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About Karen Sullivan
Expertise
Karen can help with lifting technique, muscle recovery, weight loss, body building and powerlifting. She has been certified by AFPA for the last 10 years as a Personal Trainer and has recently acquired a certification from the same agency as a Post Rehabilitative Exercise Specialist. Any recommendations or advice rendered are based on fitness information as specified by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Fitness Professionals and Associates.

Experience

Past/Present clients
Clients include athletes training for marathons, mountain climbing and general weight loss. In addition I have clients troubled with COPD, Fibromyalgia, and Parkinsons as well as stroke rehab. She was the Strength and Conditioning coach for Williamsburg Aquatic Club, a USA Swim Team, in Williamsburg, Virginia for 3 years. Karen is presently working at Main Street Gym in Historic St. Charles, Missouri where she teaches Pilates and continues her work with clients. Her training reaches across the country with her long distance Body Restoration eTraining. Her dedication to fitness reaches into the nutritional supplementation with Shaklee products. She only works with clients who add nutritional supplementation to their training. Read more of her story on www.shaklee.net/BodyRestoration

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Weightlifting & Exercise - fitness

Expert: Karen Sullivan - 11/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello Karen I am a 45 year old man. I have been very active my whole life. I work out usually 6 days a week. 3 days I do strength training with dumbbells and machines along with core strengthening. The other 3 days I do cardio which is 1 hour on the treadmill at 4.5 to 4.7 mph (usually about 4.5 miles). When I do weight training my goal is overall fitness (not bulk). By this, I mean I want to keep tone and also be able to have the ability to do other things-like golf. I have never had a problem motivating myself to workout-I do enjoy it. Now my question- I have noticed in the last several months that I am beginning to need a little more rest than before. For example this past weekend on Saturday I woke up a little tired and thought maybe my body was trying to tell me to slow down a little so I did not work out over the weekend. I did resume today (Mon) and had a very good workout(strengthening). So I am curious about a few things. First, how many days should I work out? Second, how long should I workout to get the maximum results(is 1 hour on the treadmill too much)? am I going too fast?(4.5mph)Third am I doing too much strengthening (3 days a week at pretty good intensity)? Do you have any recommendations for a training routine? As I said earlier I am 45 yrs old. I am 6'5" tall weighing 215 pounds. I am in excellent shape according to my doctor(Thank God). I take glutamine as a supplement and I try to eat right(fruits and veggies). Sorry if this a long -winded question but I wanted to be specific.Also I want to know how best to get the most out of my workouts even if I were to cut back on how much I do or how often I do it. Any recommendations you can give would be appreciated(even on nutrition). Thanks Ken

ANSWER: Ken,
You have several questions there. That's great and your information is super.
You are probably experiencing a little exhaustion from overtraining. Your body cannot keep up with what you have always done all your life. Not that you are older but you are certainly busier with life and work etc. So, I would think you can switch it up a little bit.

I would suggest lifting 3x a week with cardio 2x a week.

Now, cardio up to an hour is ok ... after an hour the benefit is less because the risk of injury increases after 60 minutes. What you can try is several things. You will need to play with it. In the first place I think you can back off and give yourself the weekend off. Train Monday through Friday. Weekends are for yard work, long bike rides and fun.

So,I am not certain what your workout is like but I would limit it to an hour of lifting. Start with 10 minutes on lifting days of cardio to get warmed up. On each bodypart you make sure you do a lighter weight and do the lift more slowly. For Example: If you are doing chest press start with the 45lb bar and do chest press slowly and enjoy the stretch at the bottom and push your arms into the lift to extend in the back a little for a stretch too. Does that make sense??? You only need to do about 10 reps. Then go on with your workout. You don't need to do anything else slow and light for the chest. Just proceed with your chest workout.

The same goes for all body parts. Now, lifting for more than an your is unnecessary. Same deal as with the cardio...longer than an hour and you risk injury.

I hesitate to give you more information because I realized I don't know the details of your lifting routine. How many exercises do you do for each body part. Are you training each muscle 1x a week or 2x or 3x??? How many sets and reps. If you need help scaling your workout down please write back and let me know the details as I have presented them here.

