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Aging My Way

Wayne Gray

Entry posted by Wayne Gray in Blog

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I think I've done it. After literally years of tinkering and trying different workouts, this week is the first time since I've turned forty that I've managed to work out five days in the same week, and not ended up with aching joints.

My workout of choice had always been weightlifting. I love lifting so much. Change is dramatic, and you get out of it what you put in. There's nothing easy, and you have to push past your notions of what you can do. It's absolutely a mental challenge as well as a physical one, and I reveled in it. But I got to the point where a single upper body session meant three days to recover before I could do it again. Then four. Then a week. I was literally only able to work my upper body once a week due to all the pain in my shoulders.

I turned to yoga and that helped. I faithfully did yoga for a year, and my shoulder pain evaporated to nothing. I also noticed great gains in flexibility and balance, yet I deeply missed lifting. Yoga, while good, wasn't enough.

I tried sprinkling lifting back into the mix, just a day a week. As soon as I did, the day after the pain had returned, centered in the joint. So ... that's it. No more bench-press. No more shoulder press. No more upward rows. All those basic "push" and shoulder-heavy motions were non-starters.

I thought about asking my doc for surgical options, but with a dismal success rate of shoulder repairs, I didn't bother. I kept looking for other solutions. I tried various bodyweight routines and some of those got close to the feeling lifting gave me. In the process of designing a bodyweight routine, I stumbled onto TRX.

TRX leverages body weight to give me a workout that's core-focused, and extremely challenging. Most important? No shoulder pain. So long as I carefully stick to good form, I can actually go, and go HARD, as I had with lifting.

I was still a little gun-shy after multiple injuries that each took months to heal. So I started with twice a week. After a month with no pain, I added another day. After another three months of that, I added one more. I spent half a year at four days a week, and slowly increased the session length to fifty-three minutes a session.

This week I added a fifth session. Today was my fifth and last workout of the week, and I feel great. Tomorrow will tell the real story, but I think I've finally done it.

TRX and Yoga. That's the answer for this 47-year-old. I've got a long way to go, but now that I know the path I'm on is sustainable, I know I'll get there.

Getting older is an adjustment, and I've had to learn to be patient with my changing capacities. But I like where I'm headed now. I know I'll have to adjust again as time goes on, and as my body feels the effects of accumulating years, but I'm confident I can manage it now. Yeah. I can do this.

Anybody out there who is struggling with this sort of thing, I feel for you. Almost everyone can be active in some way, shape or form. It may not take the shape of what you want or expect, but there's something that'll probably work. Start with reasonable goals. Be patient. Be consistent. And if you want help getting started, you can ask me for basic ideas/tips. I have experimented on my own body for literally decades, and I've a good idea of what to do and what will work.

Good luck on your journey, wherever it may lead.

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kbois

Awesome Wayne!

For you, it's shoulder. Me, it's knees. Yes, the TRX is amazing for allowing assisted anything. It's the only way I can do squats and step ups safely. 

Keep up the good work!

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Wayne Gray
50 minutes ago, kbois said:

Awesome Wayne!

For you, it's shoulder. Me, it's knees. Yes, the TRX is amazing for allowing assisted anything. It's the only way I can do squats and step ups safely. 

Keep up the good work!

Even though it's body weight the movements and dynamics feel close enough to lifting to satisfy my craving for iron. I particularly like the core-focused aspect of the straps - even if you're not working your core specifically, you're still working it when you're having to hold your middle firm while doing shoulder presses, rows for your back, etc. It just feels good and good for me.

I'm glad it works for you too, kbois. I held off on calling this a "win" for a looooong time, because I'd been disappointed a lot. But ... yeah. I think I'm sticking with TRX for as long as it keeps me moving pain-free.

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Mikiesboy

I do as little exercise as i can get away with.  i'm lazy.. luckily naturally slim and not a big eater 

However, i do suffer from bad joints and mental health issues.  Recently, my shrink, after getting me through a very bad patch, gave me  some instructions to walk for 15 min one day and on the alternate days ride a stationary bike or just do some kind of movement for 20 minutes.  i have been doing both. Michael makes sure of that.

It does help. i think i'm a bit more upbeat.   I will never work out like you do, Wayne but there are benefits to moving and also being outside.

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MichaelS36

Aging sucks. Aging with perpetual dizziness and shoulder issues sucks more.  I've had to give up a job I loved, and driving, which I loved more. 

Exercise helps deal with all of it.  It also brings tim and I together. Walking together = Talking. 

I can't lift like I once did.  And I could go on whinging about things I can't do or are different, but that's life.  Dealing with change, pain and all of it.  Nothing stays the same, never has, never will for any of us. 

Do your best, one day at a time. 

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Wayne Gray
17 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

I do as little exercise as i can get away with.  i'm lazy.. luckily naturally slim and not a big eater 

However, i do suffer from bad joints and mental health issues.  Recently, my shrink, after getting me through a very bad patch, gave me  some instructions to walk for 15 min one day and on the alternate days ride a stationary bike or just do some kind of movement for 20 minutes.  i have been doing both. Michael makes sure of that.

It does help. i think i'm a bit more upbeat.   I will never work out like you do, Wayne but there are benefits to moving and also being outside.

you have different priorities, that doesn't have to mean "lazy". 🙂 Yes, you are lucky. Had I been naturally slim, then I would likely not bother nearly as much as I do. As it is, my body is a miracle of fat storage - one that would likely mystify nutrition science. I'm convinced I'd survive just about any famine thanks to my freakish metabolism.

I love that your doc prescribed outdoor time. There's loads of evidence to support the fact that humans need fresh air, sunshine, rain, and the ground beneath their feet. I guess we're just walking carnivorous plants. And exercise in general helps our mood - no matter where you get it.

you've been more upbeat; that's certainly true. you don't have to workout like me unless you have my goals and my body type. you have neither, so do what works for you. And this is working. We are worth providing the things we need to feel happy, and you're doing that. Nice job.

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Wayne Gray
15 hours ago, MichaelS36 said:

Aging sucks. Aging with perpetual dizziness and shoulder issues sucks more.  I've had to give up a job I loved, and driving, which I loved more. 

Exercise helps deal with all of it.  It also brings tim and I together. Walking together = Talking. 

I can't lift like I once did.  And I could go on whinging about things I can't do or are different, but that's life.  Dealing with change, pain and all of it.  Nothing stays the same, never has, never will for any of us. 

Do your best, one day at a time. 

I hear you. Aging does indeed suck. I'm sorry you had to quit your work and driving. I'm lucky in a way, and I know that. I now know how to manage my issues. Those particular trials are a lower back, a knee, and a shoulder that all complain at me if I either work out too hard, or if I don't work out enough (yes, really). So I have to thread that needle and find the middle ground my body will allow me to walk.

It's good you walk together. Getting outside is something many of us need more of, and with the warming (maybe? It's Toronto, so who the hell knows?) weather hopefully there will be more of that.

I whinged a lot. I whinged and whinged and WHINGED. Time had stolen something I used for therapy and to maintain myself. I hated that my body wouldn't allow me to move, and push, and challenge it in the ways I had loved. I had to get over that, and I fully admit that it took time. It took messing myself up. It took pain. But, dense as I am, this lesson finally trickled through. "Do something else, you idiot. Find something challenging, but stop lifting." I know it sounds like I own stock in TRX, but it really turned things around for me. It's such a simple thing, but that is doing the trick. I'm fully aware it won't always. That there will come a point where even that is too much for my joints. And it'll be time to reassess. Till then, I'm gonna revel in knowing the answer for this tiny point in time.

"Do your best, one day at a time." It's good advice. 🙂

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