(updated 1/13/2011)
1. Walk six miles a day in good walking shoes. Start slowly, maybe by walking around the block, then increase by small amounts each day until you reach 6 miles per day. When it rains, use a reclined LifeCycle for about 60 minutes in the Fat Burning setting, increasing the desired target heart rate over time. Using foot straps is beneficial.
2. Workout with weights to enhance upper body strength and posture. Here’s my presciption for myself. You can get a rough idea of my intent from these figures.
- Passive Strtetches: toes, soleus, gastrocnemius, hamstrings, buttocks, lower back, middle back, upper back, neck, inner thigh, hip flexors, obliques, lats, triceps
- Weights (every other day):
- Seated Dip 215, Seat Setting 6, 147.5 llbs, 2 sets of 10 reps.
- Pec Fly/Rear Delt 505, 6, 80, 2 x 10
- Vertical Row 209, 6&3, 80, 2 x 10
- Shoulder Press 500, 6, 70, 2 x 10
- Magnum Biangular Lat Pulldown, 6, 170, 2 x 10
The whole weight workout, including stretches, should take less than 20 minutes. Set your weights low enough to avoid injury. You can increase in two ways starting with the first machine and increasing each machine on consecutive workouts by a minor amount. This way you will increase amounts slowly, avoid injury and see great progress in a relatively short amount of time.
Some of you will notice that I don’t have biceps and tricep and deltoid isolation exercises. There is a reason: These muscles are worked within my program already and at a level supportive of the back and core muscles. You don’t need to waste your time on the isolations that can cause the muscles to be developed over the capacity of the backs ability to handle the weight.