Food.....You know the standards....lean meats and fresh veggies and grains. Never Ever packaged foods if you can avoid it. That includes salad dressings (home made are awesome). No fast food even if they say it is healthy. It usually isn't. More importantly listen to your body. You know you shouldn't have sugar...and that excess caffeine isn't great for us either. Otherwise, pay attention to how foods make you feel after you have eaten them. Then decide if you want to feel that way and cut the food out for good.

I had a client who discovered that when she ate breads, even whole grain breads she had an incredible problem with her eliminations. She went to a bread with high fiber in it...still had issues. Then she decided to STOP eating bread completely and things cleared up for her. It was months later she found out from her mother that as a child she had a gluten allergy. See allergies don't have to be rashes. When the body doesn't function right it is probably telling you the food in there isn't the best choice for you. Keeping a journal is the best way to chart how you respond to foods.

Well, let me know if I can help you more. Thanks, Karen

Ken -- try again with your next question. There is no reason why I cannot take yours.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Karen Got through this time. Thank you for your earlier advice. I would like to get a little more in-depth with your recommendations. First, you suggest lift 3x and cardio 2x a week. Is this enough to maintain a high level of fitness and also maintain optimum weight? Regarding cardio, would you suggest a different routine? As I told you earlier I do 1 hr 3x a week at 4.5 miles. Would you do less time? Less distance? Higher intensity-less time?
As for my strength training you were hesitant to recommend more information as you did not know much about my routine. In a nutshell, I do 15 different "lifts" or exercises every other day. For example most of my lifts use dumbbells. Such as chest press with 2 35 pound dumbbells,Dumbbell deadlift and curl with 20 or 25 pound
d bells. Squats with 2 25 or 30 pound dbells. (I don't do any overhead lifts like military press or incline press because of a shoulder surgery I had several years ago. I tried to resume doing these against doctors orders and that was not a good idea. Found out the hard way). It usually takes me about 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete my strength workout. I do not spend a lot of time socializing and stay pretty busy during this time without taking a lot of rest between sets or exercises. When I do a particular lift I do 2 sets and 12 repetitions each set.
I do the same strength workout 3x a week. Other exercises are: deadlift front raises, leg extensions on the cybex. Step ups with 2 15 pd dbells on the bench 14 reps 2 sets.
Cybex fly and rear delt machine. Tricep extensions with 12.5 pd dbell. Curls with 20-25 pd dbells. One arm rows on the universal 50pounds. One arm push downs on the universal 40 pds. Dbell lat raises 12.5 pds. Cybex back machine. Leg lifts on the device for this. Flys (raising and lowering the torso) on the device for this. Core strengthening- 2 sets standard crunches. 2 sets crunches with legs raised. 2 sets alternate crunches to work obliques. Each core exercise 2 sets 15 reps each. I may have forgotton something. I'm sure I have-everything is on my chart at the gym. Karen, thank you for your interest in this. As I mentioned earlier I enjoy my exercise. I want to maintain my fitness level and be smart doing it. If you think I need to cut back in some ways I would be interested to read your opinion. Would not mind cutting back to 5 days a week if I would not lose any ground. Also, I would probably be a little fresher. If I can supply any further information I will be glad to do so. If you decide to pass along any recommendations on my workout or suggest a different routine for either cardio or strength training all I would ask is that you would please be specific. One other comment I need to pass along is that I enjoy working out but I also realize that it does me no good to wear myself out and have "nothing left in the tank" for later in the day or even for tomorrows workout. I am learning this the hard way too as I grow older. Again, thank you and best regards

Ken

Answer
Ken,
Let's see if I can take your questions one at a time.

Your Question:
First, you suggest lift 3x and cardio 2x a week. Is this enough to maintain a high level of fitness and also maintain optimum weight?
Answer:
Actually working out 3x lifting and 2x cardio is enough to maintain fitness. Studies suggest that maintaining fitness comes with exercise 3x a week. Now, the determining factor is what level of fitness do you want to maintain. Do you want to be as "highly" tuned as an athlete? Then you need to step it up more. But let's be real here. At 45 don't you want to make sure you can function and be active for a very long time? Remember that regardless of how much you exercise, how many supplements you take how well you eat the body will age and part of the aging process is the joints (tendons and ligaments) become brittle. Excessive and repetitive motion needs to be monitored. That is why Senior health is such an important field these days. Now, regarding maintaining an optimum weight is another thing. Exercise should not be something you do so you can eat junk....it is what you do to keep healthy. If you are eating right then the weight will be maintained. What KILLS me is how we as a nation think exercise is for getting and keeping weight off. We need to eat right to keep our bodies working right. Putting sludge in the form of chips and soda or processed foods or ice cream or high protein is not conducive to living! Those foods don't belong in the body and interfere with our health.

