I'm always in either Zone 1 or Zone 5. There's no in between.

I know. It’s just a funny thing to read with no context.

I've been doing pretty well lately. I've lost 29 lbs so far this year, and my VO2 max got up to 36 today for the first time in a long time. I know that's not a great number for athletic people, but it's great for me. I ran a 5k last Sunday and came in second in my age class (31:41), which I was very happy about. I'm going to start working my distances back up to start running half marathons again.

Stretching update: I've kept at it. Still following very basic beginner stretching routines off youtube and things focused on unlocking your hamstrings. Pretty much try to get in 10 minutes of stretching a day. I'm seeing improvements in my flexibility. Nothing super impressive, but if I keep it up, I think I'll be able to reach my toes in a couple more weeks.

More importantly, I've noticed great improvement with less pain in my body. I'd wake up every morning with back pain, especially if I slept on my stomach at some point in the night. It's been present for 20 years. It would ease up as I got up and moving so I just assumed it was part of getting older. However, I've noticed in the last week I've started sleeping much better through the night, and when I wake up in the morning there is no pain. I find myself poking at the spot on my lower spine where the pain use to be wondering if the lack of pain there is some temporary fluke or something that could last. Seems like stretching is helping here as it's the only thing that has changed.

Running wise, I went out yesterday for a 3 mile run. First time I've had zero knee pain in 2 years. Hoping it keeps up and I can get back into the 5-7 mile range a few times a week. We'll see how it continues.

Its more complicated than people think, while improving cardio without beating up the rest of your body because you aren't running hard, the Mitochondrial Density benefit is the biggest thing. Your ability to get oxygen into your muscles for energy is key.

Here is a quick break down on it.

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/t...-mitochondria/


Every training plan I have I done for a marathon about 75% of the running was in zone 2 and the rest was tempo runs. The Zone 2 gets boring but it works and it doesn't tear up your body as much as running hard.

LMAO

It's the same concept as strength training (not body building.) You don't max out and often you never train at maximum levels in order to not burn out your CNS.

Over stressing will eventually lead to slower or even degrading gains and more susceptible to injury.

When I was into body building and strength training (2002 to 2011) I read everything I could get my hands on because I really struggled to gain weight. Much literature focused on higher reps, lower weight which never worked for me but worked well for my mesomorphic and endomorphic friends. My weight gains really just mimicked my strength PRs at least at a 4 or 5 max rep. The 12+ rep stuff, and/or high volume training didnt work. Same with splitting arms day then leg day didnt really work for me. Eventually I figured out if I just focused on heavy bench, heavy squat, heavy deadlift and then some more ancillary stuff on "rest" days my body responded much better.

For running, I am apparently a big pussy because training "heavy" for running and high heart rate stuff just wasn't working. It's a miracle I didn't have a cardiac event the last 3 months since my triglycerides and good cholesterol are trash.

Fun fact for you, the body type endomorph mesomorph etc thing is a complete myth.

You probably struggled to gain weight because you weren't eating enough.

That's not entirely accurate, well shit its actually not accurate at all. Where the hell did you come up with that idea?

feel free to google it if you are interested

I think you may be taking the concept that most people are a mix of both body types a bit too far.

There are for certain people who are strictly endomorph or mesomporh body type. That's not a myth at all.

My son is 6'3" and about 145lbs and is 100% mesomorph. He couldn't bulk up without the aid of steroids no matter how much food he were to eat and even that would only get him so far.

Then you have the large big boned people which my son in law is for example, and he is absolutely endomorph.

No myths involved.

That would be ectomorph

What are you using to track your VO2 Max?

And what the **** even is it exactly. My fitbit gives me my VO2 Max score and it seems kinda unbelievably high, so im not sure how accurate it is or what it truly means.

Thats what people that gain weight easily like to say (muscle or fat). Of course I wasn't eating enough. Its really just cals in and cals expended out. Back then (in my 20s) I was consuming three weight gainer shakes a day and eating 5 or 6 meals a day. 4k to 5.5k calories a day. There really just wasn't enough time in the day unless I wanted to eat complete garbage like donuts and gug soda. Nowadays Im sure I would not have as difficult of a time gaining weight it just would be way more ratio or fat instead of muscle.

Early senior year HS I was 5'11" 125 lbs. End of freshman year 160 lbs. End of junior year 185 lbs. When I was 23 I really really pushed it for spring break and got up to 192. Strongest I had ever been but it took soo much work. So much. Then I quit lifting for a decade and went to 180 lbs to 185 lbs or so but muscle mass obv significantly reduced and gained Im sure a ton of fat in the mean time. Probably ate super bad for a decade because I didnt realize my body type and bone structure is not supposed to be 192 lbs. I should probably weigh like 155 or 160.