The best exercise is the one you will do – However

I get emails from Mark Sisson a couple times a week, and today he mentioned this gem… the best exercise is the one you will do.

That is spot on.

However, for most people, there needs to be an additional form of exercise to complement the primary one.

My favorite form of exercise is lifting weights.

However, to get the most out of my fitness program, I add in some cardio two or three days per week.

Unfortunately, I really don’t like cardio.

If it were easy to get access to a competition pool, I would swim.  I swam competitively from age 8 to 18, so it is the easiest form of cardio for me to do to get the most out of a cardio session.

In fact, swimming is probably one of the few forms of exercise that is a standalone, since it works the entire body.  Cross country skiing is another.

For me, jogging is my least favorite cardio exercise.  It has always felt like I was running while wearing shoes of concrete.

Therefore, I typically ride my indoor exercise bike, or do some sort of HIIT workout.

Anyhow, in this day and age, it seems that the primary form of exercise for people over 50 is walking.

Walking is definitely great and will keep your metabolism in balance if you walk at least four or five days per week.

However, it is easy, it really doesn’t strengthen the cardiovascular system, and it certainly does not build any muscle.

Walking is therefore an exercise in need of one or two more forms of exercise to balance out a fitness program.

If you are a walker… great!  Keep it up!

However, consider adding in two or three workouts of strength training per week and two sessions of more intense cardio for about 20 to 25 minutes.

You can keep your strength training sessions at 45 minutes to an hour, so even if you have a busy schedule, you should be able to fit this in.

Sample Strength Workout

Here is a sample workout assuming you only have dumbbells to work with.

It is not ideal, but it’s good for people completely new to strength training and no access to coaching or equipment.

Bulgarian Split Squats – Work up to 3 sets of 15 reps per leg.  Once you get there, start adding weight by holding dumbbells and work in the 8 to 12 rep range.

Pushups – As many reps as possible, 3 sets.

Seated Dumbbell Press – 3 sets, 8 to 12 reps

Single Arm Dumbbell Row – 3 sets, 8 to 12 reps

Plank – Do 2 to 3 reps, holding for as long as possible, up to 2 minutes.

In between sets, rest for 60 to 90 seconds.  You can then get through this workout pretty quickly.

To get stronger and build muscle, you will need to increase the weight you use for each exercise where weight is involved.

This workout won’t turn you into Arnold Schwarzenegger, but you can add some muscle and then start building muscle endurance.

Sample cardio workout

In regard to adding some more intense cardio, an exercise bike is the easiest way to do this with low impact on your joints.

I like doing a workout that lasts about 20 minutes.

I start with a 2 minute warm-up at a low level of intensity, while maintaining 80 RPMs.

After the 2 minute warm-up, I increase the intensity by one level and ride for one minute.  I repeat that three more times, then drop back down to this initial, slightly higher intensity level.

This process is repeated for a total of four cycles.  For the last cycle, we increase the intensity level one more time for an additional minute.

We finish the ride by dropping the intensity level to the warm-up level for one minute.

Over time, increase the intensity levels for each cycle, and your conditioning will get better.

If you want or need more training ideas, consider signing up for my newsletter and be sure to check out my program offerings.

Now, get to work!