Saturday, December 17, 2011

Lifting 50 pounds over your head

I'm now 63 so I have to be a little more careful about what I choose to do and when in order to prevent injuries. But, basically if I think about it before I do it I can usually do almost anything I could do at age 25 or 30. The biggest difference is how long I should do something and under what conditions.

For example, at age 18 to 20 I could press from a sitting position about 1000 pounds with my legs. However, this won't work for everyone because they are not almost 6 foot 5 inches tall and are not half Scottish with very big bones that never seem to break no matter what I have done during my life (except my nose and little toe). So, back then if I got my VW Bug that I drove during college stuck in the snow or mud I would simply lift the front end up off the ground by the bumper and slowly and carefully turn the whole bug around to where I could get out of any stuck position in snow or mud. Or, since the rear engine is much heavier than the front end, I could usually bounce the rear end out of any stuck position. But, mostly a VW Bug is very close to having a 4 wheel drive vehicle anyway because of high ground clearance (at that time in 1965 and 1966 through about 1974) and having the engine in the rear.

However, now because many of my older friends have been having problems with Rotator Cuffs I try to keep able to lift 50 pounds weight lifting over my head at 3 times, 5 times or 10 times depending upon how my stomach muscles and shoulder and arm  muscles feel that day. You should never strain your muscles especially if you are older than 40 or so because those strains or pulls take much longer to heal and recover from over 40 and 50 years of age. So, for example, I have learned if I get sick with a cold or flu to start training even if I'm sick on an Exercycle so I don't have to take weeks or months to get back my regular stamina. In this way as soon as I'm well I'm ready to go within a couple of days.

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