It kinda sucks. LOL Now one of my workout buddies is a hell of an inspiration to me because he's 70 and still kicking ass in the gym and on his marathon rowing races, but his goals as an endurance athlete are different from mine so our training isn't anywhere near the same.
I'm a fortyish chick working hard on strength and general fitness, and I found out that I like weights - the heavier the better - a lot more than I like cardio. Unfortunately the weights don't always like me, so I was constantly trying to work around sore spots, joint pain and sheer exhaustion from working out harder than a middle aged lady's recovery capacity can handle. A bit of research turned up a scientific solution to my dilemma, and it was spelled "nandrolone".
My routine while trying to add muscle was 3X week full body workouts focusing on the "big" compound exercises (squat, dead, bench, military press), plus 1 lighter session doing mostly core, lower back and "pre-hab" work on my neck and rotator cuff. Cardio got thrown in another 3X weekly, mostly 20 minute HIIT or interval work with occasional longer stints on the treadmill doing steady-state. I ran myself pretty ragged that way until I got my hands on some Deca. Mmmm, that stuff does wonders for both recovery and joints. Thank goodness for medical science. Obligatory disclaimer, that is strong stuff for gals and it's good to be careful with it. I really didn't need very much for the effects I was looking for, so I ran it at a dosage level closer to standard therapeutic usage in women than to what's normal in the BB community and did just fine.
I'm off it now and doing some cutting, keeping the same lifting routine but with lots more cardio (double cardio most days starting before breakfast). And I'm here to tell ya it sucks. My recovery is starting to go the way of the dodo again, and my energy levels are in the toilet, so I'm tweaking the diet some and hitting BCAA's during exercise to try to stay functional and get decent workouts.
Anybody else TWO and got tips to share?