I'm 51 y/o, female and try to work out every day in some way. But I feel like I have no direction. I have a Weider home gym, an elliptical machine, a tread mill, and some free weights, ball, pushup bars. I'm 5'1" and weigh 119..I want to lose 10 pounds and increase my stamina for running. I currently run/jog 5 days a week and run a 10 min. mile. I'd like to increase the speed and the distance.
I also want to develop some sort of program for resistance training too... right now, I'm just "going through the motions" on the machine and don't have any real workout plan.
I also have tendonitis in my left wrist so doing curls can be a challenge. I've been told to find lifting straps but I don't see how they would help.

Any suggestions on a good work out for an active old lady ???

Hi Gerogiehopper,

It sounds like you have a good grasp of your fitness needs. All that is missing are goals. If you are finding that life goals aren't enough to motivate you, you need to develop some specific athletic goals. How about increase your biceps or tighten your waist more? Then you can develop a resistance plan to get there.

I do 40 min of cardio 6 days a week. I also perform strength training with barbell only 6 days a week. That's what I like and that's what works for me and as mr.goodlife fitness would say, 'That's good enough' . I don't have athletic goals, I know that if I don't workout I won't feel good so therefore I workout.

As far as your wrist goes, I would not exercise the wrist directly. I would lower the amount of weight you are lifing and concentrate on bi/tri and shoulder exercises. The wrist will then get an indirect workout which will probably be healthier for it. (I have a torn rotator and a few other broken parts that I work with My strength is back to about 90% without an operation so I'm quite happy with my results.

I'm sure Dave has more insight into what might work for you, but that's my 2cents!

georgiehopper wrote:I'm 51 y/o, female and try to work out every day in some way. But I feel like I have no direction. I have a Weider home gym, an elliptical machine, a tread mill, and some free weights, ball, pushup bars. I'm 5'1" and weigh 119..I want to lose 10 pounds and increase my stamina for running. I currently run/jog 5 days a week and run a 10 min. mile. I'd like to increase the speed and the distance.
I also want to develop some sort of program for resistance training too... right now, I'm just "going through the motions" on the machine and don't have any real workout plan.
I also have tendonitis in my left wrist so doing curls can be a challenge. I've been told to find lifting straps but I don't see how they would help.

Any suggestions on a good work out for an active old lady ???

Hi Gerogiehopper,

Greg is absolutley right on the fact that you should sit down a go through some goal setting. Obviously Crosstrainer is a great place to track these goals. With goal setting it is so important to set realistic goals.

Set long term goals first then pick out short term goals to reach along the way to keep your motivation and dedication.

The SMART formula is a popular method:

S – specific, significant
M – measurable, meaningful, motivational
A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

With your wrist Greg is right once again do not train it directly. Your wrist will be activated through most upper body training. Be careful that it is not bent through exercise and remains as straight as possible.

You might want to try strengthening the forarm and wrist flexors by gripping a soft ball/tenniss ball etc and sqaushing it. Not to hard just enough to get that area working without flexion and extension of the wrists.

As far as straps go I think they may be of benefit. I train a couple of state and national champion boxers, one of which has had wrist problems. When we do strength training he will wrap his hand as normal for boxing just to give it that extra strength and i guess some extra confidence.

At the end of the day technique is everything not how much weight.

The main principles for training are:

Specificity
Progression
Overload
Individuality
Reversibility

I can design you a program or you can visit a Personal Trainer (i'll give you tips on that also) all of the things listed above need to be considered. EXercise should not just be limited to cardio machines and common resistance training equipment.

Do you have a Crosstrainer online account or windows?

Hi
Thanks for the response. Yes I do have a crosstrainer online account.

Thanks!

If you like I can send you some ideas/programs etc through CT online. Let me know what happens and how your progress is.

We will have to do some screening first.....medical, exercise history, goals etc

Let me know what you think

That would be great! Will you be sending a message through the site?