Richard Ha writes:

This morning I weighed 201, so I haven’t gained any weight. I haven’t done anything special about trying to lose weight except that I’ve increased the proportion I’m eating of vegetables to meat. My appetite is big because I’m lifting weights at the gym. Hopefully everything will settle down in the next few weeks.

My resting heart rate is 57, which is the lowest it’s been in the last two months. Although I’d like to lower it into the high-40s, I’m okay with 50s. Out of shape, my resting heart rate would be in the mid-70s.

I noticed that my heart rate at the gym is up over 160 on the last of the 4 x 10 sets. This is what’s driving my resting heart rate down. Very good. It was getting hard to raise my heart rate high enough just by training on the elliptical.

It’s my second week back at the gym and I am very encouraged. At first I wondered whether or not age had caught up with me. Now, though, I don’t see any reason I cannot get back to where I was six and a half years ago.

Why do I say this? Because I can do as much work in a few exercises as I was ever able to do. These are the exercises I had been doing at home. I can now do four sets of 25 knee ups. This is an exercise where you hold yourself suspended above the floor by forearms and elbows and raise your knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground. I can also do four sets of 10 reps of 25-pound dumbbell raises to shoulder height, front and side.

When I was at my best form, I was doing about the same. So, a muscle being a muscle, I feel that with smart training I can bring all my muscles up to the same—or a higher—level. Which means I should be able to recover my previous fitness level. This might take the better part of a year, which is okay with me, because it’s the journey, not the end, that is most satisfying.

Several points to remember. One only has to train a muscle once per week. You can do it more frequently, but that’s not the most efficient way. This is especially important for senior weightlifters. I notice that I need to be more careful about injuries. But other than that, I see no limitations.

My exercise program involves going to the gym four times a week and training a different muscle group each time. My goal for the first few months is to get up to four set of 10 reps for each exercise. I want to build a base from which I can build upon when I start to train seriously.

When I first went back to the gym, I wanted to be able to represent the 60-year-old group respectably. But now I’m looking beyond the “old guy” category.