Except your body is more injury prone with that kind of intense training the older you get. So it's a Catch-22.
When you are no longer young it's fairly more harmful on the body the wear and tear from doing pointless mileage. Maybe 400/800 is exteme, but 800/1500 most certainly is not
The OP is a distance runner. The OP would like to have less of a dad bod. There are a million ways to do this, but one reasonably presumes that he wants to STAY a distance runner, and do as little additional as possible to achieve the goal. So as soon as I see anything terribly involved I kinda shake my head. Here is what is pretty much guaranteed to bring you some success with minimal effort:
1) If you're soft, lose weight. All of the fitness and/or strength in the world won't hide the soft midsection (and arms and shoulders and back).
2) Add a LITTLE strength training. As little as this:
a) Do 200-300 push ups once or twice a week and/or do some low-rep/short rest benching once or twice a week (either will only take a few minutes).
b) Do some low-rep/short rest lateral arm raises once or twice a week. This will take a few minutes.
c) Do some core work 1-3 times a week. Crunches, planks, whatever. This will take a few minutes
Additional time spent looking less dadish: 10-20 minutes/week. And no need to go to the gym, presuming you're willing to buy a few weights (and maybe a simple bench).
1. I've lost quite a bit of weight just by running as a 40
3. I still have Dad-bod when it's all said and done and that's due to diet. one of these days I'll probably try to reign it in for performance reasons but it's hard to care too much about carrying around an extra 10 pounds when you're a 40+ hobby-jogger. Maybe I'd break 17 in the 5K if I got down to proper weight but is that really worth starving myself over?
Maybe I'll break 17:00 being a over 40 hobby jogger. Yep that easy.
Is this a joke? "A little" is 5-10 push ups. Heck 10 may be not really a little for some. 200-300 is like 10 moderate or 5 super hard sets even for runners with reasonably fit upper body. That's a full-blown workout.
Is this a joke? "A little" is 5-10 push ups. Heck 10 may be not really a little for some. 200-300 is like 10 moderate or 5 super hard sets even for runners with reasonably fit upper body. That's a full-blown workout.
OK, I admit that that might look like a huge amount to a lot people. But with a little effort, it's not. It's also true that I probably should have said 100-200.
But as anyone who's put a little effort into push-ups knows, it doesn't take long to go from pathetic (10-40?) to some reasonably high numbers - say, 50-100 in a set. And if you're not intent on doing short rests between sets (I don't), you can just squeeze them in across hours (most commonly for me, an evening). Never on the floor for more than about 2 minutes, and often much less.
Say, 25 as warm up. 75 a while later as "the main set." A few sets of 50 and/or 25 whenever you feel like it (commercials!), and next thing you know you've done 200 or so in an evening. I'm as lazy as the next guy, and it's still pretty easy.
And believe me, I'm your typical skinny runner with a small upper body.
Is this a joke? "A little" is 5-10 push ups. Heck 10 may be not really a little for some. 200-300 is like 10 moderate or 5 super hard sets even for runners with reasonably fit upper body. That's a full-blown workout.
OK, I admit that that might look like a huge amount to a lot people. But with a little effort, it's not. It's also true that I probably should have said 100-200.
But as anyone who's put a little effort into push-ups knows, it doesn't take long to go from pathetic (10-40?) to some reasonably high numbers - say, 50-100 in a set. And if you're not intent on doing short rests between sets (I don't), you can just squeeze them in across hours (most commonly for me, an evening). Never on the floor for more than about 2 minutes, and often much less.
Say, 25 as warm up. 75 a while later as "the main set." A few sets of 50 and/or 25 whenever you feel like it (commercials!), and next thing you know you've done 200 or so in an evening. I'm as lazy as the next guy, and it's still pretty easy.
And believe me, I'm your typical skinny runner with a small upper body.
I'll also just note that I got into doing push ups decades ago because of the military requirement. Hard to let it go. I don't know much about strength training, but I'll admit that for appearances sake, 3 or 4 sets of low-rep benches, with just 1-2 minutes rest, might be a more efficient way of having a non-pathetic chest. That's less than 10 minutes, and you get it over with all at once.
Is this a joke? "A little" is 5-10 push ups. Heck 10 may be not really a little for some. 200-300 is like 10 moderate or 5 super hard sets even for runners with reasonably fit upper body. That's a full-blown workout.
OK, I admit that that might look like a huge amount to a lot people. But with a little effort, it's not. It's also true that I probably should have said 100-200.
But as anyone who's put a little effort into push-ups knows, it doesn't take long to go from pathetic (10-40?) to some reasonably high numbers - say, 50-100 in a set. And if you're not intent on doing short rests between sets (I don't), you can just squeeze them in across hours (most commonly for me, an evening). Never on the floor for more than about 2 minutes, and often much less.