Your Question:
Regarding cardio, would you suggest a different routine? As I told you earlier I do 1 hr 3x a week at 4.5 miles. Would you do less time? Less distance? Higher intensity-less time?
Answer: The body does better with change. I would suggest what I call Smart Cardio. It is interval training. You want to roll through a workout either 45 or 60 minutes long but no more. You don't have to run. You can walk or do elliptical. You roll through your workout with switching incline and speed. Up for 3 minutes with really pushing your body. Then bring it down for 2 minutes. The intervals can change. You can push hard for 10 and down for 5. Play with it and play with the incline if you are on a treadmill. Make it fun! LOL.

Your Question:
As for my strength training you were hesitant to recommend more information as you did not know much about my routine. In a nutshell, I do 15 different "lifts" or exercises every other day. For example most of my lifts use dumbbells. Such as chest press with 2 35 pound dumbbells,Dumbbell deadlift and curl with 20 or 25 pound d bells. Squats with 2 25 or 30 pound dbells. (I don't do any overhead lifts like military press or incline press because of a shoulder surgery I had several years ago. I tried to resume doing these against doctors orders and that was not a good idea. Found out the hard way). It usually takes me about 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete my strength workout. I do not spend a lot of time socializing and stay pretty busy during this time without taking a lot of rest between sets or exercises. When I do a particular lift I do 2 sets and 12 repetitions each set.
I do the same strength workout 3x a week. Other exercises are: deadlift front raises, leg extensions on the cybex. Step ups with 2 15 pd dbells on the bench 14 reps 2 sets.
Cybex fly and rear delt machine. Tricep extensions with 12.5 pd dbell. Curls with 20-25 pd dbells. One arm rows on the universal 50pounds. One arm push downs on the universal 40 pds. Dbell lat raises 12.5 pds. Cybex back machine. Leg lifts on the device for this. Flys (raising and lowering the torso) on the device for this. Core strengthening- 2 sets standard crunches. 2 sets crunches with legs raised. 2 sets alternate crunches to work obliques. Each core exercise 2 sets 15 reps each. I may have forgotton something. I'm sure I have-everything is on my chart at the gym.

Answer:
I think I see why you have shoulder issues. Lifting is about balance. And what we often experience is overtraining of one part of the body. In your case the body is stronger in the chest and front delts. The shoulder is like a golf ball on a tee. There is no ball and socket like the hip. Imagine rubberbands attached at all angles to that ball. When there is more tension from stronger muscles on one side it pulls that ball over that lip and you get issues with pinched nerves, torn cartiledge etc. What you want to do to maintain balance is to keep the strength even. Working back delts and back is important. From your description you are doing 4 chest exercises, one side delt one rear (that raising and lowering your torso) for low back, 5 leg exercises, core etc.
Now, dumbells are great to do. YOu can mix it up with the Cybex too. I would like to see you do
Flat chest press
flat flys
vertical or low rows -- MAKING SURE YOU ENGAGE THE RHOMBOIDS BY PULLING YOUR SHOULDER BLADES TOGETHER. You need to feel the pinch as if you are holding a pencil between the shoulder blades.
Rear Delt Raises
Side Delt Raises
DB Rows for lats or lat pull down
Leg Press
Sumo (wide) stance squats -- start with toes forward at 12:00 and turn right foot slightly to the 1:00 or 2:00 position. Then next set do other foot. Last set do both toes at 12:00 Make sense?
Abs -- anything working center. Be sure to pull your transverse abs in...belly button to spine with no air trapped in there!
Leg Curl
Calf Raises
Bicep curl of some sort
2 Tricep exercises -- tricep makes up 2/3 of the arm.

I would do 3 sets of 12 on abs do 3 of 25-30

Your Comment:
One other comment I need to pass along is that I enjoy working out but I also realize that it does me no good to wear myself out and have "nothing left in the tank" for later in the day or even for tomorrows workout. I am learning this the hard way too as I grow older. Again, thank you and best regards

Answer:
It takes a very wise man to recognize this. Not what we would have thought when we were younger! Proud of you!!!!!!!

If I am not clear please write back.
Thanks, Karen

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