and I have been good to go since. Doc said to avoid processed suger & starch like the plague. Eat, fruit, nuts, vegetables, meat. Eggs and brown rice on occasion. For dairy, yogurt no cheese.
I find at my age I have to 'train' not 'strain'. I use a 110 lb barbell and a pair of 50lb dumbells 3-4 days a week for muscle tone and a stairmaster for aerobics on off days.
* Did this for a $100 bar bet when I was 22 186lbs of twisted steel and sex appeal but I cheated, It was in an olympic size pool 25m X 50m but I swam crossways doing 25m laps, by pushing off I glided/rested almost half way.

Good luck on whatever program you choose, it is a struggle, just stick with it and remember "moderation in all things'.

Negatively affecting the mood. It's 100% horse crap. I don't do steroids but I know a few folks who do. It's not the test that makes guys moody, its the post cycle that does it, especially when not doing proper PCT (post cycle therapy) when you stop taking the synthetic stuff while waiting for your own body to start producing again. I'm only 45 and not quite at the stage where I need it but when I do I'll sure see my doc. Proper hormone replacement will improve your mood rather than the detract from it. For now, at my age, heavy high intensity workouts will cause your body to amp up test/GH.

Including moderation.....

"Sometimes too much of a good thing can be wonderful!" Mae West

Byron

The issue with testosterone replacement is that many MDs do not understand the benifits that it provides in older men (and women).

Your blood work may show a level that your doc says is "normal" for a 60 year old man. So what? That level is not adequate for maximun vitality and health and that patient will feel and function better with a higher level. Unfortunatly many docs will not help you with hormone replacement unless it is pathologically low. This is the wrong approach.

FYI....many women (of any age) who have lost all or most of their libido will turn into major league horn dogs within 48 hours with just a touch of additional testosterone and DHEA.

Byron

the testy was evident, and 'addictive' - until the hip/glut crash. I liked working 'to the edge' and then, a bit beyond. During the three month layoff, was when I noticed the decline into advancing feeble-ness.

Good advice on the testy jumpstart, now that I can pick up workouts again. Most certainly a consult with the Doc,before anything else. Since the recent heart-attack/stent, there's a whole handful of scripts laden with dire warnings. Such paper piffle never mattered before, I must say. Since my life sorta hangs on the proper use of pharms for a while, some caution 'is advised'.

Thanks for that. Will be mos' happy when I can go beat up the gym and feel 100% life, from toes to brain, again.

PS -- that new breed of NCO gym rats is impressive. Leadership that can carry 'the load'. Proud to read that.