Say, 25 as warm up. 75 a while later as "the main set." A few sets of 50 and/or 25 whenever you feel like it (commercials!), and next thing you know you've done 200 or so in an evening. I'm as lazy as the next guy, and it's still pretty easy.
And believe me, I'm your typical skinny runner with a small upper body.
It's true. Pushups can be trained very quickly. My black belt training group does hundreds of pushups in between other aspects of our training and it's a pretty mixed group.
OK, I admit that that might look like a huge amount to a lot people. But with a little effort, it's not. It's also true that I probably should have said 100-200.
But as anyone who's put a little effort into push-ups knows, it doesn't take long to go from pathetic (10-40?) to some reasonably high numbers - say, 50-100 in a set. And if you're not intent on doing short rests between sets (I don't), you can just squeeze them in across hours (most commonly for me, an evening). Never on the floor for more than about 2 minutes, and often much less.
Say, 25 as warm up. 75 a while later as "the main set." A few sets of 50 and/or 25 whenever you feel like it (commercials!), and next thing you know you've done 200 or so in an evening. I'm as lazy as the next guy, and it's still pretty easy.
And believe me, I'm your typical skinny runner with a small upper body.
I'll also just note that I got into doing push ups decades ago because of the military requirement. Hard to let it go. I don't know much about strength training, but I'll admit that for appearances sake, 3 or 4 sets of low-rep benches, with just 1-2 minutes rest, might be a more efficient way of having a non-pathetic chest. That's less than 10 minutes, and you get it over with all at once.
Boot camp was what got me into pushups also, and then I incorporated into Boston training over the year's. I would start in January and continue till the end of March. 5 day's a week I would drop down during the day and knock out 30, and do this 10× through out the day it became force of habit just like running. I believe it helped me with some decent marathon time's over the year's. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I jog like 40 miles per week and have a dad bod, but it's due to not monitoring what I eat at all. If I watched what I eat, I would easily get rid of the gut...but I would likely have to lift weights to get anywhere near "shredded".
1. I've lost quite a bit of weight just by running as a 40
3. I still have Dad-bod when it's all said and done and that's due to diet. one of these days I'll probably try to reign it in for performance reasons but it's hard to care too much about carrying around an extra 10 pounds when you're a 40+ hobby-jogger. Maybe I'd break 17 in the 5K if I got down to proper weight but is that really worth starving myself over?
Maybe I'll break 17:00 being a over 40 hobby jogger. Yep that easy.
I mean, I am 35 and in the exact same spot as Probably Yes. I literally hobby run 10-15 miles a week and just keep the pace brisk 6:10-20 per/mi. I am 6'3 about 185 lbs or so and routinely run 17:15-20 when I randomly jump into 5k's. I could probably get back to 16:30 shape if I lost 10 lbs and ate healthier. But as I get older, I learn to enjoy sh*t and outkicking a 12 year old at my local 5k takes a backseat to eating a good burger washed down by a nice craft beer. I also prioritize my work and socializing with those from it; so if it is between a run and an optional work dinner, I am taking the dinner.
Go to any road race or marathon and look at the older guys running. There are a lot of guys running decent mileage and decently fast, but they are flabby dad bods up top.
For most of us, at a certain age you have to do some lifting or resistance work to fight that skinny-fat problem. It can be just push ups or pull ups a couple of times a week, but unless you are genetically gifted, you lose muscle tone.
Insulin resistance, slower metabolic rate, lower testosterone and reduced muscle mass all can be managed as you age but damn it’s hard. As Mark Twain said “quoting smoking is easy, I’ve done it a thousand times”
It's inevitable due to declining metabolism, testosterone and overall muscle loss.
I wouldn't say inevitable but these are indeed the factors which certainly contribute to that. So weightlifting is a great idea as it combats these factors. The shape of your body may still change a little but you'll look better than 95% of men your age and the high value women will take notice. It's not hard to outperform male competition as you get older. Most are too lazy and preoccupied to prioritize looking their best.
This is now thought to be inaccurate in modern research. It turns out people in their 40s and 50s really have no such excuse. Of course, one study shouldn't be taken as gospel, but it's serious food for thought.
Go to any road race or marathon and look at the older guys running. There are a lot of guys running decent mileage and decently fast, but they are flabby dad bods up top.
For most of us, at a certain age you have to do some lifting or resistance work to fight that skinny-fat problem. It can be just push ups or pull ups a couple of times a week, but unless you are genetically gifted, you lose muscle tone.
I guess the good news in this could be that distance runners (or at least older ones and/or lifelong ones?) are below average in vanity?
Middle-aged me, however, has maintained some vanity, as I'd prefer to put off looking that way as long as is reasonably possible. And since you can maintain decent tone and a LITTLE extra size so easily, it's a no-brainer for me.
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